Comparing char in a string to strings in a txt file

Question

Hi guys, i am dveloping a scrabble application for a project in jvava. Currently, i am trying to work on coding a computer player to play against a human, ive finished all the game logic nd 2 human players can successfully play on the same system.
My problem is when coming up with the AI logic, i am faced with the problem of how to compare the computer player's letters to the dictionary txt file in order to find the possible words he can play.
For example, the PC player has the letters A,B,E,G,T,F in his rack, it searches the dictionary and finds words that also contain these characters, so it would return words like AT, BAT, GATE, etc. I have already looke up the Jumble algorithm, but i dont really understand it(im still quite new to java).
I already have a ditionary class which i put the code below.
What i want to do now is just to come up with a simple method that takes a string, and compares the chars, and find words that match the char and return them but i dont knw hw to come about it.
import java.util.Scanner;      
import java.io.IOException;  
import java.util.ArrayList;   
import java.io.*;             
public class Dictionary
    ArrayList<String> dictionary;
    public Dictionary() throws IOException
        dictionary = new ArrayList<String>();
    public void readInDictionaryWords() throws IOException
        File dictionaryFile = new File("c:/data/dict.txt");    // declare the file
        if( ! dictionaryFile.exists()) {
            System.out.println("*** Error *** \n" +
                               "Your dictionary file has the wrong name or is " +
                               "in the wrong directory.  \n" +
                               "Aborting program...\n\n");
            System.exit( -1);    // Terminate the program
        Scanner inputFile = new Scanner( dictionaryFile);
        while( inputFile.hasNext()) {
            dictionary.add( inputFile.nextLine().toUpperCase() );
    public boolean wordExists( String wordToLookup)
        if( dictionary.contains( wordToLookup)) {
            return true;    // words was found in dictionary
        else {
            return false;   // word was not found in dictionary
    return"";
}

Answer 1

Loops...
You take the first
then second
then third
and etc
You take the first 2
the next 2
the next 2
etc
all the way through n characters
once you have gone through this, then you have to do all possible combinations of characters of 2 through n.
Here is an implementation of N choose k for k up to 7:
public class Junk {
  public Junk(){
  public void choose1(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+")");
      lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose2(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
          System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+")");
          lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose3(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
        for(int k=j+1; k<s.length(); k++){
          System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+", "+s.charAt(k)+")");
          lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose4(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
        for(int k=j+1; k<s.length(); k++){
          for(int l=k+1; l<s.length(); l++){
            System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+", "+s.charAt(k)+", "+s.charAt(l)+")");
            lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose5(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
        for(int k=j+1; k<s.length(); k++){
          for(int l=k+1; l<s.length(); l++){
            for(int m=l+1; m<s.length(); m++){
              System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+", "+s.charAt(k)+", "+s.charAt(l)+", "+s.charAt(m)+")");
              lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose6(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
        for(int k=j+1; k<s.length(); k++){
          for(int l=k+1; l<s.length(); l++){
            for(int m=l+1; m<s.length(); m++){
              for(int n=m+1;n<s.length(); n++){
                System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+", "+s.charAt(k)+", "+s.charAt(l)+", "+s.charAt(m)+", "+s.charAt(n)+")");
                lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public void choose7(String s){
    int lCount=0;
    for(int i=0; i<s.length(); i++){
      for(int j=i+1; j<s.length(); j++){
        for(int k=j+1; k<s.length(); k++){
          for(int l=k+1; l<s.length(); l++){
            for(int m=l+1; m<s.length(); m++){
              for(int n=m+1; n<s.length(); n++){
                for(int o=n+1; o<s.length(); o++){
                  System.out.println("("+s.charAt(i)+", "+s.charAt(j)+", "+s.charAt(k)+", "+s.charAt(l)+", "+s.charAt(m)+", "+s.charAt(n)+", "+s.charAt(o)+")");
                  lCount++;
    System.out.println("Distinct Combinations: "+lCount);
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Junk j = new Junk();
    j.choose7("1234567");
}I'll leave it to you to integerate the algos into your app appropriately.