Scrabble challenge: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Scrabble.jpg|right|300px]]
There's a huge leap between having learned the fundamentals of a programming language and being able to sit down at a blank text editor and implement an idea from scratch.
 
== Project ==
Getting over the "I sit down at a text editor with an idea -- now what?" hump takes practice! Here's a fun practice problem that provides some guidance by breaking down the implementation steps and suggesting resources.
 
Write a Scrabble cheater from scratch.
 
== Goals ==
 
* practice breaking down a problem and solving it in Python from scratch
* practice command line argument parsing
* practice reading from files
* practice working with dictionaries and for loops
 
=== Problem Statement ===
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Write a Python script that takes a Scrabble rack as a command-line argument and prints all valid Scrabble words that can be constructed from that rack, along with their Scrabble scores, sorted by score. An example invocation and output:
 
<pre>[[Media:]]
$ python scrabble.py ZAEFIEE
17 feeze
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===Resources===
 
* http://wwwcourses.isccms.rocaltech.edu/cs11/material/advjava/listslab1/sowpods.zip contains all words in the official [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOWPODS SOWPODS] word list, one word per line.
* Here is a dictionary containing all letters and their Scrabble values:
 
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====Step 1: construct a word list====
 
Write the code to open and read the sowpods word file. Create a list, where each element is a word in the sowpods word file. Note that each line in the file ends in a newline, which you'll need to stripremove from the word.
 
<b>Step 1 resources</b>:
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====Step 2: get the rack====
 
Write the code to get the Scrabble rack from(the aletters commandavailable lineto argument.make Handlewords) from the casecommand whereline a userargument forgetspassed to supplyyour a rackscript. MakeFor sure you are consistent about capitalization:example if your scoresscript dictionarywere iscalled lowercase`scrabble_cheater.py`, theif lettersyou suppliedran by<tt>python thescrabble_cheater.py userRSTLNEI</tt>, need<tt>RSTLNEI</tt> towould be convertedthe to lowercase at some point before you compare themrack.
 
Handle the case where a user forgets to supply a rack; in this case, print an error message saying they need to supply some letters, and then exit the program using the <code>exit()</code> function. Make sure you are consistent about capitalization
 
<b>Step 2 resources</b>:
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Getting and checking the number of command line arguments: http://docs.python.org/library/sys.html.
</li>
<li>Converting letters to lower case: http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#str.lower</li>
</ul>
 
 
====Step 3: find valid words====
 
Write the code to find all words from the word list that are made of letters that are a subset of the rack letters. There are many ways to do this, but here's one way that is easy to reason about and is fast enough for our purposes: go through every word in the word list, and for every letter in that word, see if that letter is contained in the rack. If it is, save the word in a <tt>valid_words</tt> list. Make sure you handle repeat letters: once a letter from the rack has been used, it can't be used again.
 
<b>Step 3 resources</b>:
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<li>
List manipulation: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html#more-on-lists.
</li>
<li>
<tt>for</tt> loops: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/controlflow.html#for-statements
</li>
</ul>
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</li>
</ul>
 
 
===Checking your work===
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<pre>
$ python scrabble.py ZZAAEEI
22 ,zeze
21 ,ziz
12 ,zee
12 ,zea
11 ,za
3 ,aia
2 ,ee
2 ,ea
2 ,ai
2 ae,aa
2 aa,ae
</pre>
 
===Bonus challenge===
 
===Congr!===
Modify your script to handle blank tiles. Blank tiles have a score of 0 but can be used to represent any letter.
 
You've implemented a substantial, useful script in Python from scratch that is perfect for cheating at Scrabble or Words with Friends. Keep practicing!
===Congratulations!===
 
[[File:Fireworks.png|150px]]
You've implemented a substantial, useful script in Python from scratch. Keep practicing!
[[File:Balloos.png|150px]]
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