# reads in a list of words, binary search for user-supplied word # assumes sorted list # also print number of words checked for each search # and at the end, the average number of words checked per search # ECS 10, May 22, 2009 # Matt Bishop import string # this is global just to emphasize how that works wordlist = [] # this counts how many words you check before finding the word # (or giving up) wordcount = 0 # search a list of words for a word (binary search) # parameters: word, the word to find in the list # returns: index (+1) of word in list # -1 if not in list # globals: wordlist, list to search def search(word): # declarations global wordlist, wordcount # get the endpoints (low, high indices) of the list low = 0 high = len(wordlist) - 1 # if low ever passes high, the word isn't in the list while low <= high: # one more word looked at wordcount += 1 # check the middle word mid = (low + high) / 2 if word == wordlist[mid]: # match -- we're done! return mid + 1 elif word < wordlist[mid]: # word comes before middle word # reduce the high index of the interval high = mid - 1 else: # word comes after middle word # advance the low index of the interval low = mid + 1 # didn't find squat -- report failure abjectly return -1 # append words from a file to a list; assumes one word per line # note: lines separated by *newlines*, not *carriage returns* # parameters: none # returns: True if words loaded successfully # False if problem opening file # globals: wordlist, list to append words to def loadfile(): # declaration global wordlist # open the file, trapping errors try: infile = open("list.txt", "r") except IOError, errmsg: # say why it failed, return error code print "Could not open 'xxx.txt':", errmsg return False # go through the file line by line for i in infile: # strip any trailing white space (inc. newline) i = string.rstrip(i) # tack the word onto the list wordlist.append(i) # all done! close file and return success code infile.close() return True # this puts it all together def main(): # declaration global wordlist, wordcount # load the word list; on error, quit if not loadfile(): return # this counts total words checked across all searches totalwords = 0 # count number of searches to compute average number # of words examined per search nsearch = 0 # loop while True: # read in word; quit on EOF try: find = raw_input("What word should I look for EOF to quit)? ") except EOFError: break # count number of words searched for nsearch += 1 # initialize number of words checked wordcount = 0 # find the word if it's there found = search(find) # announce result if found == -1: print "'%s' is not in the list" % find else: print "'%s' is word number %d" % (find, found) # print number of words checked if wordcount == 1: print "Checked 1 word" else: print "Checked", wordcount, "words" # increment total words checked totalwords += wordcount # give the average number of words checked per search print "On average, checked", float(totalwords)/nsearch, "words" main()