最近我一直在iPhone上玩一款名为《Scramble》的游戏。有些人可能知道这个游戏叫拼字游戏。从本质上讲,当游戏开始时,你会得到一个字母矩阵:

F X I E
A M L O
E W B X
A S T U

The goal of the game is to find as many words as you can that can be formed by chaining letters together. You can start with any letter, and all the letters that surround it are fair game, and then once you move on to the next letter, all the letters that surround that letter are fair game, except for any previously used letters. So in the grid above, for example, I could come up with the words LOB, TUX, SEA, FAME, etc. Words must be at least 3 characters, and no more than NxN characters, which would be 16 in this game but can vary in some implementations. While this game is fun and addictive, I am apparently not very good at it and I wanted to cheat a little bit by making a program that would give me the best possible words (the longer the word the more points you get).

(来源:boggled.org)

不幸的是,我不太擅长算法或它们的效率等等。我的第一次尝试使用一个像这样的字典(约2.3MB),并进行线性搜索,试图匹配字典条目的组合。这需要花费很长时间来找到可能的单词,因为你每轮只有2分钟的时间,这是不够的。

我很有兴趣看看是否有任何Stackoverflowers可以提出更有效的解决方案。我主要是在寻找使用三大p的解决方案:Python、PHP和Perl,尽管任何使用Java或c++的东西也很酷,因为速度是至关重要的。

目前的解决方案:

Adam Rosenfield, Python, ~20岁 John Fouhy, Python, ~3秒 Kent Fredric, Perl, ~1s Darius Bacon, Python, ~1s rvarcher, VB。净,~ 1 s Paolo Bergantino, PHP(实时链接),~5s(本地~2s)


当前回答

所以我想添加另一种PHP方法来解决这个问题,因为每个人都喜欢PHP。 我想做一点重构,比如对字典文件使用regexpression匹配,但现在我只是将整个字典文件加载到一个wordList中。

我使用了链表的思想。每个Node都有一个字符值、一个位置值和一个next指针。

location值是我发现两个节点是否连接的方法。

1     2     3     4
11    12    13    14
21    22    23    24
31    32    33    34

所以使用这个网格,如果第一个节点的位置等于第二个节点的位置+/- 1(同一行),+/- 9,10,11(上下一行),我就知道两个节点是连接的。

我使用递归进行主搜索。它从wordList中取出一个单词,找到所有可能的起点,然后递归地找到下一个可能的连接,记住它不能去到它已经使用的位置(这就是为什么我添加$notInLoc)。

无论如何,我知道它需要一些重构,并且希望听到关于如何使它更干净的想法,但是它根据我使用的字典文件产生了正确的结果。根据黑板上元音和组合的数量,大约需要3到6秒。我知道,一旦我对字典结果进行预匹配,这将显著减少。

<?php
    ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_depth', 20);
    ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_children', 1024);
    ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_data', 1024);

    class Node {
        var $loc;

        function __construct($value) {
            $this->value = $value;
            $next = null;
        }
    }

    class Boggle {
        var $root;
        var $locList = array (1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 34);
        var $wordList = [];
        var $foundWords = [];

        function __construct($board) {
            // Takes in a board string and creates all the nodes
            $node = new Node($board[0]);
            $node->loc = $this->locList[0];
            $this->root = $node;
            for ($i = 1; $i < strlen($board); $i++) {
                    $node->next = new Node($board[$i]);
                    $node->next->loc = $this->locList[$i];
                    $node = $node->next;
            }
            // Load in a dictionary file
            // Use regexp to elimate all the words that could never appear and load the 
            // rest of the words into wordList
            $handle = fopen("dict.txt", "r");
            if ($handle) {
                while (($line = fgets($handle)) !== false) {
                    // process the line read.
                    $line = trim($line);
                    if (strlen($line) > 2) {
                        $this->wordList[] = trim($line);
                    }
                }
                fclose($handle);
            } else {
                // error opening the file.
                echo "Problem with the file.";
            } 
        }

        function isConnected($node1, $node2) {
        // Determines if 2 nodes are connected on the boggle board

            return (($node1->loc == $node2->loc + 1) || ($node1->loc == $node2->loc - 1) ||
               ($node1->loc == $node2->loc - 9) || ($node1->loc == $node2->loc - 10) || ($node1->loc == $node2->loc - 11) ||
               ($node1->loc == $node2->loc + 9) || ($node1->loc == $node2->loc + 10) || ($node1->loc == $node2->loc + 11)) ? true : false;

