This is really easy way to confirm if a word is in a file list of words say from Collins Dictionary:
Code: (Select All)
_Title "Test IsWord function" 'bplus 2026-02-25
Dim Shared FStr$
FStr$ = _ReadFile$("Words.txt") ' once and for all time
While 1
Input "Enter a word to see if in Collins Dictionary"; w$
If IsWord%(w$) Then Print w$; ", is a word." Else Print w$; ", is Not a word"
Wend
Function IsWord% (test$)
testeol$ = Chr$(13) + Chr$(10) + UCase$(test$) + Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
If InStr(FStr$, testeol$) Then IsWord% = -1 Else IsWord% = 0
End Function
"Words.txt" is a text file using CRLF's to end lines. All I had to do was insert a blank line at beginning of file so that the word "AA" could be verified as a word from the file.
This is way better IMHO than using a Random Access file!
Isn't the easiest, and fastest way, simply to load the entire file in one go and then parse it and save the data in an array? Then just binary search on the index of the array until you find out if it's in there or not. No random file access needed, no instr searches which go byte by byte looking for a match. Just one array which is completely stored in memory and then a fast search for less than a few dozen binary comparisons to get the answer.
It's how we've did it countless times before on the forums, with a bazillion demos and examples to draw from out there. Why is everyone feeling the need to look for some different way to do things now? Just stick to the tried and true little routines that work so effortlessly.
'and just to showcase how quick arrays are, let's do a random search of the array from start to bottom For i = 1To100'let's look for 100 random words
word$ = Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26) + Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26) + Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26)
match = _FALSE For j = 1ToUBound(dict) Color Yellow If word$ = dict(j) ThenPrint"MATCH:"; word$,: match = _TRUE Color White Next If_Negate (match) ThenPrint"No match:"; word$, Next
'note that this is doing nothing to binary search, nor is it exiting after finding a match, nor doing anything else to speed up the process 'this is simply testing the entire word array one by one looking for a match for our words. 'and it takes... no noticable time at all.
SubLoadWordList (file$, WordList() AsString) 'this sub loads a list of words for use later $Checking:Off DimAsString temp, t1 DimAsLong count, p, p1 ReDim WordList(250000) AsString'let's make a nice large array to told the words. ' I doubt any word list is going to have more than 250,000 words in it! If_FileExists(file$) Then'then we have a found word list. Let's load and parse it
temp = _ReadFile$(file$)
p = 1 Do
p1 = InStr(p, temp, Chr$(10)) 'look for a chr$(10) end of line marker If p1 = 0Then p1 = InStr(p, temp, Chr$(13)) 'if no chr$(10) then look for a chr$(13) for odd files with it as the CRLF If p1 Then'then we have a delimiter
t1 = _Trim$(Mid$(temp, p, p1 - p)) IfRight$(t1, 1) = Chr$(13) Then t1 = Left$(t1, Len(t1) - 1) 'if CRLF then strip off chr$(13) If t1 <> ""Then'don't add blank lines to the list
count = count + 1
WordList(count) = t1 End If
p = p1 + 1 End If Loop Until p1 = 0 If p < Len(temp) Then'if there's no CRLF for the end of file, we want to last word here
t1 = Mid$(temp$, p) If t1 <> ""Then'again, don't add if it's a blank line
count = count + 1
WordList(count) = Mid$(temp, p) End If End If End If ReDim_Preserve WordList(count) AsString $Checking:On End Sub
'and just to showcase how quick arrays are, let's do a random search of the array from start to bottom For i = 1To100'let's look for 100 random words
word$ = Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26) + Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26) + Chr$(65 + Rnd * 26)
match = _FALSE For j = 1ToUBound(dict) Color Yellow If word$ = dict(j) ThenPrint"MATCH:"; word$,: match = _TRUE Color White Next If_Negate (match) ThenPrint"No match:"; word$, Next
'note that this is doing nothing to binary search, nor is it exiting after finding a match, nor doing anything else to speed up the process 'this is simply testing the entire word array one by one looking for a match for our words. 'and it takes... no noticable time at all.
