Searching a Dictionary file - GameCreators Forum

Author

Message

Thomas John Gorham

5

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 23rd Jun 2018

Location:

Posted: 22nd Dec 2019 04:52

Link

Hi guys im attempting to make a simple game for my Dad.

The premise is simple, you get generated 3 letters and you have to make the longest possible word with those 3 letters in a row.

I dont code often, I havent touched AppGameKit in over a year (eeek) , last thing I made was a simple space invaders game and it took me several weeks.

But anyway I have dived into it. I have downloaded a dictionary txt file with over 100,000 words. I would love to see a little coding example about how to search it. Say entering a string and seeing if it exists in the txt file?

Also is 100,000 + words too big, should I divide it into 26 txt files? One for each letter. Its 4MB in size

Looking forward to your help,
Thomas

Back to top

Profile PM

smerf

19

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 24th Feb 2005

Location: nm usa

Posted: 22nd Dec 2019 07:02 Edited at: 22nd Dec 2019 07:05

Link

+ Code Snippet

findmore=1

wordcheck$$="randomstring"
do
	if getfileexists(path$+Name+".txt")=1
		opentoread(1,path$+Name+".txt")
	endif

	while FileEof(1)=0
		findmatch$=readline(1)
		for foundletter= 1 to findmore
			if left(findmatch,findmore) = left(wordcheck$,findmore)
				inc findmore,1
			endif
		next
	endwhile
loop

something along those liens ought to work i would imagine just typed it up real quick

Back to top

Profile PM Email

Phaelax

DBPro Master

21

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 16th Apr 2003

Location: Metropia

Posted: 22nd Dec 2019 16:38

Link

I made a similar game once using a dictionary file. But I think I wrote my own binary search routine.

I'd keep it as one file, it should be fine. When you generate the 3 letters, find all the matching words at that time and keep it in memory that way you're not having to search the text file on every user submission.

Tiled TMX Importer V.2
XML Parser V.2
Base64 Encoder/Decoder
Purple Token - Free online hi-score database
Legend of Zelda

"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Scraggle

Moderator

20

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 10th Jul 2003

Location: Yorkshire

Posted: 22nd Dec 2019 18:47 Edited at: 22nd Dec 2019 18:48

Link

This post has been marked by the post author as the answer.

Store your dictionary in an array, then sort it. You can then use the very fast .find() method to search your array.

+ Code Snippet

dictionary as string[]
//Populate the dictionary array (probably a file read)

//Now sort the array
dictionary.sort()

//To search it use .find() - like this
found = dictionary.find("word")

//The variable 'found' now points to the position in the array where "word" exists
if found 
	print(dictionary[found])
endif

Animation Station - WIP
Code Breaker
Super Brick Smash
Happy Flapper
Additional Image Functions (9 sprite slicing etc.)
Additional String Functions
XML read, write, parse
Black theme for Geeny
RGB->HSV->RGB
SpriteSheet XML Control

Back to top

Profile PM Email

Thomas John Gorham

5

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 23rd Jun 2018

Location:

Posted: 23rd Dec 2019 00:41

Link

This is brilliant! Thanks

Back to top

Profile PM

Sorry your browser is not supported!

Newcomers AppGameKit Corner / [SOLVED] Searching a Dictionary file