How to get xth key of a table in Lua - lua

Question

I have 2 functions in Lua which create a dictionary table and allow to check if a word exists:
local dictTable = {}
local dictTableSize = 0
function buildDictionary()
local path = system.pathForFile("wordlist.txt")
local file = io.open( path, "r")
if file then
for line in file:lines() do
dictTable[line] = true
dictTableSize = dictTableSize + 1
end
io.close(file)
end
end
function checkWord(word)
if dictTable[word] then
return(true)
else
return(false)
end
end
Now I want to be able to generate a couple of random words. But since the words are the keys, how can I pick some, given the dictTableSize.
Thanks

Answer 1

Just add a numerical index for each word to the dictionary while loading it:
function buildDictionary()
local path = system.pathForFile("wordlist.txt")
local file = io.open( path, "r")
if file then
local index = 1
for line in file:lines() do
dictTable[line] = true
dictTable[index] = line
index = index + 1
end
io.close(file)
end
end
Now you can get a random word like this:
function randomWord()
return dictTable[math.random(1,#dictTable)]
end
Side note: nil evaluates to false in Lua conditionals, so you could write checkWord like this:
function checkWord(word)
return dictTable[word]
end
Another side note, you'll get less polution of the global namespace if you wrap the dictionary functionality into an object:
local dictionary = { words = {} }
function dictionary:load()
local path = system.pathForFile('wordlist.txt')
local file = io.open( path, 'r')
if file then
local index = 1
for line in file:lines() do
self.words[line] = true
self.words[index] = line
index = index + 1
end
io.close(file)
end
end
function dictionary:checkWord(word)
return self.words[word]
end
function dictionary:randomWord()
return self.words[math.random(1,#self.words)]
end
Then you can say:
dictionary:load()
dictionary:checkWord('foobar')
dictionary:randomWord()

Answer 2

Probably two ways: you can keep the array with words and just do words[math.random(#words)] when you need to pick a random word (just make sure that the second one is different from the first).
The other way is to use next the number of times you need:
function findNth(t, n)
local val = next(t)
for i = 2, n do val = next(t, val) end
return val
end
This will return b for findNth({a = true, b = true, c = true}, 3) (the order is undefined).
You can avoid repetitive scanning by memoizing the results (at this point you will be better off using the first way).

Answer 3

this is a trade off that you have for using the word table the way you are. i would invert the word table once you load it, so that you can get references to words by index as well if you have to. something like this:
-- mimic your dictionary structure
local t = {
["asdf"] = true, ["wer"] = true, ["iweir"] = true, ["erer"] = true
}
-- function to invert your word table
function invert(tbl)
local t = {}
for k,_ in pairs(tbl) do
table.insert(t, k)
end
return t
end
-- now the code to grab random words
local idx1, idx2 = math.random(dictTableSize), math.random(dictTableSize)
local new_t = invert(t)
local word1, word2 = new_t[idx1], new_t[idx2]
-- word1 and word2 now have random words from your 'dictTable'