SpellChecker Again... What am I doing wrong?

[Garion Winters]

Hello again. Im workin on a spellchecker and I can't seem to understand why (in my main method) it is not printing out anything. Any reasons or suggestions to what I can do? [I realize it won't be working completely... so far I would think it should show at least the incorrect words... btw thirdgrade.txt is full of spelling errors]
Here is the code...

import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
//@version 1.0
public class SpellChecker
{
  //DECLARE VARIABLES
  TreeSet dicWords = new TreeSet();  //used to hold all the words in the dictionary
  TreeMap dicSounds = new TreeMap(); //used to hold word/sound combinations
  ArrayList badWords = new ArrayList(); //used to hold all wrong words
  LinkedList sets = new LinkedList(); //used to store sets within the TreeMap
  char[] wordLetters; //this is used to store a words char by char breakdown
  BufferedReader dictionary; //this is the dictionary file that is read in
  BufferedReader fileToCheck; //this is the file currently being checked
  //****************************************************************************
  //a constructor for the spell checker that takes a string param which is the /
  //file name of the dictionary                                                /
  //****************************************************************************
  public SpellChecker(String dic)
  {
    setFile(dic);
  }
  //****************************************************************************
  //takes the dictionary as a parameter to know from which dictionary to read //
  //and also fills the dicWords with words from the dictionary                //
  //****************************************************************************
  public void setFile(String dic)
  {
    //sets the dictionary file to be read from
    try
    {
      dictionary = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(dic));
    }
    catch(FileNotFoundException e)
    {
      System.out.println("File " + dic + " not found.");
    }
    catch(IOException e)
    {
      System.out.println("Erorr reading from file " + dic);
    }
    //call to setWords for dicWords
    setWords();
    //call to setSounds for dicSounds
    setSounds();
  }
  //**************************************************************************//
  //used to fill up the TreeSet of dicWords with all words in the dictionary  //
  //**************************************************************************//
  public void setWords()
  {
    String word;
    try
    {
      StringTokenizer wordFinder;
      while((word = dictionary.readLine()) != null)
      {
        wordFinder = new StringTokenizer(word);
        dicWords.add(wordFinder.nextToken());
      }
    }
    catch(IOException e)
    {
      System.out.println(e);
    }
  }
  //****************************************************************************
  //used to fill up the TreeMap of dicSounds with key sound values for SOUNDEX,/
  //then values of words that match the key sound                              /
  //****************************************************************************
  public void setSounds()
  {
    String word;
    try
    {
      StringTokenizer wordFinder;
      while((word = dictionary.readLine()) != null)
      {
        wordFinder = new StringTokenizer(word);
        String actualWord = wordFinder.nextToken();
        String soundWord = wordFinder.nextToken();
        Word soundSet = new Word(soundWord, actualWord);
        sets.add(soundSet);
        dicSounds.put(soundWord, actualWord);
      }
    }
    catch(IOException e)
    {
      System.out.println(e);
    }
  }
  //***********************************************************************
  //returns true if the word (parameter) is spelled correctly, otherwise //
  //it will return false                                                 //
  //***********************************************************************
  public boolean isSpelledCorrectly(String wordToCheck)
  {
    //This should remove any punctuation/symbols before & after the word
    for(int i=0; i < wordToCheck.length() - 1; i++)
      if(java.lang.Character.isLetterOrDigit(wordToCheck.charAt(i)))
         wordToCheck = wordToCheck.substring(i);
    for(int i=wordToCheck.length()-1; i >= 0; i--)
      if(java.lang.Character.isLetterOrDigit(wordToCheck.charAt(i)))
        wordToCheck = wordToCheck.substring(0, i-1);
    //checks to see, after removing punctuation, if exact word match is found
    if(dicWords.contains(wordToCheck))
       return true;
    //checks to see if word is only 1 in length (such as I, a, etc.)
    if(wordToCheck.length() == 1)
      return true;
    //checks to see if the word is a number
    boolean isNumber = false;
    if(java.lang.Character.isDigit(wordToCheck.charAt(0)))
      for(int i=1; i < wordToCheck.length()-1; i++)
      {
        if(java.lang.Character.isDigit(wordToCheck.charAt(i)))
          isNumber = true;
        else
        {
          isNumber = false;
          break;
        }
      }
    //if it was a number, then it is ok
    if (isNumber)
      return true;
    //checks if the word in all lower case is in the dictionary, but in the file
    //it is in all capital letters
