How to check whether given string is a word

Question

Hello I am developing a word game where i want to check the user input as valid word or not please suggest the way i can check the given string in android.

Eg . String s = "asfdaf" i want to check whether its a valid one.

you need to have a dictionary for that ... and then make a match.. — Harmeet Singh, Jul 23 '12 at 06:14
What do you mean by "valid one"? Is that mean, the given word has a meaning or not? Are you using a dictionary in your application? — AnujAroshA, Jul 23 '12 at 06:15
in android you can have dict in form of a file or a sqlite database.. — Harmeet Singh, Jul 23 '12 at 06:16
@AnujAroshA i dont want use dictionary db. is there any way to use the built in dictionary library — Mahesh, Jul 23 '12 at 06:23
@Mahesh have you try with [UserDictionary] (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/UserDictionary.html) If not, I think you can find a source of Dictionary that has GPL, just like [UDM] (http://udm.adrianvintu.com/) — AnujAroshA, Jul 23 '12 at 06:51

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 24 '18 at 07:59

There are many possible solutions to this some are the following

Use a web Dictionary API

https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/12/on-googles-unofficial-dictionary-api.html

http://www.dictionaryapi.com/

if you would prefer a local solution

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

class WordChecker {
    public static boolean check_for_word(String word) {
        // System.out.println(word);
        try {
            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(
                    "/usr/share/dict/american-english"));
            String str;
            while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) {
                if (str.indexOf(word) != -1) {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            in.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
        }

        return false;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(check_for_word("hello"));
    }
}

this uses the local word list found on all Linux systems to check for the word

Bro it is still not working it is directly send to return false — mohammedali sunasara, Oct 09 '14 at 07:04
@mohammedalisunasara well mine works as with the code I've just put up. This depends on the /usr/share/dict/american-english though — zeitue, Oct 09 '14 at 20:35

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 09 '16 at 16:20

First, download a word list from for example here. Place it in the root directory of your project. Use the following code to check whether a String is part of the word list or not:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;

public class Dictionary
{
    private Set<String> wordsSet;

    public Dictionary() throws IOException
    {
        Path path = Paths.get("words.txt");
        byte[] readBytes = Files.readAllBytes(path);
        String wordListContents = new String(readBytes, "UTF-8");
        String[] words = wordListContents.split("\n");
        wordsSet = new HashSet<>();
        Collections.addAll(wordsSet, words);
    }

    public boolean contains(String word)
    {
        return wordsSet.contains(word);
    }
}

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

2

I'd store a dictionary and do a lookup in there. If the word is present in the dictionary, it's valid.

You can find a some clues on how to do this here: Android dictionary application

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

1
1

answered Jul 23 '12 at 06:16

Lucas Kauffman

6,789
15
60
86

is there any way to use built-in dictionary feature of android – Mahesh Jul 23 '12 at 06:27
yes kind of thing i want but it will give me only user defined words only :( – Mahesh Jul 23 '12 at 06:52

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 23 '15 at 16:48

zeitue said:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

class WordChecker {
    public static boolean check_for_word(String word) {
        // System.out.println(word);
        try {
            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(
                "/usr/share/dict/american-english"));
            String str;
            while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) {
                if (str.indexOf(word) != -1) {
                    return true;
                }
            }
            in.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
        }

        return false;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(check_for_word("hello"));
    }
}

but this will only work on linux. if you want this same thing on a mac change the path from

/usr/share/dict/american-english

to

/usr/share/dict/web2

I have not tried this on windows but if someone knows comment below

cyborg86pl · Answer 5 · 2012-07-23T06:22:08.473

0

if(s.equals("word from dictionary in loop"){
    //action
}

and it's also good to

s = s.toLowerCase();

so there would be no matter how "pokemon" is the entry word

edited Jul 23 '12 at 06:22

answered Jul 23 '12 at 06:16

cyborg86pl

2,597
2
26
43

score -1 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 29 '16 at 02:56

You can try this code for basic validation

import java.util.Scanner;

public class InputValidation {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String input;
        try {
            System.out.println("Enter the input");
            Scanner s = new  Scanner(System.in);

            input = s.next();
            if(input.matches(".*\\d.*")){
                System.out.println(" Contains digit only");
            } else{
                System.out.println(" Only String/words found");
            }

        } catch (Exception e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }


    }

}

How to check whether given string is a word

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