Word Patterns for Cryptography

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I want a function f that takes a word (like those listed in WordList[]) and returns a pattern best described by examples like these: f[“book”]=abbc; f[“settings”]=abccdefa; and f[“moving”]=abcdef.

Then I want a second function, f2, that searches a list of words for words that have the same pattern, returning a list of them; for example f2[WordList[],abcdefabgd]={liberalize, roisterous, stochastic}

The motive is to write a program that solves substitution ciphers, but could have other uses too!

manpreet 2 years ago

makePattern[word_String] := StringExpression @@ Map[
  With[{s = Symbol @ #}, Pattern[s, Blank[]]] &,
  Characters[word]];

findMatches[word_String, list_List : WordList[]] := 
  Select[list, StringMatchQ[makePattern @ word]];

findMatches @ "settings"