SubLoadWordList (file$, WordList() AsString, Limit AsLong) 'this sub loads a list of words for use later $Checking:Off DimAsString temp, t1 DimAsLong count, p, p1 ReDim WordList(Limit) AsString'let's make a nice large array to told the words. Set the limit you want for yourself If_FileExists(file$) Then'then we have a found word list. Let's load and parse it
temp = _ReadFile$(file$)
p = 1 Do
p1 = InStr(p, temp, Chr$(10)) 'look for a chr$(10) end of line marker If p1 = 0Then p1 = InStr(p, temp, Chr$(13)) 'if no chr$(10) then look for a chr$(13) for odd files with it as the CRLF If p1 Then'then we have a delimiter
t1 = _Trim$(Mid$(temp, p, p1 - p)) IfRight$(t1, 1) = Chr$(13) Then t1 = Left$(t1, Len(t1) - 1) 'if CRLF then strip off chr$(13) If t1 <> ""Then'don't add blank lines to the list
count = count + 1
WordList(count) = t1 End If
p = p1 + 1 End If Loop Until p1 = 0 If p < Len(temp) Then'if there's no CRLF for the end of file, we want to last word here
t1 = Mid$(temp$, p) If t1 <> ""Then'again, don't add if it's a blank line
count = count + 1
WordList(count) = Mid$(temp, p) End If End If End If ReDim_Preserve WordList(count) AsString $Checking:On End Sub
less than a second or so from start to finish for me, and this is without trying to optimize anything or make it speedy. Load and parse 270k words into an array. Search that array from top to bottom 100 times... and the whole process is less than a second. For most applications with words, it's going to be more than fast enough for whatever type of lookup you might be doing.
OK and to round out this discussion here is finding a word or not (in same dictionary file as first post)
using Binary search and dandy handy Split Function.
While 1
Input "Enter a word to see if in Collins Dictionary"; w$
If FindW&(w$) Then Print w$; ", is a word." Else Print w$; ", is Not a word"
Wend
Sub Split (SplitMeString As String, delim As String, loadMeArray() As String)
Dim curpos As Long, arrpos As Long, LD As Long, dpos As Long 'fix use the Lbound the array already has
curpos = 1: arrpos = LBound(loadMeArray): LD = Len(delim)
dpos = InStr(curpos, SplitMeString, delim)
Do Until dpos = 0
loadMeArray(arrpos) = Mid$(SplitMeString, curpos, dpos - curpos)
arrpos = arrpos + 1
If arrpos > UBound(loadMeArray) Then ReDim _Preserve loadMeArray(LBound(loadMeArray) To UBound(loadMeArray) + 1000) As String
curpos = dpos + LD
dpos = InStr(curpos, SplitMeString, delim)
Loop
loadMeArray(arrpos) = Mid$(SplitMeString, curpos)
ReDim _Preserve loadMeArray(LBound(loadMeArray) To arrpos) As String 'get the ubound correct
End Sub
Function FindW& (wd$)
Dim As Long lo, hi, m
Dim wrd As String: wrd = UCase$(wd$)
lo = 1: hi = 279423
While lo <= hi
m = (hi + lo) \ 2
If words$(m) = wrd Then
FindW& = m: Exit Function
ElseIf words$(m) < wrd Then
lo = m + 1
Else
hi = m - 1
End If
Wend
End Function
This is really easy way to confirm if a word is in a file list of words say from Collins Dictionary:
Code: (Select All)
_Title "Test IsWord function" 'bplus 2026-02-25
Dim Shared FStr$
FStr$ = _ReadFile$("Words.txt") ' once and for all time
While 1
Input "Enter a word to see if in Collins Dictionary"; w$
If IsWord%(w$) Then Print w$; ", is a word." Else Print w$; ", is Not a word"
Wend
Function IsWord% (test$)
testeol$ = Chr$(13) + Chr$(10) + UCase$(test$) + Chr$(13) + Chr$(10)
If InStr(FStr$, testeol$) Then IsWord% = -1 Else IsWord% = 0
End Function
"Words.txt" is a text file using CRLF's to end lines. All I had to do was insert a blank line at beginning of file so that the word "AA" could be verified as a word from the file.
This is way better IMHO than using a Random Access file!
Here is the file to run your own tests:
That's indeed what I had in mind. (dont forget FStr$ = Chr$(13) + Chr$(10) + ReadFile$("Words.txt") to also find first word in file)
I fully agree with approach of Steve to load list in array, but that depends if you need/prefer efficiency and speed over short simple code. If you need to search 1000's of time, then better make a list array
45y and 2M lines of MBASIC>BASICA>QBASIC>QBX>QB64 experience
