data structure for large no of words ??

[mk]

Hi,
I originally posted this in one of the Java groups, but it was suggested
that I also post it here:

Hi,
I want to store a large number of words (kind of like a mini dictionary ???)
and want to be able to look up individual words(e.g find dog, cat) and also
look for words that start with certain letters (words that start with do,
ca etc)
The simplest way (for me anyway) so far is to store all of the words in a
big array, but this takes up a lot of space and I guess will have download
implications ....
I was also thinking of storing all the words in some sort of tree-like structure,
with each letter being a node in the tree (to remove redundant info). However,
having thought of this clever idea, I don't know how I could go about searching
this "tree-like" thing for my desired words .....

Any suggestions about how to store a large no of words in a space efficient
way, but at the same time making it relatively easy to search for the required
words ????

Thansk for your help.

mk

[Richard Dalton .]

Hi,

I'm not clear as to whether you want to store all these
words in memory, or in a file. I'm assuming you need
to keep them in a file, but be able to search the file
quickly and efficiently at runtime.

Have you thought about using a Database. An Access DB
would do the trick nicely. You could make a table called words,
similar to the following:

ID, Word, <any other fields, definitions etc.>

This would allow you to search for specific words using
or patterns such as ca* using the 'Like' keyword.

If you don't want dublicate words you could forget about
ID, and make Word the primary key.

-Richard



"mk" <emkae99@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Hi,
>I originally posted this in one of the Java groups, but it was suggested
>that I also post it here:
>
>Hi,
>I want to store a large number of words (kind of like a mini dictionary
???)
>and want to be able to look up individual words(e.g find dog, cat) and also
>look for words that start with certain letters (words that start with do,
>ca etc)
>The simplest way (for me anyway) so far is to store all of the words in
a
>big array, but this takes up a lot of space and I guess will have download
>implications ....
>I was also thinking of storing all the words in some sort of tree-like structure,
>with each letter being a node in the tree (to remove redundant info). However,
>having thought of this clever idea, I don't know how I could go about searching
>this "tree-like" thing for my desired words .....
>
>Any suggestions about how to store a large no of words in a space efficient
>way, but at the same time making it relatively easy to search for the required
>words ????
>
>Thansk for your help.
>
>mk
>

[mk]

Thanks for your reply, but I wanted to keep it all in memory.

"Richard Dalton" . wrote:
>
>
>
>Hi,
>
> I'm not clear as to whether you want to store all these
> words in memory, or in a file. I'm assuming you need
> to keep them in a file, but be able to search the file
> quickly and efficiently at runtime.
>
> Have you thought about using a Database. An Access DB
> would do the trick nicely. You could make a table called words,
> similar to the following:
>
> ID, Word, <any other fields, definitions etc.>
>
> This would allow you to search for specific words using
> or patterns such as ca* using the 'Like' keyword.
>
> If you don't want dublicate words you could forget about
> ID, and make Word the primary key.
>
>-Richard
>
>
>
>"mk" <emkae99@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>Hi,
>>I originally posted this in one of the Java groups, but it was suggested
>>that I also post it here:
>>
>>Hi,
>>I want to store a large number of words (kind of like a mini dictionary
>???)
>>and want to be able to look up individual words(e.g find dog, cat) and
also
>>look for words that start with certain letters (words that start with do,
>>ca etc)
>>The simplest way (for me anyway) so far is to store all of the words in
>a
>>big array, but this takes up a lot of space and I guess will have download
>>implications ....
>>I was also thinking of storing all the words in some sort of tree-like
structure,
>>with each letter being a node in the tree (to remove redundant info). However,
>>having thought of this clever idea, I don't know how I could go about searching
>>this "tree-like" thing for my desired words .....
>>
>>Any suggestions about how to store a large no of words in a space efficient
>>way, but at the same time making it relatively easy to search for the required
>>words ????
>>
>>Thansk for your help.
>>
>>mk
>>
>

[Joe \Nuke Me Xemu\ Foster]

"mk" <emkae99@yahoo.com> wrote in message <news:3a6b73a8$1@news.devx.com>...

> Hi,
> I originally posted this in one of the Java groups, but it was suggested
> that I also post it here:
>
> Hi,
> I want to store a large number of words (kind of like a mini dictionary ???)
> and want to be able to look up individual words(e.g find dog, cat) and also
> look for words that start with certain letters (words that start with do,
> ca etc)
> The simplest way (for me anyway) so far is to store all of the words in a
> big array, but this takes up a lot of space and I guess will have download
> implications ....

What download implications? Will this list be static, or will you be
adding, changing, and removing entries all the time? A sorted array
is compact and allows binary searching, which can be finessed to
allow looking for ranges, unlike most hashing schemes. There ought
to be red/black binary tree implementations out there, if you need
to insert and delete things a lot.

--
Joe Foster <mailto:jfoster@ricochet.net> Got Thetans? <http://www.xenu.net/>
WARNING: I cannot be held responsible for the above They're coming to
because my cats have apparently learned to type. take me away, ha ha!