Hi Jim, thanks for replying :)
>>
>> $word_list{$_} = 0;
>
> If you assign 1 to the hash value, you can dispense with the 'exists' in
> your test, below.
>> #Here, using a hash looks much cleaner than iterating through an array
>> push(@all_combinations, $temp_word) if (exists $word_list{$temp_word});
>
> Here, if hash values are 1, you don't need 'exists':
>
> push(@all_combinations, $temp_word) if $word_list{$temp_word};
>
>> }
I did not know this, I presume this is because 1 is not false?
> You can use the built-in grep function to compare each of the words in your
> word list to your specified pattern, used as a regular expression, and
> return all that match. In that case, the period is fine, as it will match
> any character:
>
> my @matches = grep( /^$temp_word$/i, @word_list );
> push( @all_combinations, @matches );
I had started using an array to hold my word list, but switched to hash as I
thought it would be more efficient, certainly cleaner in code. When I think
about it the hash lookup must be iterating over each element in the hash until
it finds a match, whereas I suppose grep searches the whole array? (sorry, I've
used command line grep lots, but never really in Perl) My list of words is
339231words long...
I shall change from a hash to an array and use grep, or looking into it I may
use List::MoreUtils as it has a "first_value" sub which should make it somewhat
more efficient.
Thanks for your advice,
Ben
