Word Unscrambling Program - C++ - c++

Question

Hi I'm working a program to unscramble a set of letters and output all the words that can be made from that set of letters, for example: If i inputed the letters "vlei", the program would output "live", "evil", and "vile".
So far I have looked through the internet about this quiiiite a bit and can't find anything on my specific questions relevant to my skill level at this point (level 2 noob).
So far I have gotten as far as making all the possible combinations from the the given letters. Excluding any that are less than 7 letters, which is a problem.
This is the code I have so far:
string letter;
char newWord[7];
int main()
{
cout << "Type letters here: ";
cin >> letter;
for(int i = 0 ; i < 7 ; i++)
{
for(int j = 0 ; j < 7 ; j++)
{
for(int k = 0 ; k < 7 ; k++)
{
for(int l = 0 ; l < 7 ; l++)
{
for(int m = 0 ; m < 7 ; m++)
{
for(int n = 0 ; n < 7 ; n++)
{
for(int o = 0 ; o < 7 ; o++)
{
sprintf(newWord, "%c%c%c%c%c%c%c", letter[i], letter[j], letter[k], letter[l], letter[m], letter[n], letter[o]);
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
return 0;
}
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with anything like this, and can offer and hints or advice.
Specifically what I'm having difficulty with is how to read in a .txt file to use as a dictionary to compare words to.
Also, I was having trouble using strcmp() which is what I was planning to use to compare the scrambled words to the dictionary. So if there are any other maybe simpler ways to compare the two strings, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Hi guys, so I've just finished my program and I hope it can help someone else. Thanks a lot for all your help.
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <cstring>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <array>
using namespace std;
//declaring variables
int i;
int scores[531811]; //array for scores of found words
string wordlist[531811]; //array for found matched words
string word[531811]; //array of strings for dictionary words about to be read it
string tester;//string for scrambled letters that will be read in
int scorefinder(string scrab) //SCORE FINDER FUNCTION
{
int score = 0;
int x = 0;
int j = 0;
while (scrab[j])
{
char ltr = toupper(scrab[j]); //converts to all caps
//assings values to each letter and adds it to itself
if(ltr == 'A' || ltr == 'E' || ltr == 'I' || ltr == 'L' || ltr == 'N' || ltr == 'O' || ltr == 'R' || ltr == 'S' || ltr == 'T' || ltr == 'U')
x += 1;
else if(ltr == 'D' || ltr == 'G')
x += 2;
else if(ltr == 'B' || ltr == 'C' || ltr == 'M' || ltr == 'P')
x += 3;
else if(ltr == 'F' || ltr == 'H' || ltr == 'V' || ltr == 'W' || ltr == 'Y')
x += 4;
else if(ltr == 'K')
x += 5;
else if(ltr == 'J' || ltr == 'X')
x += 8;
else if(ltr == 'Q' || ltr == 'Z')
x += 10;
++j;
}
score = x;
return score;
}
int main () {
//READS IN DICTIONARY
ifstream file("words.txt"); //reads in dictionary
if (!file.is_open()){ //checks if file is being NOT read correctly
cout << "BROEKN \n"; //prints error message if so
}
if(file.is_open()){ //checks if file IS being read correctly
for(int i = 0; i < 531811; i++){
file >> word[i]; //read in each word from the file and
} //assigns each to it's position in the words array
}
//END OF READ IN DICTIONARY
cout << "Enter scrambled letters: ";
cin >> tester; //reads in scrambled letters
sort(tester.begin(),tester.end()); //sorts scrambled letters for next_permutation
while (next_permutation(tester.begin(),tester.end())){ //while there are still permutations available
for(i=0;i<531811;i++){
if ( is_permutation (word[i].begin(),word[i].end(), tester.begin())){
wordlist[i] = word[i]; //assigns found word to foundword array
scores[i] = scorefinder(word[i]); //assigns found word score to foundscore array
}
}
}
//PRINTS OUT ONLY MATCHED WORDS AND SCORES
for(i=0;i<531811;i++){
if(scores[i]!=0){
cout << "Found word: " << wordlist[i] << " " << scores[i] << "\n";
}
}
}

