Implementing a Spell Checker

Hello everybody:

I have to implement a spell checker for my school assignment. This means reading in a dictionary file into a hash table with chaining. I have a general linked list ADT that I will use for the chains. The following structure will define the HashTable:

Code:

---

typedef struct hashtable{
int tablesize;
List *table;
}HashTable;

---

Here, tablesize will represent the size of the table which we do not know before hand, but will be calculated to be a percentage of the size of the number of words in the dictionary.

I believe the following can be used to initialize an empty HashTable:

Code:

---

void CreateTable(HashTable *H)
 {
      int i;
      int tablesize = H->tablesize;
 
      H->table = (List *)malloc(tablesize*sizeof(List *));
      for(i=0; i<tablesize; i++)
        CreateList(H->table+i);
}

---

Here, CreateList is a function from the List ADT. I do believe that the the call to malloc allocates enough memory to hold an array of pointers to linked list; this array of pointers should be tablesize long (i.e. the size of the table). Also, would H->table+i or H->table++ increment along this array of pointers.

Thanks,
tim

If you have a pointer, and you pass it to a function, the function can only change the value what that pointer is pointing to. If you want to make the pointer itself point to something new inside the function, you have to pass a pointer to that pointer instead.


Quzah.