Procedure for fining all words contained within any given word including creation of a dictionary

• US 4,882,703 A
• Filed: 12/15/1986
• Issued: 11/21/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1984
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Robert L. Nicolai
• Original Assignee: Robert L. Nicolai
• Inventors: Nicolai, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): CLARK, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US06/941,773
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 364/200, 364/900, 364/419
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/0421 Electric word or number games
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A procedure for finding words within words as implemented on a programmable digital computer first alphabetizes all letters in the given word then computes permutations of the alphabetized letters and compares them to a special dictionary created so that when a match is found in it this refers to dictionary words that are anagrams of the permutation of letters. The special dictionary is created by first preprocessing each word into an alphabetic concatenation of the letters in it, then appending the word to this anagram. This list is separated by word length, alphabetized and stored in random files for fast table look up. A finger index is created and used in the procedure to further speed execution of the process.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for processing words from a standard dictionary into a special dictionary by using a programmable digital computer system comprising the following steps:

(a) inputting a word in upper case letters from the standard dictionary as a first of two string variables for use by the computer, creating a second such string variable from the first string variable by alphabetizing the letters in the first string variable and converting said letters to lower case, then appending the first string variable to the second string variable to provide a concatenated record and storing the result as one record in a different sequential disk file respectively created for each different length record,

(b) repeating step a) for each different word of said standard dictionary.

(c) placing the concatenated records in each sequential file in alphabetic order on disk media of the computer after input of such dictionary words is complete,

(d) creating a corresponding random file for each sequential file in which the length of a record is equal to the length of the word so input from the standard dictionary in the sequential file, then reserving the first two words in each such random file for a finger index,

(e) reading each sequential file, then writing both the lower and upper case words read to the corresponding random file, but if a succeeding record has the same lower case prefix as the one just written, then writing only the upper case word following the record just written, and

(f) scanning the lower case words in each random file and storing the record number at which certain preselected letter prefixes change in a predetermined location of said first two words of the random file as a pointer or finger index.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the special dictionary resides on disk media, and further comprising either adding words to or deleting words from the special dictionary and updating the finger index accordingly to preserve its integrity.

3. A computer implemented procedure for finding all words contained in any given word of the special dictionary created by the method according to claim 1 comprising the following steps:

(a) inputting to the computer system in upper case letters a word and creating an anagram of such word by alphabetizing the letters in such word and converting those letters to lower case, thus creating an alphabetized lower case word constituting such anagram,

(b) computing permutations of the letters in the anagram for successively decreasing lengths down to a selected minimum length, each length forming a respective group of juxtaposed letters,

(c) comparing the permutations of juxtaposed letters for each specific word length to the lower case words in the random file for a record size equal to said specific word length from a starting point located by the finger index for the respective random file to the last permutation of letters so computed for the respective group of juxtaposed letters in search of a match,

(d) taking the upper case words following any such match to the lower case permutation found in step c) up to the next lower case word and moving them to a solution queue, and, when all permutations of the letters in the alphabetized word have been searched, then

(e) outputting the words in the solution queue in some readable form after optionally alphabetizing same.