Class HangmanDictionary

java.lang.Object
  HangmanDictionary

All Implemented Interfaces:

IHangmanDictionary

public class HangmanDictionary

extends java.lang.Object

implements IHangmanDictionary

A source of words for the game of Hangman. Words are taken from a textfile, or in case the file is not located or has no suitable words, a short internal list is generated. The method isValidWord(), together with constants defining minimum and maximum lengths, determine which words from the file are considered valid for the game.

Field Summary

static int	MAX_WORD_LENGTH Longest allowable word.
static int	MIN_WORD_LENGTH Shortest allowable word.
static java.lang.String	WORD_DELIMITER Delimiter (regular expression) for separating words on the input file.
static java.lang.String	WORD_MATCH_PATTERN Pattern (regular expression) used to extract candidate words on the input.

Constructor Summary

HangmanDictionary(java.lang.String fileID)
Create a dictionary of Hangman words from a given file; if the file cannot be opened, a small built-in default set of words is used.

Method Summary

java.lang.String	chooseWord() Pick a word which hasn't been chosen recently.
static boolean	isLegalWord(java.lang.String word) Determine if the given string is a valid word for the game.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

MIN_WORD_LENGTH

public static final int MIN_WORD_LENGTH

Shortest allowable word.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

MAX_WORD_LENGTH

public static final int MAX_WORD_LENGTH

Longest allowable word.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

WORD_DELIMITER

public static final java.lang.String WORD_DELIMITER

Delimiter (regular expression) for separating words on the input file. Note that hyphens are not delimiters; words containing hyphens are completely ignored.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

WORD_MATCH_PATTERN

public static final java.lang.String WORD_MATCH_PATTERN

Pattern (regular expression) used to extract candidate words on the input. The pattern used matches strings of lower-case letters.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Constructor Detail

HangmanDictionary

public HangmanDictionary(java.lang.String fileID)

Create a dictionary of Hangman words from a given file; if the file cannot be opened, a small built-in default set of words is used.
A DelimitedTextFile is used, which means that the file will be looked for in lots of places, and if not found the user will be prompted. The string given can be simple filename or a full or partial path or a full URL, local or remote. The file can have any extension and practically any contents. All strings of lowercase letters delimited by whitespace or by typical punctuation characters are candidate words. In brief, any reasonable text file can be used as a Hangman Dictionary.

Parameters:

fileID - identifier of a file containing suitable words for Hangman.

Method Detail

chooseWord

public java.lang.String chooseWord()

Pick a word which hasn't been chosen recently. The choice is made randomly. No choice will be repeated until all of the words have been used once.

Specified by:

chooseWord in interface IHangmanDictionary

Returns:

a word, or null if there are no words to choose from.

See Also:

IHangmanDictionary.chooseWord()

isLegalWord

public static boolean isLegalWord(java.lang.String word)

Determine if the given string is a valid word for the game. Valid strings have lengths within a certain limit and contain only letters. Words containing capital letters are taken to be proper nouns and are excluded.

Parameters:

word - any string

Returns:

true iff the word, without alteration, is valid for the game.