dictionary application in java

Question

Hi all!! i need to implement a dictionary application in java i.e. which wil retrieve the synonyms of the user input.. jus give me an idea to do this..

Answer 1

do a dictionary.com search on the word and scrape the synonyms..

Answer 2

Build a quick application to take the search string and call a synonym web service - like this one.

Answer 3

If the user input is a word then do something like:

1. Create a Hashtable that uses the word for its Key
2. Store the synonyms in a List or String array
3. Add the Key and synonyms to the hash table
4. When the user inputs a word print the list associted with that key

I am assuming this is homework and you will be hard coding the dictionary and synonyms

Answer 4

"retrieve the synonyms"

Where are you getting the synonyms? Are they stored in a DB/file, hard-coded? Or do you need to get retrieve them yourself from an external service?

If you already have a list of synonyms, populate a HashMap and key the list of synonyms with the search word.