Question
Some word games require the player to find words that can be formed using the letters of another word. For example, given the word SWIMMING, other words that can be formed using the letters include SWIM, WIN, WING, SING, MIMING, etc. Write a program that lets the user enter a word and then output all the words contained in the file words.txt that can be formed from the letters of the entered word. One algorithm to do this is to compare the letter histograms for each word. Create an array that counts up the number of each letter in the entered word (e.g., one S, one W, two I, two M, etc.) and then creates a similar array for the current word read from the file. The two arrays can be compared to see if the word from the file could be created out of the letters from the entered word.
Answer
PROGRAM CODE:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class WordGame {
// Method to create a letter histogram for a given word
private static Map<Character, Integer> createLetterHistogram(String word) {
Map<Character, Integer> letterHistogram = new HashMap<>();
for (char ch : word.toCharArray()) {
letterHistogram.put(ch, letterHistogram.getOrDefault(ch, 0) + 1);
}
return letterHistogram;
}
// Method to check if a word can be formed using the letters of another word
private static boolean canFormWord(String mainWord, String word) {
Map<Character, Integer> mainWordHistogram = createLetterHistogram(mainWord);
Map<Character, Integer> wordHistogram = createLetterHistogram(word);
for (char ch : wordHistogram.keySet()) {
if (!mainWordHistogram.containsKey(ch) || mainWordHistogram.get(ch) < wordHistogram.get(ch)) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
try (Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("words.txt"))) {
// Get the user-entered word
System.out.print("Enter a word: ");
String mainWord = scanner.nextLine().toUpperCase();
// Read words from the file and check if they can be formed from the user-entered word
System.out.println("Words that can be formed using the letters of the entered word:");
String word;
while ((word = reader.readLine()) != null) {
word = word.toUpperCase();
if (canFormWord(mainWord, word)) {
System.out.println(word);
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("Error reading the file: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
OUTPUT:
Enter a word: SWIMMING
Words that can be formed using the letters of the entered word:
IM
MIM
MIMING
MIS
SING
SWIM
WIN
WING