Question

I need to read in a file that contains 2 sentences to compare and return a number between 0 and 1. If the sentences are exactly the same it should return a 1 for true and if they are totally opposite it should return a 0 for false. If the sentences are similar but words are changed to synonyms or something close it should return a .25 .5 or .75. The text file is formatted like this:

______________________________________
Text: Sample 

Text 1: It was a dark and stormy night. I was all alone sitting on a red chair. I was not completely alone as I had three cats.

Text 20: It was a murky and stormy night. I was all alone sitting on a crimson chair. I was not completely alone as I had three felines
// Should score high point but not 1

Text 21: It was a murky and tempestuous night. I was all alone sitting on a crimson cathedra. I was not completely alone as I had three felines
// Should score lower than text20

Text 22: I was all alone sitting on a crimson cathedra. I was not completely alone as I had three felines. It was a murky and tempestuous night.
// Should score lower than text21 but NOT 0

Text 24: It was a dark and stormy night. I was not alone. I was not sitting on a red chair. I had three cats.
// Should score a 0!
________________________________________________

I have a file reader, but I am not sure the best way to store each line so I can compare them. For now I have the file being read and then being printed out on the screen. What is the best way to store these and then compare them to get my desired number?

import java.io.*;

public class implement 
{


    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            FileInputStream fstream = new FileInputStream("textfile.txt");

            DataInputStream in = new  DataInputStream (fstream);
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (new InputStreamReader(in));
            String strLine;

            while ((strLine = br.readLine()) != null)
            {
                System.out.println (strLine);
            }

            in.close();
        }

        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }

    }

}

Answer 1

Save them in an array list.

ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
//Read File
//While loop
list.add(strLine)

To check each variable in a sentence simply remove punctuation then delimit by spaces and search for each word in the sentence you are comparing. I would suggest ignoring words or 2 or 3 characters. it is up to your digression

then save the lines to the array and compare them however you wanted to.
To compare similar words you will need a database to efficiently check words. Aka a hash table. Once you have this you can search words in a database semiquickly. Next this hash table of works will need a thesaurus linked to each word for similar words. Then take the similar words for the key words in each sentence and run a search for these words on the sentence you are comparing. Obviously before you search for the similar words you would want to compare the two actually sentences. In the end you will need an advanced datastucture you will have to build yourself to do more than direct comparisons.