Representing a String object as a point in a 2D Euclidean Graph

Question

Please tell me if there is a way for plotting a point on a 2d graph using (x,y) coordinates by deriving (or I can say mapping) a String object into numeric values for 'x' and 'y'. Example: I have a String "abcd". This needs to be represented as a point in a Euclidean graph. Preferable language is Java.

This is way too vague to answer. You could map it by taking some arbitrary hash code (e.g. `text.hashCode()`) and using that as the `x` value, with y=0 for all strings. Presumably that *wouldn't* be good enough for you - but it meets every requirement you've actually *specified*. — Jon Skeet, Apr 12 '12 at 15:47
What are you trying to achieve? What is the underlying problem that you're trying to solve? — biziclop, Apr 12 '12 at 15:50
@JonSkeet Don't overcomplicate it, x=0 and y=0 for every string works just as well :) — biziclop, Apr 12 '12 at 15:51

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 12 '12 at 15:50

10

Yes, there is at least one way of doing this.

answered Apr 12 '12 at 15:50

Tom Anderson

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score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '12 at 15:20

5

things to use for values:

hash of the string
length of the string
numeric addition of all the chars
[some mathematical function] of all the chars

Use one of them for x and the other one for y. There you go.

answered Apr 13 '12 at 15:20

rnalexander

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 16 '12 at 10:16

You could try feeding the string to a spam filter (x = spamminess) and something that gives a readability score based on lexical and grammatical complexity (y = readability). Or write something that uses the StackOverflow API to submit it as a question or answer, and plot how many upvotes it gets.

Also, try evaluating the string itself as a program - plot a 0 if it terminates, and a 1 if it doesn't (you may have to wait a while to determine this result).

Representing a String object as a point in a 2D Euclidean Graph

3 Answers3