Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:26661 comp.lang.misc:2778
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Spelling Checker Algorithm
Message-ID: <6346@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 28 Mar 89 03:10:32 GMT
References: <22142@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 18

In article <22142@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> wainscot@wheatena.berkeley.edu (Brian
Wainscott) writes:
>In need of a good algorithm for my spell checking routine.  Specifically,
>once I know the word they used is not in my dictionary, how do I go about
>making rational suggestions for replacement?

For each entry in the word list, keep its Soundex code too.  When you
find a misspelled word, find its Soundex code, and show all other words
with the same Soundex code as possible corrections.  Instead of Soundex
(described in one of Knuth's books, I think) you could use some other
algorithm that works better for non-proper nouns.

This discussion is being diverted to comp.lang.misc, where the language
gurus hide, who will probably scream that it doesn't belong there
either, but will at least be able to suggest a better place.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi
                    ARPA:  dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu