Kingwood Computer Programming

Learn to Code

Python - Boggle

► Problem Description: The game 'Boggle' is a game that's played on a 4 x 4 grid (each grid location holds a 6-sided die containing letters). Here is a list of the 16 dice and the letters found on each:

   Die 01: { 'A', 'A', 'E', 'E', 'G', 'N' }
   Die 02: { 'A', 'B', 'B', 'J', 'O', 'O' }
   Die 03: { 'A', 'C', 'H', 'O', 'P', 'S' }
   Die 04: { 'A', 'F', 'F', 'K', 'P', 'S' }
   Die 05: { 'A', 'O', 'O', 'T', 'T', 'W' }
   Die 06: { 'C', 'I', 'M', 'O', 'T', 'U' }
   Die 07: { 'D', 'E', 'I', 'L', 'R', 'X' }
   Die 08: { 'D', 'E', 'L', 'R', 'V', 'Y' }
   Die 09: { 'D', 'I', 'S', 'T', 'T', 'Y' }
   Die 10: { 'E', 'E', 'G', 'H', 'N', 'W' }
   Die 11: { 'E', 'E', 'I', 'N', 'S', 'U' }
   Die 12: { 'E', 'H', 'R', 'T', 'V', 'W' }
   Die 13: { 'E', 'I', 'O', 'S', 'S', 'T' }
   Die 14: { 'E', 'L', 'R', 'T', 'T', 'Y' }
   Die 15: { 'H', 'I', 'M', 'N', 'U', 'Q' } [*]
   Die 16: { 'H', 'L', 'N', 'N', 'R', 'Z' }

First, you are to write a program to output random boggle boards. Some notes:

[*] Even though just 'Q' is shown here, any time this letter is chosen it will always be treated and shown as 'Qu' (the 'u' is automatic)
The die order should be randomized (so, the 'AAEEGN' die should not always be the die in the top left corner)
A random letter should be chosen from each die (one of the six letters on the die)

Next, you'll need to write code to read in a list of words from the file 'words.txt'. Then, have your program output a list of every word from 'words.txt' that was found in the current board. Some notes:

A location can only be used once, so to form 'NOON' we'd need two 'n' tiles and two 'o' tiles
The letters of a word must be adjacent, so the next letter must be on a die that is an immediate neighbor of the current die (a maximum of 8 possibilities: the 4 diagonals, left, right, up, down)
While we always use 'Qu' as a unit in our board, we cannot assume this is true in 'words.txt' so be aware of this possibility.

► Example Output:


   Board
   -----
      +----+----+----+----+
      |  T |  I |  R |  A |
      +----+----+----+----+
      |  S |  F |  S |  L |
      +----+----+----+----+
      |  E |  E |  V |  T |
      +----+----+----+----+
      |  S |  E |  N |  N |
      +----+----+----+----+

   Words
   -----
      a, arise, arisen, arises, as, eve, even, event, events, fee,
      fees, fest, fir, firs, first, fist, fit, fits, i, if,
      is, it, its, last, nest, rife, rift, rifts, rise, risen,
      rises, salt, salve, see, seen, sees, sent, seven, sift, sifts,
      sir, sirs, sit, sits, stir, stirs, tsar, vent, vents, vest

   Total words found: 50

► Source Code

All files (zip file)

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