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)
如何简单的排序和使用字典中的二进制搜索?
在0.35秒内返回整个列表，并可以进一步优化(例如删除含有未使用字母的单词等)。
from bisect import bisect_left
f = open("dict.txt")
D.extend([line.strip() for line in f.readlines()])
D = sorted(D)
def neibs(M,x,y):
n = len(M)
for i in xrange(-1,2):
for j in xrange(-1,2):
if (i == 0 and j == 0) or (x + i < 0 or x + i >= n or y + j < 0 or y + j >= n):
continue
yield (x + i, y + j)
def findWords(M,D,x,y,prefix):
prefix = prefix + M[x][y]
# find word in dict by binary search
found = bisect_left(D,prefix)
# if found then yield
if D[found] == prefix:
yield prefix
# if what we found is not even a prefix then return
# (there is no point in going further)
if len(D[found]) < len(prefix) or D[found][:len(prefix)] != prefix:
return
# recourse
for neib in neibs(M,x,y):
for word in findWords(M,D,neib[0], neib[1], prefix):
yield word
def solve(M,D):
# check each starting point
for x in xrange(0,len(M)):
for y in xrange(0,len(M)):
for word in findWords(M,D,x,y,""):
yield word
grid = "fxie amlo ewbx astu".split()
print [x for x in solve(grid,D)]
我意识到这个问题的时间来了又去了，但由于我自己正在研究一个求解器，并在谷歌搜索时偶然发现了这个，我想我应该发布一个参考，因为它似乎与其他一些问题有点不同。
我选择在游戏棋盘上使用平面数组，并从棋盘上的每个字母进行递归搜索，从有效邻居遍历到有效邻居，如果索引中的有效前缀是当前字母列表，则扩展搜索。而遍历当前单词的概念是进入板的索引列表，而不是组成单词的字母。在检查索引时，将索引转换为字母并完成检查。
索引是一个蛮力字典，有点像trie，但允许对索引进行python查询。如果单词'cat'和'cater'在列表中，你会在字典中看到:
d = { 'c': ['cat','cater'],
'ca': ['cat','cater'],
'cat': ['cat','cater'],
'cate': ['cater'],
'cater': ['cater'],
}
因此，如果current_word是'ca'，您就知道它是一个有效的前缀，因为'ca'在d中返回True(因此继续遍历板)。如果current_word是'cat'，那么你知道它是一个有效的单词，因为它是一个有效的前缀，并且d['cat']中的'cat'也返回True。
如果感觉这允许一些可读的代码，似乎不是太慢。像其他人一样，这个系统的费用是读取/构建索引。解这个板子相当麻烦。
代码在http://gist.github.com/268079。它是故意垂直和幼稚的，有很多明确的有效性检查，因为我想理解问题，而不是用一堆魔法或晦涩难懂的东西把它弄得乱七八糟。
我也用Java解决了这个问题。我的实现有269行，非常容易使用。首先，您需要创建Boggler类的一个新实例，然后用网格作为参数调用solve函数。在我的电脑上加载5万个单词的字典大约需要100毫秒，它在大约10-20毫秒内找到单词。找到的单词存储在一个数组列表中，即foundWords。
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.URISyntaxException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Comparator;
public class Boggler {
private ArrayList<String> words = new ArrayList<String>();
private ArrayList<String> roundWords = new ArrayList<String>();
private ArrayList<Word> foundWords = new ArrayList<Word>();
private char[][] letterGrid = new char[4][4];
private String letters;
public Boggler() throws FileNotFoundException, IOException, URISyntaxException {
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
URL path = GUI.class.getResource("words.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(new File(path.toURI()).getAbsolutePath()), "iso-8859-1"));
String line;
while((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
if(line.length() < 3 || line.length() > 10) {
continue;
}
this.words.add(line);
}
}
public ArrayList<Word> getWords() {
return this.foundWords;
}
public void solve(String letters) {
this.letters = "";
this.foundWords = new ArrayList<Word>();
for(int i = 0; i < letters.length(); i++) {
if(!this.letters.contains(letters.substring(i, i + 1))) {
this.letters += letters.substring(i, i + 1);
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
for(int j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
this.letterGrid[i][j] = letters.charAt(i * 4 + j);
}
}
System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(this.letterGrid));
this.roundWords = new ArrayList<String>();
String pattern = "[" + this.letters + "]+";
for(int i = 0; i < this.words.size(); i++) {
if(this.words.get(i).matches(pattern)) {
this.roundWords.add(this.words.get(i));
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < this.roundWords.size(); i++) {
Word word = checkForWord(this.roundWords.get(i));
if(word != null) {
System.out.println(word);
this.foundWords.add(word);
}
}
}
private Word checkForWord(String word) {
char initial = word.charAt(0);
