How can I check if a string given is a real word?

Question

I am making a program that solves anagrams in Visual Basic. How can I check if a string given by the anagram solver is a real word? I know I will have to access some sort of dictionary but I have no idea how to do this?

I need a function that checks the word to return a true/false boolean value. Is this possible?

I'm using Visual Basic in Microsoft's VS2015.

Of course this is possible, but given you haven't said what you've tried so far, or even what format the dictionary will be in, it will be difficult to help you. — Carcigenicate, Feb 14 '17 at 17:33
@Carcigenicate So far I've got the code that generates the random string of letters (see below) however I have no idea how dictionaries work in Visual Basic and so that's what I'm also asking for help in. What format would you recommend? — michaelrh04, Feb 14 '17 at 17:35
`Dim lettersgiven() As Char = {"a"c, "b"c, "d"c, "e"c, "f"c} Dim results As New List(Of String) For start As Integer = 0 To lettersgiven.Length - 1 Dim usedindices As New List(Of Integer) For j As Integer = 1 To lettersgiven.Length Dim i As Integer = start While usedindices.Contains(i) i = (i + 1) Mod lettersgiven.Length End While usedindices.Add(i) Next Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder() For Each i As Integer In usedindices sb.Append(lettersgiven(i)) Next If LookupDictionary(sb.ToString()) Then results.Add(sb.ToString()) Next` — michaelrh04, Feb 14 '17 at 17:36
Have you thought of making requests to some free dictionary API's? — gdrt, Feb 14 '17 at 17:37
http://stackoverflow.com/q/2213607/1043824 gives a file with lots of words. You can search through it to check for existance. Searching is tough in flat files. You may want to put it in a database and sql search it. Hitting an api is a neat idea, but i guess it is over the high water mark. — inquisitive, Feb 14 '17 at 17:44
@gdrt94 thanks for your answer. I'll try that out and get back to you. — michaelrh04, Feb 14 '17 at 17:56
Check http://www.dictionaryapi.com/products/api-collegiate-dictionary.htm — gdrt, Feb 14 '17 at 17:59
One solution is to check your word has no spaces first then use one of the myriads of spell checking examples. If it comes back as an error...it is not a real word. However, spell checking is not that easy either for a newb. — Trevor_G, Feb 14 '17 at 18:12
Btw if you are using WPF the spell check part is easy. If you are using windows forms I suggest you create and use a WPF control on your form. — Trevor_G, Feb 14 '17 at 19:30

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '17 at 18:51

Hunspell is pretty easy to use.

Install the .net-library through Nuget (open your project in Visual Studio, then > Extras > Nuget-Package-Manager -> Console, type Install-Package NHunspell)
Download the .aiff and .dic files, see the dictionaries link on the Hunspell project page. Include these files in your project or use absolute paths.

Sample Code:

Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged
    Using h As New NHunspell.Hunspell(
        "...path ...\en_US.aff",
        "...path ...\en_US.dic")
        Me.TextBox1.BackColor = If(h.Spell(Me.TextBox1.Text),
            Color.PaleGreen, Color.PeachPuff)
    End Using
End Sub

Hunspell

.net library NHunspell

NHunspell C# Code Samples

Trevor_G · Answer 2 · 2017-02-15T11:59:20.493

If your are using WPF then checking if a word in a textbox can be done simply by checking if it has a spelling error.

Public Function WordOk(Word As String) As Boolean
    return TextBox1.GetNextSpellingErrorCharacterIndex(0, Windows.Documents.LogicalDirection.Forward) < 0 
End Function

If you are using windows forms then you can create a "User Control (WPF)" to do the same thing, though it is a bit tricky to explain how to do that here.

(There may be a better test than the one I showed though.. I'm not overly familiar with WPF)

How can I check if a string given is a real word?

2 Answers2