#Actual crossword puzzle maker generator
#Actual crossword puzzle maker code

The tricky part is having the strings change to very specific things based on random data each time the user evaluates. This may seem simple, but it isn't as easy at it looks.

My project is basically a grid of variables, with the variables containing strings. In this post, I will give a general outline of my project, then go into detail about my though process, and finally show the finished product. I worked on a project for two weeks which generates a crossword with random words that the user can solve and check. Early in the summer of 2019, I attended the Wolfram High School Summer Camp. It's something that I've always intended to write but have never quite got round to.

#Actual crossword puzzle maker generator

The easiest approach - and I suspect the one used by most crossword generators - would be to provide a number of pre-prepared templates, have the user pick one and then go and populate it but it would be a rather fun exercise to to come up with a generator that provided grids according to a selected difficulty level and min/max word length parameters but with some degree of randomness to ensure that it doesn't keep churning out the same pattern each time the same values are provided. Some grid formats are inherently harder for the solver than others - a white square at 0,0 will make life easier for the solver than one with a black square at 0,0, for instance and the more mutually checking letters that there are, the easier it will be to solve. This poses a few interesting challenges, if trying to create from scratch with some degree of randomisation - there must be a minimum word length of 3 along with a good mix of word lengths along with a desirable range of ratios of black to white squares. In order to achieve that, it's pretty much essential to start with the a fully-defined grid. Then, when we actually place the word, we call:Ĭonventionally, a standard crossword has a 15x15 square 180 o symmetrical grid. Return result = word.Length ? -1 : result Int xStar = x - _dirX, yStar = y - _dirY Int CanBePlaced( string word, int x, int y, int dir)

#Actual crossword puzzle maker code

The demo source code was created using C# and Visual Studio 2010.įirst, for each word about to be placed, we check if this place is valid: The file should be an ASCII one, with one word per line.

Loading words from a file, or placing them manually.

An optimization process, used to find the optimal arrangement of any given set of words, which leave a minimum number of black square.

Two words placed horizontally or vertically one after the other will have at least one black square separating between the two.

Minimal distance between words placed at the same dimension.

Latin words are placed left to right, and from top to bottom. To comply with this requirement, words in such language go from right to left, when placed horizontally, and still, from top to bottom when placed vertically.

Supporting right-to-left languages, such as Hebrew.

While designing this application, there were several guidelines to comply with: The application described and included in this article is useful whenever there is a need to create a mechanism which will place words as a crossword, which would be the first step before composing clues and questions in which their answers will form these words. A crossword is a word puzzle created from a grid of white and black squares, placing words horizontally and vertically on these squares while each two words which cross each other require having an identical letter at the place they are crossed.