ArrayList<LetterCoord> startPoints = new ArrayList<LetterCoord>();
int x = 0;
int y = 0;
for(char[] row: this.letterGrid) {
x = 0;
for(char letter: row) {
if(initial == letter) {
startPoints.add(new LetterCoord(x, y));
}
x++;
}
y++;
}
ArrayList<LetterCoord> letterCoords = null;
for(int initialTry = 0; initialTry < startPoints.size(); initialTry++) {
letterCoords = new ArrayList<LetterCoord>();
x = startPoints.get(initialTry).getX();
y = startPoints.get(initialTry).getY();
LetterCoord initialCoord = new LetterCoord(x, y);
letterCoords.add(initialCoord);
letterLoop: for(int letterIndex = 1; letterIndex < word.length(); letterIndex++) {
LetterCoord lastCoord = letterCoords.get(letterCoords.size() - 1);
char currentChar = word.charAt(letterIndex);
ArrayList<LetterCoord> letterLocations = getNeighbours(currentChar, lastCoord.getX(), lastCoord.getY());
if(letterLocations == null) {
return null;
}
for(int foundIndex = 0; foundIndex < letterLocations.size(); foundIndex++) {
if(letterIndex != word.length() - 1 && true == false) {
char nextChar = word.charAt(letterIndex + 1);
int lastX = letterCoords.get(letterCoords.size() - 1).getX();
int lastY = letterCoords.get(letterCoords.size() - 1).getY();
ArrayList<LetterCoord> possibleIndex = getNeighbours(nextChar, lastX, lastY);
if(possibleIndex != null) {
if(!letterCoords.contains(letterLocations.get(foundIndex))) {
letterCoords.add(letterLocations.get(foundIndex));
}
continue letterLoop;
} else {
return null;
}
} else {
if(!letterCoords.contains(letterLocations.get(foundIndex))) {
letterCoords.add(letterLocations.get(foundIndex));
continue letterLoop;
}
}
}
}
if(letterCoords != null) {
if(letterCoords.size() == word.length()) {
Word w = new Word(word);
w.addList(letterCoords);
return w;
} else {
return null;
}
}
}
if(letterCoords != null) {
Word foundWord = new Word(word);
foundWord.addList(letterCoords);
return foundWord;
}
return null;
}
public ArrayList<LetterCoord> getNeighbours(char letterToSearch, int x, int y) {
ArrayList<LetterCoord> neighbours = new ArrayList<LetterCoord>();
for(int _y = y - 1; _y <= y + 1; _y++) {
for(int _x = x - 1; _x <= x + 1; _x++) {
if(_x < 0 || _y < 0 || (_x == x && _y == y) || _y > 3 || _x > 3) {
continue;
}
if(this.letterGrid[_y][_x] == letterToSearch && !neighbours.contains(new LetterCoord(_x, _y))) {
neighbours.add(new LetterCoord(_x, _y));
}
}
}
if(neighbours.isEmpty()) {
return null;
} else {
return neighbours;
}
}
}
class Word {
private String word;
private ArrayList<LetterCoord> letterCoords = new ArrayList<LetterCoord>();
public Word(String word) {
this.word = word;
}
public boolean addCoords(int x, int y) {
LetterCoord lc = new LetterCoord(x, y);
if(!this.letterCoords.contains(lc)) {
this.letterCoords.add(lc);
return true;
}
return false;
}
public void addList(ArrayList<LetterCoord> letterCoords) {
this.letterCoords = letterCoords;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
String outputString = this.word + " ";
for(int i = 0; i < letterCoords.size(); i++) {
outputString += "(" + letterCoords.get(i).getX() + ", " + letterCoords.get(i).getY() + ") ";
}
return outputString;
}
public String getWord() {
return this.word;
}
public ArrayList<LetterCoord> getList() {
return this.letterCoords;
}
}
class LetterCoord extends ArrayList {
private int x;
private int y;
public LetterCoord(int x, int y) {
this.x = x;
this.y = y;
}
public int getX() {
return this.x;
}
public int getY() {
return this.y;
}
@Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if(!(o instanceof LetterCoord)) {
return false;
}
LetterCoord lc = (LetterCoord) o;
if(this.x == lc.getX() &&
this.y == lc.getY()) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
@Override
public int hashCode() {
int hash = 7;
hash = 29 * hash + this.x;
hash = 24 * hash + this.y;
return hash;
}
}
