Profile advisor

Paste a column of dates from a collection and the advisor says which conventions the data uses, before anything is parsed. Each string is still parsed on its own; the advisor only recommends the profile to parse it under, and writes that profile out for you to review and save. Nothing you paste is stored.

Italian artist, 15th century
Dutch artist, 15th century
Italian painter, active 1451-1473
German artist, 15th/16th century
French illuminator, active mid-15th century
French illuminator act. mid 15th century
Spanish artist, 15th century
German artist, 15th century
artist ca. 1400-1467
German sculptor, 1400-1467
German sculptor, born 1400
German painter, 1400-1467
artist, 15th century-1499
Italian painter, 1400-1445
Italian painter, 1400-1447
German painter, ca. 1440-after 1470
German artist, op.1430-m.1462
German painter, active 1430, died 1462
German artist, active 1430, died 1462
artist, 1400-1473
Italian architect, 1400-1473
Italian painter, 16th century
Italian illuminator, active ca. 1440-1460
Spanish artist, 15th/16th century
Spanish artist, 15th-16th century
Italian artist, -1500
Italian painter, died 1500
Italian artist, d. 1500, 15th century
Spanish painter, ca. 1449-ca. 1487
Italian painter, active 1430-1467
Italian painter, flourished 1450-1474
Italian painter, born before 1426, died before June 1451
French miniaturist, 15th century
German painter, active 1447-ca. 1470
Venetian sculptor and architect, ca. 1400-ca. 1464
Italian architect, 1400-1464
Dutch artist, 17th century
Flemish artist, 17th century
Dutch artist, d. 1665, 17th century
Dutch artist, ca.1605-ca.1650
German artist, 17th century
Italian artist, 17th century
Dutch painter, active ca. 1642-1686
Dutch printmaker, ca.1610-after 1635
Dutch painter, ca.1610-aft.1635
Dutch artist, c.1610-p.1635
artist, b. ca. 1610
Dutch artist, ca.1610-aft.1635
North Netherlandish print artist, 1600-1668
Dutch artist, d. 1661, 17th century
Dutch painter, ca. 1610-ca. 1650
Dutch artist, ca.1610-aft.1650
Swiss artist, 17th-18th century
French artist, 17th century
Italian painter, born 1600 or 1604, died 1687
Italian artist, 1600-1687
Spanish artist, 17th century
British artist, 17th century
Spanish artist, ca.1605-1677
British silversmith, died 1828
Flemish or Dutch painter, born before 1610, died after 1640
South Netherlandish painter, 1600-1640
Dutch artist, d. 1638, 17th century
North Netherlandish painter, 1600-1688
Dutch painter, 1600-1653
North Netherlandish print artist, 1600-1653
Dutch painter, 1608-1682, active in Denmark
French painter, 1600-1636
Flemish artist, ca.1605-ca.1654/1661
Norwegian artist, active ca. 1640-1660
Italian artist, d. 1626, 17th century
Scottish gentleman, born early 17th century
artist, 1600?-1660
Italian engraver (printmaker), 1600-1660
Italian, act. ca.1640-1680
North Netherlandish print artist, 1600-1651
British painter, active 1730-1765
British artist, active 1735-1775
British artist, 18th century?
French etcher, 1700-1733
Italian artist, 18th century
Italian architect, painter, and scenographer, active from 1737, died 1762
Italian artist, d. 1762, 18th century
British artist, 18th century
French artist, 18th century
Dutch painter, born 1700, died after 1776
Dutch artist, born 1700, active 1776
North Netherlandish painter, 1700-1777
German artist, 1700-1780
American painter, 1700-1780
Polish painter, 1700-1780
English painter, printmaker, d.1771
British artist, circa 1710-1771
Irish painter and printmaker, died 1771
British artist, d. 1809, 18th century
Italian artist, born 1700
French menuisier, died before 1774
French painter, active 17th century
Dutch artist, 18th century
British artist, op.1730-, d.1772
Irish painter, active 1730, died 1772
British artist, active 1730, died d1772
Italian sculptor, 1700-1773
Italian sculptor; born Rome (Italy), 1700; died Rome (Italy), 1773
Italian sculptor and draughtsman, 1700-1773
Italian architect, 1700-1773
German artist, 18th century?
English artist, flourished 1750-1774
American, active 1730-1745
British artist, d. ca. 1769, 18th century
French ébéniste, act.1730, d.1767
Italian painter, flourished 1750-1774
German draughtsman, 1700-1765
Italian artist, 1700-1765
Italian draftsman, 1700-1765, active in Germany
French artist, 1700-1767
French painter, 1700-1767
German artist, 18th century
British artist, 18th-19th century
artist, active 20th century
American artist, 19th century
American artist, 1800-1887
American painter, 1800-1887
British, 1800-1862
British painter, 1800-1862
British artist, 1800-1862
English painter, 1800-1870
British owner, 1800-1862
English painter, 1800-1862
American artist, active 1830-1840
French artist, 19th century
Italian draughtsman, early 19th century
British artist, 19th century
British lithographer and painter, ca. 1828-1905
American painter, active 1830-1850
American landscape architect, 1919-2001
French artist, born 1919
French painter, 1919-
Yugoslav painter, 1919-2008
British painter, 1919-1970
British artist, 1919-
British artist, 1919-1970
Scottish painter and draftsman, 1919-1970
English painter, 1919-1970
New Zealand painter, 1919-1995
New Zealand artist, 1919-1995
New Zealand artist, 1919-
American painter, 1919-2006
artist, 1919-2006
American painter, 1919-
British artist, b.1919
British artist, born 1919
English painter, 1919-2014
English artist, 1919-
Belgian painter, 1919-1980
Dutch artist, 1919-
Dutch artist, 1919-1980
Belgian painter, draftsman, and graphic artist, 1919-1980
artist, 1919-1980
Belgian artist, 1919-1980
American interior designer, 1919-1982
Danish artist, born 1919
Danish painter, 1919-1987
English painter, 1919-2019
English painter, 1919-
Canadian painter, b.1919
Canadian artist, 1919-
Canadian painter, 1919-2013
Canadian artist, born 1919
Canadian painter, 1919-
New Zealander painter, 1919-1987
New Zealand painter, 1919-1987
New Zealand artist, 1919-1987
American painter and professor, 1919-1998
American artist, born 1919
artist, 1919-1998
American artist, 1919-1998
British painter, 1919-1945
British artist, 1919-1945
English painter, 1919-1945