        }

        function find($value, $notInLoc = []) {
            // Returns a node with the value that isn't in a location
            $current = $this->root;
            while($current) {
                if ($current->value == $value && !in_array($current->loc, $notInLoc)) {
                    return $current;
                }
                if (isset($current->next)) {
                    $current = $current->next;
                } else {
                    break;
                }
            }
            return false;
        }

        function findAll($value) {
            // Returns an array of nodes with a specific value
            $current = $this->root;
            $foundNodes = [];
            while ($current) {
                if ($current->value == $value) {
                    $foundNodes[] = $current;
                }
                if (isset($current->next)) {
                    $current = $current->next;
                } else {
                    break;
                }
            }
            return (empty($foundNodes)) ? false : $foundNodes;
        }

        function findAllConnectedTo($node, $value, $notInLoc = []) {
            // Returns an array of nodes that are connected to a specific node and 
            // contain a specific value and are not in a certain location
            $nodeList = $this->findAll($value);
            $newList = [];
            if ($nodeList) {
                foreach ($nodeList as $node2) {
                    if (!in_array($node2->loc, $notInLoc) && $this->isConnected($node, $node2)) {
                        $newList[] = $node2;
                    }
                }
            }
            return (empty($newList)) ? false : $newList;
        }



        function inner($word, $list, $i = 0, $notInLoc = []) {
            $i++;
            foreach($list as $node) {
                $notInLoc[] = $node->loc;
                if ($list2 = $this->findAllConnectedTo($node, $word[$i], $notInLoc)) {
                    if ($i == (strlen($word) - 1)) {
                        return true;
                    } else {
                        return $this->inner($word, $list2, $i, $notInLoc);
                    }
                }
            }
            return false;
        }

        function findWord($word) {
            if ($list = $this->findAll($word[0])) {
                return $this->inner($word, $list);
            }
            return false;
        }

        function findAllWords() {
            foreach($this->wordList as $word) {
                if ($this->findWord($word)) {
                    $this->foundWords[] = $word;
                }
            }
        }

        function displayBoard() {
            $current = $this->root;
            for ($i=0; $i < 4; $i++) {
                echo $current->value . " " . $current->next->value . " " . $current->next->next->value . " " . $current->next->next->next->value . "<br />";
                if ($i < 3) {
                    $current = $current->next->next->next->next;
                }
            }
        }

    }

    function randomBoardString() {
        return substr(str_shuffle(str_repeat("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", 16)), 0, 16);
    }

    $myBoggle = new Boggle(randomBoardString());
    $myBoggle->displayBoard();
    $x = microtime(true);
    $myBoggle->findAllWords();
    $y = microtime(true);
    echo ($y-$x);
    var_dump($myBoggle->foundWords);

    ?>

其他回答

我建议根据单词做一个字母树。这棵树将由字母结构组成,像这样:

letter: char
isWord: boolean

然后构建树,每个深度添加一个新字母。换句话说,第一层是字母表;然后从这些树中,会有另外26个条目,以此类推,直到你把所有的单词都拼出来。坚持这个解析树,它将使所有可能的答案更快地查找。

使用这个解析过的树,您可以非常快速地找到解决方案。下面是伪代码:

BEGIN: 
    For each letter:
        if the struct representing it on the current depth has isWord == true, enter it as an answer.
        Cycle through all its neighbors; if there is a child of the current node corresponding to the letter, recursively call BEGIN on it.