Answer 1

Well, what you need is some sort of comparison. C++ doesn´t know, what a right word in english is. So you may need a wordlist. Then you can Brutforce(that´s what you´re doing at the moment) until you find a match.
For comparing your brutforced result, you may use a .txt with as many english words as you can find. Then you have to use a FileStream for iterating through every word and comparing it to your brutforce result.
After you sucessfully unscrambled a word, you should think about your solution again. As you can see, you are limited to a specific amount of chars which is not that nice.
This sounds like an interesting Task for a beginner ;)

Answer 2

Suppose you have found a word list in the form of plain text file on the Internet, you may load all the words into a vector for string first.
ifstream word_list_file("word_list.txt");
string buffer;
vector<string> all_words;
while (getline(word_list_file, buffer))
all_words.push_back(buffer);
Then we want to compare the input letters with the each entry of all_words. I suggest using std::is_permutation. It compares two sequence regardless the order. But it can have trouble when the two sequence has different length, so compare the length yourself first.
// Remember to #include <algorithm>
bool match(const string& letters, const string& each_word)
{
if (letters.size() != each_word.size())
return false;
return is_permutation(begin(letters), end(letters), begin(each_word));
}
Note that I have not tested my codes. But that's the idea.
An edit responsing the comment:
In short, just use std::string, not std::array. Or copy my match function directly, and invoke it. This will be easier for your case.
Details:
std::is_permutation can be used with any container and any element type. For example:
#include <string>
#include <array>
#include <vector>
#include <list>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
//Example 1
string str1 = "abcde";
string str2 = "ecdba";
is_permutation(begin(str1), end(str1), begin(str2));
//Example 2
array<double, 4> array_double_1{ 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 };
array<double, 4> array_double_2{ 4.2, 4.1, 4.4, 4.3 };
is_permutation(begin(array_double_1), end(array_double_1), begin(array_double_2));
//Example 3
list<char> list_char = { 'x', 'y', 'z' };
string str3 = "zxy";
is_permutation(begin(list_char), end(list_char), begin(str3));
// Exampl 4
short short_integers[4] = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
vector<int> vector_int = { 3, 4, 2, 1 };
is_permutation(begin(list_char), end(list_char), begin(str3));
return 0;
}
Example 1 uses std::string as containers of chars, which is exactly how my match function work.
Example 2 uses two arrays of double of size 4.
Example 3 even uses two different kinds of containers, with the same element types. (Have you heard of `std::list'? Never mind, just focus on our problem first.)
Example 4 is even stranger. One container is old style raw array, another is a std::vector. There are also two element types, short and int, but they are both integer. (The exact difference between short and int is not relevant here.)
Yet, all four cases can use is_permutation. Very flexiable.
The flexibility is enabled by the following facts:
is_permutation is not exactly a function. It is a function template, which is a language feature to generate new functions according to the data type you pass to it.
The containers and is_permutation algorithm do not know each other. They communicate through a middleman called "iterator". The begin and end functions together give us a pair of iterators representing the "range" of elements.
It requires more studies to understand these facts. But the general idea is not hard. Also, these facts are also true for other algorithms in the Standard Library.

Answer 3

Try this :
# include <stdio.h>
/* Function to swap values at two pointers */
void swap (char *x, char *y)
{
char temp;
temp = *x;
*x = *y;
*y = temp;
}
/* Function to print permutations of string
This function takes three parameters:
1. String
2. Starting index of the string
3. Ending index of the string. */
void permute(char *a, int i, int n)
{
int j;
if (i == n)
printf("%s\n", a);
else
{
for (j = i; j <= n; j++)
{
swap((a+i), (a+j));
permute(a, i+1, n);
swap((a+i), (a+j)); //backtrack
}
}
}
/* Driver program to test above functions */
int main()
{
char a[] = "vlei";
permute(a, 0, 3);
getchar();
return 0;
}