Up to 20,000 lines; strings over 500 characters are skipped.

Or try a corpus sample: yearrange (museum catalogues) timetwister (US archives) Getty ULAN (artist dates) EDTF specification examples PMC (Paul Mellon Centre) outputs

Getty ULAN (artist dates) 180 analysed · via the service

Recommendations

Nothing stands out; the default profile should serve. Run the corpus tooling on a sample to confirm.

Suggested profile

Nothing in the data called for a change from the default profile.

{
  "inherits": "default",
  "name": "suggested",
  "description": "Suggested by the profile advisor from 180 strings: nothing differed from the default. Review before use."
}

Vocabulary

Kind	Word or notation	Strings	For example
Band words	`early`	2	Scottish gentleman, born early 17th century Italian draughtsman, early 19th century
Band words	`mid`	2	French illuminator, active mid-15th century French illuminator act. mid 15th century
Hedges	`ca`	20	artist ca. 1400-1467 German painter, ca. 1440-after 1470 Italian illuminator, active ca. 1440-1460
Hedges	`c`	1	Dutch artist, c.1610-p.1635
Hedges	`circa`	1	British artist, circa 1710-1771
Century notations	`word`	43	Italian artist, 15th century Dutch artist, 15th century German artist, 15th/16th century

Shapes

Shape	Strings	For example	Why it matters
Numeric dates	0		Day, month and year as numbers.
Day-first evidence	0		A first number over 12, so it can only be a day.
Month-first evidence	0		A second number over 12, so the first is the month.
Two-digit years	0		Need a window to become four-digit years.
Bracketed	0		Inferred dates in MARC style.
Seasons	0		Need a hemisphere and a winter policy.
Undated	0		The text says there is no date.
Open ends	9	French painter, 1919- British artist, 1919- New Zealand artist, 1919-	Before, after, present, a trailing dash.
Decades	0		1950s and the like; band words apply to them too.
Period words	0		Dynasties, reigns and named periods need period tables.

The same advice from code

The advisor is a library call and an endpoint on the dates API; the response carries these counts, the examples, the recommendations, the suggested profile and a Markdown rendering.

POST https://dates.linkedart.net/v1/advise
Content-Type: text/plain

early 19th century
ca. 1850
7/4/1776

var report = ProfileAdvisor.Analyse(File.ReadLines("dates.txt"));
Console.WriteLine(report.ToMarkdown());
File.WriteAllText("profiles/mine.json", report.SuggestedProfileJson("mine").ToJsonString(ParseProfile.JsonOptions));

Or from the repository: dotnet run --project tools/Corpus -- advise dates.txt.