Using PHP to compare a string to possible words - php

Question

I have a small personal project I am trying to complete. I need to take a string of characters and try to "create" words from variations of said string; checking against a text file with a list of known words (words are separated by new lines).
In summary:
user provides string $chars_provided (i.e "jdlwhfushfmgh"),
$chars_provided is then exploded
exploded $chars_provided are randomly arranged in attempt to create words from said string
created words the checked/verified against the dictionary text file to ensure they exist
results are displayed by the character count of the created words, with a limit of 100 words.
I have the concept in my head just not sure how it should be done, I'm just looking for someone who can explain the process to me.
<?php
// list of words, one per line
$dictionary = file_get_contents('dictionary.txt');
// provided characters, in the end by user
$chars_provided = "a,t,w,q,u,i,f,d,s,b,v,x,o";
// count the total # of characters
$chars_count = strlen($chars_provided);
// display given information so far
echo "The letters '$chars_provided' were entered, totaling $chars_count letters.";
// explode the characters by using the comma designator
$break_chars = explode(",", $chars_provided);
foreach ($break_chars as $letter) {
echo "$letter[0]";
}

Answer 1

This is easier if you get the letter counts for each word in the dictionary, hold onto it, and then match against the user input character counts.
For example, with 'aaab', any word with less than (or equal to) 3 'a's, less than (or equal to) 1 'b's, and no other characters will match.
//// 1. Grab letter counts for your user input.
$user_input_chars = 'abcdefg'; // for example
$user_in_letter_counts = get_letter_counts($user_input_chars);
// $letters[$char][$num] will contain all words that have exactly $num number of $char characters
$letters = array('a' => array(), 'b' => array(), /* ...,*/ 'z' => array());
//// 2. Generate list of words with at least $number_of quantity of $letter characters
// (only have to be done once for any amount of user input if you keep this in memory)
foreach ($words as $word){
// get letter counts for each type of character for this word
$letter_counts = get_letter_counts($word);
// store in array of letters and count
foreach($letter_counts as $letter => $number_of){
// we already have a word that had $number_of $letter characters; add word to existing array
if (isset($letters[$letter][$number_of])){
$letters[$letter][$number_of][] = $word;
} // make array to record that this word has $number_of $letter characters
else {
$letters[$letter][$number_of] = array($word);
}
$number_of--;
}
}
//// 3. Find matching words.
$potential_words = array();
foreach ($letters as $letter => $arr){
foreach($arr as $num => $words){
// if this array has less than or equal to the number of $letter characters that the user input has,
// add the words to the potential match list for that character
if ($num <= $arr[$user_in_letter_counts[$letter]]){
$potential_words[$letter] = array_merge($potential_words[$letter], $words);
}
}
}
// the words must have met the requirement for each character, so only grab words that satisfy all conditions
$all_matching_words = array_intersect($potential_words['a'], $potential_words['b'], /* ..., */ $potential_words['z']);
// (It should be trivial to just grab 100 of these.)
function get_letter_counts($word){
$result = array();
$result['a'] = substr_count($my_word, 'a');
$result['b'] = substr_count($my_word, 'b');
// ...
$result['z'] = substr_count($my_word, 'z');
return $result;
}

Answer 2

Hope you can use this.
$file = file_get_contents("dictionary.txt");
$SearchString = "jdlwhfushfmgh/maybeasencondword";
$breakstrings = explode('/',$SearchString);
foreach ($breakstrings as $values)
{
if(!strpos($file, $values))
{
echo $values." string not found!\n";
}
else
{
echo $values." string Found!\n";
}