find all possible words from a given query

Question

I want to make a word search java program where whenever I enter a word that contains wild cards for example: b*t

I want to find all the possible words that fit that word from a text file that I have.

This is what I have done so far,

    Scanner cin = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Enter a query: ");
    String input = cin.nextLine();

    try{
        String line;
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("dictionary.txt"));
        while((line = br.readLine()) != null){
            if (input.length()==line.length()) {//show all letters in that range
               if ('*' != input.charAt(x)) {//check if letters contain '*'
                    if (line.charAt(x) == input.charAt(x)) {//check if letters match
                    System.out.print(line+"\n");//show all words that fit criteria
                }else{//skip letter
                   x=+1;
               }
                }else{//skip
                   x=+1;
               }
            }// end if
        }// end while

    }catch (IOException e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

I can find all the words of certain length, I'm just struggling on finding the words that fit my query.

Answer 1

I believe that this fit your needs:

public static void main(String[] args) {

    Scanner cin = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Enter a query: ");
    String input = cin.nextLine();
    try{
        String line;
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("dictionary.txt"));
        while((line = br.readLine()) != null){
            String[] words = line.split(" ");
            for(String w: words) {
                String p = "^" + input.replaceAll("\\*", ".*") + "$";
                if (w.matches(p)) {
                    System.out.println(w);
                }
            }
        }

    }catch (IOException e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    System.exit(0);
}