A LAMBDA Word Search Puzzle

I've created a 15x10 Word Search. I've included a word list (dynamic range) containing words which might be found in the word search. The goal is to then extract those words when they appear in the...

LAMBDA Word Search Puzzle.xlsx24 KB

excel

office 365

SergeiBaklan

Jul 16, 2022

Patrick2788

Here is one more variant

//------ variant without TEXTJOIN()

reverseColumns=
LAMBDA( data,
    LET(
        n, COLUMNS( data ),
        CHOOSECOLS( data, SEQUENCE(n,,n,-1) )
    ));

reversedText=
LAMBDA( str,
    LET(
        head, LEFT(str),
        tail, RIGHT(str, LEN(str) - 1),
        IF(str = "", "", reversedText(tail) & head)
    ));

isPolindrom=
LAMBDA( text, text = reversedText( text ) );

checkSingleWord=
LAMBDA( str, vector,
    LET(
        getWord, REDUCE("", vector,
            LAMBDA( a,v,
                IF( LEFT(str, LEN(a&v)) = a&v, a&v,
                IF( LEFT(str) = a, v,
                    IF( a = str, a, "" )
                ) ) ) ),
        IF( getWord = str, str, "")
    ));

checkListOfWords=
LAMBDA( wordsVector, vector,
    LET(
        getWords,
            REDUCE("", wordsVector,
                LAMBDA(a,v, VSTACK(a, checkSingleWord( v, vector) ) )
            ),
        IFERROR( FILTER( getWords, getWords <> ""), "" )
    ));

wordsInMatrix=
LAMBDA( data, wordsVector,
    LET(
        k, SEQUENCE( ROWS(data) ),
        scanData, REDUCE(1, k,
            LAMBDA(a,v,
                CHOOSECOLS(
                    IF( v < SEQUENCE(,v,v,-1),
                        a,
                        VSTACK(a, checkListOfWords( Words, CHOOSEROWS(data,v) ) ) ),
                1 )
            )),
        removeFirst, DROP( scanData, 1 ),
        FILTER( removeFirst, removeFirst <> "")
));

wordsInPuzzle=
LAMBDA( data, wordsVector,
    LET(
    allWords, SORT( VSTACK(
        wordsInMatrix( data, wordsVector ),
        wordsInMatrix( reverseColumns( data ), wordsVector ),
        wordsInMatrix( TRANSPOSE( data ), wordsVector ),
        wordsInMatrix( reverseColumns( TRANSPOSE( data ) ), wordsVector )
    )),
    ifPolindroms, MAP(allWords, LAMBDA(v, isPolindrom(v) ) ),
    polindroms, UNIQUE( FILTER(allWords, ifPolindroms)),
    notPolindroms, FILTER(allWords, ifPolindroms -1),
    stack, IF( ISERR(polindroms), notPolindroms, VSTACK( polindroms, notPolindroms ) ),
    SORT( stack )
));

LAMBDA Word Search Puzzle.xlsx22 KB

SergeiBaklan

Diamond Contributor

Jul 19, 2022

Patrick2788

Not sure I understood your idea correctly. If we scan only one row (one by one) and expected result is like

when it could be

///--- SCAN row on Words
getWord=
LAMBDA( str, words,
    XLOOKUP( str, words, words, 0) );

getWordOnRight=
LAMBDA( str, words,
    IFNA( INDEX( Words, XMATCH( TRUE, RIGHT(str, LEN(Words) )= Words ) ), 0 )
);

getReversedWordOnRight=
LAMBDA( str, words,
    IFNA( INDEX( Words, XMATCH( TRUE, LEFT( reversedText(str), LEN(Words) )= Words ) ), 0 )
);

scanVector=
LAMBDA( vector, words,
    SCAN("", vector, LAMBDA(a,v,
        IF( getWord( a, Words ) <> 0, v,
            IF( getWordOnRight( a&v, Words ) <> 0,
                getWordOnRight( a&v, Words ),
                IF( getReversedWordOnRight( a&v, Words ) <> 0,
                    getReversedWordOnRight( a&v, Words ),
                    a&v )
            )
        )
    ) )
);

I guess could could be more compact, just first iteration.

LAMBDA Word Search Puzzle.xlsx24 KB

Patrick2788

Silver Contributor

Jul 19, 2022

That's exactly it. My idea involved scanning the entire target array, but it looks like going by row is much better. No need to account for the change in row and less text to discard.

PeterBartholomew1
Silver Contributor
Jul 20, 2022
I have been trying something different with some success. I reduce the entire puzzle to a single string, padded with "|" between source rows and, rather than reversing the puzzle, I reverse the search words and append them to the original set. The location of the matches within the string is related to the position within the puzzle grid. So far, I have 0 and 1 to show where the matches are, but by combining that with the original grid, I could display the words in their original setting.

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A LAMBDA Word Search Puzzle

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