    if(dicWords.contains(wordToCheck.toLowerCase()) &&
       wordToCheck == wordToCheck.toUpperCase())
      return true;
    //checks if the word begins with a capital letter, but has all lowercase
    //within the dictionary file
    if(java.lang.Character.isUpperCase(wordToCheck.charAt(0)) &&
       dicWords.contains(wordToCheck.toLowerCase()))
      return true;
    //checks if the word is in the dictionary & begins with a capital letter,
    //but is capitalized completely in the file
    String properNoun = wordToCheck;
    properNoun.toLowerCase();
    char firstLetter = properNoun.charAt(0);
    properNoun = properNoun.substring(1);
    properNoun = firstLetter + properNoun;
    if(wordToCheck == wordToCheck.toUpperCase() &&
       dicWords.contains(properNoun))
    {
      return true;
    }
    //checks to see if all the word is just symbols/etc. //
    //...breaks the word into characters...
    wordToCheck.getChars(0, wordToCheck.length()-1, wordLetters, 0);
    //runs a loop to check if the characters are letters/digits or not
    boolean symbolWord = false;
    for(int i=0; i < wordLetters.length; i++)
    {
      if(!(java.lang.Character.isLetterOrDigit(wordLetters[i])))
        symbolWord = true;
      else
      {
        symbolWord = false;
        break; //if not all symbols, no reason to continue
      }
    }
    //if the word is made of only symbols, then it is ok for the spellcheck
    if (symbolWord = true)
      return true;
    //it follows no other rules, so it is false
    return false;
  }
  //**************************************************************
  //takes string param of the file name to check and returns    //
  //a list of mispelled words found in the file                 //
  //**************************************************************
  public ArrayList spellCheckFile(String file)
  {
    try
    {
      fileToCheck = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
      StringTokenizer wordFinder;
      String word;
      while((word = dictionary.readLine()) != null)
      {
        wordFinder = new StringTokenizer(word);
        String currentWord;
        while(wordFinder.hasMoreTokens())
        {
          currentWord = wordFinder.nextToken();
          if(!isSpelledCorrectly(currentWord))
          {
            badWords.add(currentWord);
          }
        }
      }
    }
    catch(FileNotFoundException e)
    {
      System.out.println("File " + file + " not found.");
    }
    catch(IOException e)
    {
      System.out.println("Error reading from file " + file);
    }
    return badWords;
  }
  //**************************************************************
  //takes string param (the word) and returns a list of strings that
  //represent a word that sounds like the parameter
  //**************************************************************
  //public List soundsLike(String word)
  //{
  //  return;
  //}
  //**************************************************************
  // accessor methods that are meant to access otherwise private
  // variables for use in main
  //**************************************************************
  public TreeSet getWords()
  {
    return dicWords;
  }
  public LinkedList getSets()
  {
    return sets;
  }
  public ArrayList getBadWords()
  {
    return badWords;
  }
////////////////////MAIN METHOD HERE////////////////////////////////////////////
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    //accepts arbitrary # of filenames... first = dic file, all others are
    //the names of files to spell check
    SpellChecker spelling = new SpellChecker(args[0]);
    TreeSet dicWords = spelling.getWords();
    //TreeMap dicSounds = spelling.getSets();
    //LinkedList sets = spelling.getSets();
    ArrayList badWords = new ArrayList();
    for (int i=1; i<args.length; ++i)
    {
      badWords = spelling.spellCheckFile(args[i]);
      System.out.println("Misspelled words from " + args[i] + ":");
      for(int j = 0; j < badWords.size(); j++)
      {
        System.out.println(badWords.get(j));
      }
    }

    //output list of incorrect words from each file and show
    //the suggested words from each file and a list of suggestions
  }
}

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

In Java, arrays start with element 0, and in

public static void main( String[] args )

arg[0] is the first command line argument (not the name of the file as in C/C++).

I think you may have a problem with this line in main():

for (int i = 1; i < args.length ; ++i )

if you are only providing one file name on the command line.

[Garion Winters]

Hmm... Ill give it a shot. I had been using the run application params or whatever and setting the file names there to test (1st is dictionary, 2nd and any other are files to check)
Worth a look though. Thanks!

[Garion Winters]

Hmm... still not getting it. Seems I am doing something really wrong. Anyway, any ideas would help, otherwise I will see what I can do.

[William Barnes]

I don't see anything jumping out at me here. So I would suggest that you start testing out code to see what is actually not working.
For starters try printing out "dicWords" after you make the call to "spelling.GetWords()", to verify that the tree actually has something in it.