Word Ladders Game (Graph DSA)

Overview

The Word Ladders game is a Java application that utilizes a Graph data structure to find connections between words. By entering a starting and ending word, the program calculates the shortest path (word ladder) between these two words using either Depth-First Search (DFS) or Breadth-First Search (BFS). This application supports large datasets, making it capable of processing extensive word lists efficiently.

Features

• Flexible Word Graph Construction: Supports construction from text files, enabling easy customization and expansion of the word database.
• User-Interactive Gameplay: Allows users to input starting and ending words to generate word ladders.
• Search Algorithm Selection: Users can choose between DFS and BFS to find the word ladder.
• Scalability: Efficiently processes large word lists, including datasets with tens of thousands of words.

Prerequisites

• Java Development Kit (JDK) 11 or later installed on your machine.
• A Java IDE (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse) is highly recommended.

Setup

1. Ensure Java is properly installed by running java -version in your terminal or command prompt.
2. Download or clone this repository to your local machine.
3. Navigate to the directory containing WordLadders.java and any required word list files.

Running the Program

Compile and run the application using the Java compiler and runtime environment:

javac WordLadders.java
java WordLadders

Alternatively, you can simply run the file(s) directly in your IDE, if supported.

Upon execution, the program prompts you to enter the filename of your desired word list. Valid filenames include Length3WordGraph or LargeWordGraph, although you can use any text file formatted according to the program's specifications.

After loading the word graph, follow the on-screen instructions to input your starting and ending words, and select the search algorithm (DFS or BFS).

Word List File Format

The program expects word list files to be formatted as follows:

word1 neighbor1 neighbor2 ...
word2 neighbor1 neighbor2 ...
...

Each line represents a word and its immediate neighbors (words differing by one letter). The program reads these files to construct the word graph used to find word ladders.