i want to create a program that translates a sentance in english to another language

[jerger]

I want to help teach to a minority group in Milwaukee, so I want to create a dictionary program that translates a sentence (like a homework problem or teacher instructions), from English into Hmong.

I have one Idea, and that is to have an English text file of all the A-words, then a Hmong text file of the proper translations. Each text file would have the same amount of lines, with one english word per line, then translated to hmong. Would it be even possible to..

1. user inputs question, "Describe the holocaust"
2. describe is looked in the d text (like if d, search d.txt), then the word is found. then it either compares it to a translation txt (like hmong-d.txt), spitting out the word. then it would prompt to the next word to translate, one line at a time.

A different way was to have 1 giant text file for each letter. like look up "albino", when it finds the word in the a a-dictionary, it searches for the albino string, then finds the comma, then spits out the word/words after the comma. would this be possible as well? which method is easiest for someone that hasn't c++ in a few years?

so far I have a useless code typed up. i just want to start simple getting a-words to work, then get more complex from there. once i have a start i can go with it. please help me, i would love to reach the needs of my esl students who could use this greatly in the US.

summary,i want to take a line of words, compare each word to a specific dictionary, then output one line at a time, the translation. thank you so much!

this code is not correct:

#include <iostream> // I/O
#include <fstream> // file I/O
#include <iomanip> // format manipulation
#include <string>

//This program will hopefully translate english to hmong
using namespace std;
string english; //declare english word to translate
string search; //what to search

int main()
{

cout << "Type the english words here, then press enter. Make sure to copy the words correctly. If you need to spell check use www.google.com" ;
cin >> english;

ifstream myFile;
myFile.open ("c:\\eAh.txt") ;

string* search = english; //search using input
int offset; // where it was found (or not (-1))
if ((offset = line.find(searc h, 0)) != string::npos) {
cout << "found '" << search << "' @ offset " << offset << endl;
}

return 0;
}

[DeMan]

I thought you were entering texct on teh command line? Is this not the case?
You could also use getline as in the example for the Dicationary file(s) if you want input from a file

[jerger]

the function you had did not exhist... but i removed it and it works but no matter what you cin/enter for input it spits out the entire text which is better then nothing! hehe.

this part did not compile because of strncmp

if(strncmp(line , english, englis.length() )


what i want is... users to insert a sentance... but for now, a word. like "apple". then have it say... hmm... apple starts with a, look at a.txt (a dictionary, or if i have to, one super dictionary of a-z)... once it finds the word apple followed by a space = sign " = ", it would then spit out the word apple = koj (or however it is in the other language)... so it will say the word in english then = then hmong... so love = hlub, so it would search l dictionary (i can figure out if's later, if not a super dictionary a-z), find love, stop then print

love = hlub ...

it would then end line, and go onto the next word to translate.. until finished with the sentance. however at this stage i just want it to find a word, and spit it out with the translation.

example:
"input your sentance to be translated" love

love = hlub


how do i make the stuff stop printing after it prints the line i need? do i end it after a endl; ? or is there a different way? thanks for your help! i feel like were on the right track. i found some cool c examples but c doesnt compile well on my comp, c++ you wrote is a good start for me

[DeMan]

strncmp(a, b, c) - compare string a with string b over c characters - english is misspelt in my example it should be
if(strncmp(line , english, english.length( ))

[weaknessforcats]

You should use an association table. That is the only way to resolve a many-to-many relationship.

In C++ this would be a multimap. One for English/Hmong and another for Hmong/English.

You should not have to write a lot of code.

For example, using Spanish as an example, submitting "Hello" as an English key may have several Spanish equivalents. Use iterators with the equal_range algorithm to determined the low and high iterator value for "Hello". Then simply traverse the range to get your possible choices:

Hola
Buenos dias
Como esta usted?
etc...

[jerger]

i tried this instead, but i imagine it might get rather large and tidious. is there a way to move the dictionary from internal the program to a .txt file?

#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

string pause; // pause the program

int main()
{
map<string,stri ng> dictionary;

// examples of adding to the dictionary
dictionary["I"] = "kuv";
dictionary["love"] = "hlub";
dictionary["you"] = "kij";

// searching the dictionary
string translateme; //user input

cout<<"Please enter the English words / sentance to be translated to Hmong:" << endl;
cin>>translatem e;

string s = translateme;

map<string,stri ng>::iterator it = dictionary.find (s);

if (it != dictionary.end( ))
{
cout << s << " = " << it->second << "\n";
}
else
{
cout << s << " not found in the dictionary\n";
}

cin >>pause;
return 0;
}


what i need to do now, is add words. but i also then need to turn your if statements into a function that will translate each individual word. so i need to make it stop after the space, translate... then move onto the next word correct? hmm... lol

[DeMan]

Why can't you use the file as you did before?
What are the errors you were getting?

Using the text file would be a far better idea...

[jerger]

i guess i am lost. this one compiled so i was like sweet!

but the other one I hadn't compiled right. so i should try it again.

[DeMan]

Generally (in programs this small), so long as you can find the first error during compile, the problem is (reasonably) easy to trace.
When strange errors appear, it is most commonly mismatched parentheses or missing semi-colons.

[jerger]

deman i get these errors with your code

 
37 C:\hmong dictionary.cpp no matching function for call to `strncmp(std::string&, std::string&, <unknown type>)' 
 
note C:\temp\Dev-Cpp\include\string.h:51 candidates are: int strncmp(const char*, const char*, size_t)
 

[DeMan]

you can try substituting english.length( ) with english.size()
(in fact english is not declared in my original example, so you may like to add "string english" below "string line" if you haven't already.

Seeing as you have got an array version working, you may like to add the filehandling from the first with the array operations of the latter (then you don't need the strncmp), so that you read from a file into an array. Once you have the array, you can use the find method as you are.