Content Nodes

Content nodes describe the structure in which the text is stored, from that level of the tree onward. Currently, all content nodes are JaggedArrayNodes — nodes which describe a JaggedArray (i.e., a list of lists) structure.

JaggedArray

A JaggedArray is a nested array of a specific depth, with the lowest level being an array of strings. A JaggedArray with a depth of 2 is an array of arrays of strings. A typical example of a text represented by a JaggedArray of a depth of 2 is the structure of a book of Tanakh. A book of Tanakh has many chapters, and each chapter has many verses. Each chapter is represented by an array within the outer array, which contains numerous strings, each representing a verse. An item's position in the array reflects its structural information.

Example: A JaggedArray of depth=2

The example below mocks a JaggedArray for a text with four chapters, each containing a variable number of verses. Each sub-array represents a chapter. Each string inside the sub-array is a verse of the given chapter.

[
  ["Text of 1:1", "Text of 1:2", ], # Chapter 1
  ["Text of 2:1", "Text of 2:2", "Text of 2:3", "Text of 2:4", "Text of 2:5"], # Chapter 2
  ["Text of 3:1", "Text of 3:2", "Text of 3:3"], # Chapter 3
  ["Text of 4:1", "Text of 4:2", "Text of 4:3", "Text of 4:4"] # Chapter 4

]

We refer to these objects as a JaggedArray since any element in the array could be empty, as many of our text versions are incomplete.

JaggedArrayNode

A JaggedArrayNode in the schema of an Index is a node that indicates there will be a JaggedArray present to represent this part of the text in the Version record. The simplest example is a schema that consists of a single JaggedArrayNode. In the Version, the entire book is contained in a single array.

Segments and Sections

At Sefaria, we refer to the strings at the bottom of the JaggedArray as segments. The arrays that contain those strings are called sections. Generally speaking, segments reflect the maximum resolution that we are capable of reaching in a given text. Therefore, you can't directly reference a part of a segment.

For example, in a book of Tanakh organized into chapters and verses, a chapter would be a section and a verse would be a segment.