Hangman

Simple script to solve hangman.

Does the following:

• Selects a word a random from the dictionary
• Given the length of the word, finds the most common letter occurances across all words of that length
• Simple algorithm
  • Guesses most common letters until solution is found
• Improved algorithm
  • Filters for most common letters at every iteration for dictionary words that match pattern of the guessed letters
  • Continues until solution is found

Note: Syntax is nearly Ruby compatable, however tuple types need to be changed to Hash and type decleration needs to be removed from the array.

Usage

$ crystal hangman.cr

Output

Simple Algorithm

$ crystal hangman.cr  --error-trace

Selecting a word from the dictionary at random...

The word is --------- (9 of 9 digits remaining)
Solving using simple algorithm...

Trying with e...
The word is ------e-- (8 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with i...
The word is ------e-- (8 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with a...
The word is --a---e-- (7 of 9 digits remaining)

...

Trying with y...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with g...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with b...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with f...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with v...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with k...
The word is crackless (0 of 9 digits remaining)

Solved after 22 iterations with simple algorithm

Improved Algorithm

Solving using improved algorithm...

Trying with e...
The word is ------e-- (8 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with s...
The word is ------ess (6 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with n...
The word is ------ess (6 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with l...
The word is -----less (5 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with r...
The word is -r---less (4 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with t...
The word is -r---less (4 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with a...
The word is -ra--less (3 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with c...
The word is crac-less (1 of 9 digits remaining)

Trying with k...
The word is crackless (0 of 9 digits remaining)

Solved after 10 iterations with improved algorithm

Notes

• Build on Crystal 0.23.1 (2017-09-08) LLVM 4.0.1
• Requires list of words to be under /usr/local/share/dict as is default on macOS