这可以通过一些动态编程来加快。例如,在你的样本中,两个“A”都在一个“E”和一个“W”旁边,这(从它们击中它们的点来看)是相同的。我没有足够的时间来详细说明这个代码,但我想你们可以理解。

此外,我相信你会找到其他解决方案,如果你谷歌“Boggle solver”。

我已经在c#中使用DFA算法解决了这个问题。你可以查看我的代码

https://github.com/attilabicsko/wordshuffler/

除了在矩阵中查找单词外,我的算法还保存单词的实际路径,所以在设计单词查找游戏时,你可以检查在实际路径上是否有单词。

我的答案和这里的其他答案一样,但我把它贴出来是因为它看起来比其他Python解决方案快一些,因为设置字典更快。(我对比了John Fouhy的解决方案。)设置后,解决的时间在噪声中下降。

grid = "fxie amlo ewbx astu".split()
nrows, ncols = len(grid), len(grid[0])

# A dictionary word that could be a solution must use only the grid's
# letters and have length >= 3. (With a case-insensitive match.)
import re
alphabet = ''.join(set(''.join(grid)))
bogglable = re.compile('[' + alphabet + ']{3,}$', re.I).match

words = set(word.rstrip('\n') for word in open('words') if bogglable(word))
prefixes = set(word[:i] for word in words
               for i in range(2, len(word)+1))

def solve():
    for y, row in enumerate(grid):
        for x, letter in enumerate(row):
            for result in extending(letter, ((x, y),)):
                yield result

def extending(prefix, path):
    if prefix in words:
        yield (prefix, path)
    for (nx, ny) in neighbors(path[-1]):
        if (nx, ny) not in path:
            prefix1 = prefix + grid[ny][nx]
            if prefix1 in prefixes:
                for result in extending(prefix1, path + ((nx, ny),)):
                    yield result

def neighbors((x, y)):
    for nx in range(max(0, x-1), min(x+2, ncols)):
        for ny in range(max(0, y-1), min(y+2, nrows)):
            yield (nx, ny)

示例用法:

# Print a maximal-length word and its path:
print max(solve(), key=lambda (word, path): len(word))

编辑:过滤掉长度小于3个字母的单词。

编辑2:我很好奇为什么Kent Fredric的Perl解决方案更快;它使用正则表达式匹配,而不是一组字符。在Python中做同样的事情,速度大约会翻倍。

只是为了好玩,我在bash中实现了一个。 它不是超级快,但很合理。

http://dev.xkyle.com/bashboggle/

最快的解决方案可能是将字典存储在一个trie中。然后,创建一个三元组队列(x, y, s),其中队列中的每个元素对应于一个可以在网格中拼写的单词的前缀s,结束于位置(x, y)。初始化队列中有N x N个元素(其中N是网格的大小),网格中的每个正方形都有一个元素。然后,算法进行如下:

While the queue is not empty:
  Dequeue a triple (x, y, s)
  For each square (x', y') with letter c adjacent to (x, y):
    If s+c is a word, output s+c
    If s+c is a prefix of a word, insert (x', y', s+c) into the queue

如果将字典存储在trie中,则可以在常数时间内测试s+c是否是单词或单词的前缀(前提是还在每个队列数据中保留一些额外的元数据,例如指向trie中当前节点的指针),因此此算法的运行时间为O(可拼写的单词数量)。

[编辑]下面是我刚刚编写的Python实现:

#!/usr/bin/python

class TrieNode:
    def __init__(self, parent, value):
        self.parent = parent
        self.children = [None] * 26
        self.isWord = False
        if parent is not None:
            parent.children[ord(value) - 97] = self

def MakeTrie(dictfile):
    dict = open(dictfile)
    root = TrieNode(None, '')
    for word in dict:
        curNode = root
        for letter in word.lower():
            if 97 <= ord(letter) < 123:
                nextNode = curNode.children[ord(letter) - 97]
                if nextNode is None:
                    nextNode = TrieNode(curNode, letter)
                curNode = nextNode
        curNode.isWord = True
    return root

