Android Question Crossword Solver

[cadcamman]

Hi All

I am trying to write a crossword solver, but i am new to programming and dont know how to handle entering unknown letters into the search string. any pointers you could give to point me in the right direction would be appreciated

Thanks
Cadcamman

 

[Computersmith64]

Can you provide an example of what you mean by "entering unknown letters into the search string"? Do you mean if the user enters something that's not A-Z? Or do you mean if the user enters a wildcard character? Or are you wanting to use wildcards?

 

[WAZUMBi]

I made this crossword app a while back:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ultimate.word.search

Here are the source files:

http://www.wazumbi.com/wordSearch.zip

I use a series of files containing lists of words based on categories the user can choose.
The words are loaded into a a string array and then then randomly chosen to be included in the puzzle.

Hope this helps.

 

[cadcamman]

Can you provide an example of what you mean by "entering unknown letters into the search string"? Do you mean if the user enters something that's not A-Z? Or do you mean if the user enters a wildcard character? Or are you wanting to use wildcards?

Thanks for the reply
Yes i want to use a question mark where there is a letter i dont know

 

[cadcamman]

I made this crossword app a while back:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ultimate.word.search

Here are the source files:

http://www.wazumbi.com/wordSearch.zip

I use a series of files containing lists of words based on categories the user can choose.
The words are loaded into a a string array and then then randomly chosen to be included in the puzzle.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Ill check these out

 

[nfordbscndrd]

I am trying to write a crossword solver, but i am new to programming and dont know how to handle entering unknown letters into the search string.

To find a word where some letters are missing, I don't know that you can do better than just looking up all words of the same length in your list of words and make an array of words which match the known letters, unless starting or ending letters are known.

If any starting letters are known, that would narrow your search by a lot, assuming your list is an indexed data file.

If you are using an indexed database, you could also add a field for each word in which the word is spelled backwards; that way, if an ending letter is known, that will likewise make the search go faster.

Example: A five-letter word in which only the 3rd and 5th letters are known: "_ _ r _ y". You could search though all 5-letter words, but if you have the words spelled backwards and indexed, you could just search that field for 5-letter words starting with "y". You would find "yrros", "yarra", etc. Add their forward-spelled fields ("sorry", "array", etc.) to an array of possible matches.

 

[derez]

Using Regex (regular expressions) may simplify search

 

[cadcamman]

Thanks all