Can I play too?

[Scott David Daniels]

Thomas Rast wrote:
> Tom Carrick <knyght at gmail.com> writes:
>>In my attempted learning of python, I've decided to recode an old
>>anagram solving program I made in C++. The C++ version runs in less
>>than a second, while the python takes 30 seconds.
> 
> Indeed, your program can be improved to run about ten times as fast, ...
> <great stuff>

This problem inspired an "all anagrams" program.  Using it I was able
to find the largest anagram group in Shakespeare's first folio in about
the time you originally found anagrams for an individual word.

  7: owers = rowse = sower = sowre = swore = woers = worse

====

     def words(source):
         for line in source:
             for word in line.split():
                 yield word


     def all_anagrams(words):
         seen = dict()

         for word in words:
             word = word.lower()
             if word not in seen:
                 dorw = ''.join(sorted(word))
                 try:
                     seen[dorw].append(word)
                 except KeyError:
                     seen[dorw] = [word]
                     if word == dorw:
                         continue
                 seen[word] = ()
         for group in seen.itervalues():
             if len(group) > 1:
                 yield -len(group), sorted(group) # conveniently sortable


def main(sources):
     for filename in sources:
         dictionary = open(filename, 'r')
         print "All anagrams from %s:" % filename
         try:
             for nsize, group in sorted(all_anagrams(words(dictionary))):
                 print '%2s: %s' % (-nsize, ' = '.join(group))
         finally:
             dictionary.close()
             print



if __name__ == '__main__':
     import sys
     main(sys.argv[1:] or ['anagrams.py'])