def BoggleWords(grid, dict):
    rows = len(grid)
    cols = len(grid[0])
    queue = []
    words = []
    for y in range(cols):
        for x in range(rows):
            c = grid[y][x]
            node = dict.children[ord(c) - 97]
            if node is not None:
                queue.append((x, y, c, node))
    while queue:
        x, y, s, node = queue[0]
        del queue[0]
        for dx, dy in ((1, 0), (1, -1), (0, -1), (-1, -1), (-1, 0), (-1, 1), (0, 1), (1, 1)):
            x2, y2 = x + dx, y + dy
            if 0 <= x2 < cols and 0 <= y2 < rows:
                s2 = s + grid[y2][x2]
                node2 = node.children[ord(grid[y2][x2]) - 97]
                if node2 is not None:
                    if node2.isWord:
                        words.append(s2)
                    queue.append((x2, y2, s2, node2))

    return words

使用示例:

d = MakeTrie('/usr/share/dict/words')
print(BoggleWords(['fxie','amlo','ewbx','astu'], d))

输出:

['fa', 'xi', 'ie', 'io', 'el', 'am', 'ax', 'ae', 'aw', 'mi', 'ma', 'me', 'lo', 'li', 'oe', 'ox', 'em', 'ea', 'ea', 'es', 'wa', 'we', 'wa', 'bo', 'bu', 'as', 'aw', 'ae', 'st', 'se', 'sa', 'tu', 'ut', 'fam', 'fae', 'imi', 'eli', 'elm', 'elb', 'ami', 'ama', 'ame', 'aes', 'awl', 'awa', 'awe', 'awa', 'mix', 'mim', 'mil', 'mam', 'max', 'mae', 'maw', 'mew', 'mem', 'mes', 'lob', 'lox', 'lei', 'leo', 'lie', 'lim', 'oil', 'olm', 'ewe', 'eme', 'wax', 'waf', 'wae', 'waw', 'wem', 'wea', 'wea', 'was', 'waw', 'wae', 'bob', 'blo', 'bub', 'but', 'ast', 'ase', 'asa', 'awl', 'awa', 'awe', 'awa', 'aes', 'swa', 'swa', 'sew', 'sea', 'sea', 'saw', 'tux', 'tub', 'tut', 'twa', 'twa', 'tst', 'utu', 'fama', 'fame', 'ixil', 'imam', 'amli', 'amil', 'ambo', 'axil', 'axle', 'mimi', 'mima', 'mime', 'milo', 'mile', 'mewl', 'mese', 'mesa', 'lolo', 'lobo', 'lima', 'lime', 'limb', 'lile', 'oime', 'oleo', 'olio', 'oboe', 'obol', 'emim', 'emil', 'east', 'ease', 'wame', 'wawa', 'wawa', 'weam', 'west', 'wese', 'wast', 'wase', 'wawa', 'wawa', 'boil', 'bolo', 'bole', 'bobo', 'blob', 'bleo', 'bubo', 'asem', 'stub', 'stut', 'swam', 'semi', 'seme', 'seam', 'seax', 'sasa', 'sawt', 'tutu', 'tuts', 'twae', 'twas', 'twae', 'ilima', 'amble', 'axile', 'awest', 'mamie', 'mambo', 'maxim', 'mease', 'mesem', 'limax', 'limes', 'limbo', 'limbu', 'obole', 'emesa', 'embox', 'awest', 'swami', 'famble', 'mimble', 'maxima', 'embolo', 'embole', 'wamble', 'semese', 'semble', 'sawbwa', 'sawbwa']

Notes: This program doesn't output 1-letter words, or filter by word length at all. That's easy to add but not really relevant to the problem. It also outputs some words multiple times if they can be spelled in multiple ways. If a given word can be spelled in many different ways (worst case: every letter in the grid is the same (e.g. 'A') and a word like 'aaaaaaaaaa' is in your dictionary), then the running time will get horribly exponential. Filtering out duplicates and sorting is trivial to due after the algorithm has finished.