I am creating a mobile game that takes words from users and then validates them to see if they are valid words in the English dictionary. I have created a similar game like this in the past using a dictionary that I loaded into the games local memory.
The problem with that approach was that I would often need to update the dictionary with new words. Since the dictionary was in memory, adding new words required me to completely update the app. If I were to use an SQL database as the dictionary, I could add words very easily without having to update the app and have to rely on users to go and download the new update.
My question is, is there any thing wrong with this approach (design or performance wise)? I have not seen something like this being done before. Also, I don’t need definitions. I just need to make sure that the word is a valid English word.
If this is bad design, are there any better alternatives? Or am I better off just dealing with the in memory dictionary?
The answer depends to a large extent on the overhead of the database for your application. It may take a lot of processing power and memory for adding a small amount of functionality.
If you are already using a file based approach, perhaps the simplest solution is to periodically poll the file to check for updates (size or modify time). When one is found, load it into memory.
The database would be valuable in an environment where the data is too big to fit in memory, because databases do a good job managing memory and disk space.