Find all the words in a given/generated puzzle using a dictionary of choice.
boggle_solver.py -s 4 -ao
Generate and solve 4x4 puzzle, display results alphabetically and ordered by size
WARNING: Max word length is 16
Puzzle:
b s w e
l i z a
e f q g
r j m h
========================================
Words found that are contained in "./dictionary.hd"
| awe | fie | lis | wis | file | lier | wile | swiler |
| bis | fil | qis | wiz | fils | life | filer |
| biz | fiz | ref | zag | gaze | reif | flier |
| elf | gae | rei | bier | isle | reis | lifer |
| els | lei | sib | bile | leis | size | slier |
| fer | lib | wae | bize | libs | swag | swile |
| fib | lie | wag | fibs | lief | wife | gawsie |
Found 50 words found between 3 and 16 characters in length and matching filters
Give the solver a puzzle and the parameter that it works in and get the results.
Optionally, play the puzzle for you.
usage: boggle_solver.py [-h] [-d DICTIONARY] [-p [PUZZLE [PUZZLE ...]]] [-s PUZZLE_SIZE] [-a] [-o] [-r] [--list] [-l LENGTH] [-M LENGTH_MAX] [-m LENGTH_MIN]
[-C PATTERN [PATTERN ...]] [-f REGEX] [-e [WAIT_TIME]] [-S SPEED] [-i]
boggle_solver.py will find all the words in a given/generated puzzle using a dictionary of choice.
optional arguments:
-h, --help
show this help message and exit
Dictionary:
-d DICTIONARY, --dict DICTIONARY
Dictionary file to use, in .hd format, See convert_dictionary.py
Default: ./dictionary.hd
Puzzle:
Specify or generate a puzzle
-p [PUZZLE [PUZZLE ...]], --puzzle [PUZZLE [PUZZLE ...]]
Puzzle in order of appearance, space separated, top-left to bottom-right
Default: randomly generated
Example: a b c d e f g h qu
-s PUZZLE_SIZE, --size PUZZLE_SIZE
Puzzle size if randomly generated randomly generated
Default: 4
Example: 4 is 4x4
Display:
Viewing and sorting options
-a, --alpha
Display words ordered alphabetical
Default: False
-o, --order-ascending
Display words ordered by size ascending, compatible with -a/--alpha
Default: False
-r, --order-descending
Display words ordered by size descending, compatible with -a/--alpha
Default: False
--list Display as list instead of columns
Default: False
Filtering:
Filter down the results by length, contents and REGEX
-l LENGTH, --length LENGTH
Only a fixed length
Note: Overrides minimum and maximum values
-M LENGTH_MAX, --max LENGTH_MAX
Maximum word length
Default: puzzle size or 32 whichever is less
-m LENGTH_MIN, --min LENGTH_MIN
Minimum word length
Default: 3
-C PATTERN [PATTERN ...], --contains PATTERN [PATTERN ...]
Filter results containing the patterns in any order
Example:
te a s can find: teas and steady but not seats
Default: None
-f REGEX, --filter REGEX
Filter results after contains filter
Note: Only exact matches are found.
Examples:
z will find only z, z.* will find all words beginning with z
.{3}|.{5} will find 3 or 5 letter words
Default: None
Keyboard emulations:
Emulate key presses in Windows
-e [WAIT_TIME], --enter [WAIT_TIME]
After x seconds delay, start entering with keyboard
This is the time to switch to the app to receive keyboard strokes
WARNING: It is highly recommended that you leave your console window accessible
Default: 4
Note: Windows ONLY
-S SPEED, --speed SPEED
Set the keyboard speed from -1 to 50 when using -e/--enter
Note: -1 will be interpreted as random between each action.
Note: Some programs have issues with a very high speeds
Default: 47
-i, --interrupt-off
Do not exit when returning to the window where the code ran from when using -e/--enter
Default: False
Just about every time I am playing Microsoft Wordament® (boggle knockoff) I can't help but think that it would be an easy thing to code. Originally, I imagined it similar to a maze solver and convinced that it could be done with little effort.
Sometimes you just need to know your ideas work for sure.
Only way to know for sure, was to do it. So I did it. Here it is.
While sorting the dictionary made huge improvements in speed, it is still a little slow when it gets into long words, big puzzles, or some combination of the two.
While I debated multithreading it, just to see the change, I ultimately decided that beyond just proving it could be done. Solving all the starting points simultaneously would have an huge impact.
Much to my surprise multithreading was slower. The overhead of the thread management negated the gains. Added ~ %1 seconds to the time.
No known bugs. Works.
- I have made performance improvements by orders of magnitude. From a 5x5 puzzle and finding words up to 9 in length taking minutes to 100x100 and 32 in length taking seconds.\
- Now uses a custom dictionary format, converter included. Dictionary is now a hierarchy of letters, allowing fast searches for partial words.
- Added regex filtering to results
- Replaced the dictionary to better align with Wordament, old one still remains
- Made column mode the default with the ability to override
- Listing alphabetically is optional now, otherwise, will display in the order found
- Added option to list is ascending or descending size
- Added option to send key presses on Windows to enter the words into Wordament
- Fixed an issue in convert_dicitonary.py that caused it to require additional words
- If all letters are single, spaces are not required. ex:
-p a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p=>-p abcdefghijklmnop
- Made the keyboard entry speed settable as well as variable
- Put in checks that keyboard entry only runs on Windows
- By default if you return to where you started the code it will stop, instead of typing into the console window (optional off)
- Changed parameter 'x' to 'M' after seeing Windows respects case
- Added option
-Cto filter words that contain patterns or characters, simpler for those that don't know REGEX- Can still use REGEX in addition to the above filter
- Cleaned up the help to make it more readable
- Added a new dictionary from Aspell
- Improved long word searched by reducing the amount of variance needed in the search length
- Changed status to a progress bar to make it readable/usable
- Code cleanup
- Added json output
- Moved regex filtering to during word validation testing speeding up searches that have filters
- Fixed read/write issue when testing a dictionary