OpenEuphoria

Re: $100 Contest Question

• Posted by David Cuny <dcuny at LANSET.COM> Mar 06, 2002
• 595 views

I hesitate to mention this, not only because it's the only optimization my 
pathetic code has, but because it's so obvious...

People have been talking about a single dictionary, but you actually need two 
hash tables: one hashed based on the word, and the other based on the pattern 
the word generates. For example:

   SILLY

would be placed in the "normal" dictionary under the key "SILLY" and under 
the "pattern" dictionary as "ABCCD".

If you read your cryptogram before you read the dictionary, you don't have to 
create a hash table for the pattern dictionary - just those that match 
patterns found in the cryptogram. That is, if the cryptogram were:

  IG EES SWWM

then your dictionary would only need to hold words that match the patterns:

  AB
  AAB
  ABBC

And since crytogram words always create the same pattern, if you store the 
hash key to the pattern with the cryptogram words, you don't need to 
recalculate it.

Yeah, all obvious stuff.

-- David Cuny