Explanation regarding the double call to calculate_entropies()

[woctezuma]

I don't understand the double call to calculate_entropies(). Could you clarify the reason behind it?

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L112-L117

Indeed:

• the set all_words is a subset of all_dictionary,
• the variable entropies is a dictionary whose keys are candidates by design.

So the second call to calculate_entropies() recomputes entropy values which were already computed by the first call.

If the objective is to decrease the number of items fed to max(), it could be done by filtering entropies returned by the first call.

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L119-L120

[GillesVandewiele]

Wordle keeps track of two lists: (i) a list of possible correct answers and (ii) a much bigger list of valid words that the user can enter. The first call will try to find a good guess from list (i), but in case there are still many options, it might be better to guess a word from list (ii) to have better outcomes for the next round.

[woctezuma]

There are indeed two lists:

• 2315 entries in words.txt, which corresponds to (i),
• 12972 entries in all_words.txt, which corresponds to (ii).

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L11-L12

Here:

• DICT_FILE corresponds to (i),
• DICT_FILE_all corresponds to (ii).

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L71-L77

Here:

• dictionary corresponds to (i),
• all_dictionary corresponds to (ii).

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L112-L113

And here, we have all_dictionary which corresponds to (ii), not to (i).

---

Regarding the all_words variable:

• the all_words variable is initialized with all_dictionary, so it should not matter:

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L107

• then it gets smaller with iterations and the calls to intersection(), so it should be a subset of all_dictionary in the end:

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L130-L132

---

Regarding the dictionary variable, it is only used once, in the for-loop to evaluate the bot.

https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L97

[woctezuma]

I wonder whether what you wanted to do would have been:

candidates = all_words
entropies = calculate_entropies(candidates, all_words, pattern_dict, all_patterns)

if max(entropies.values()) < 0.1:
    candidates = all_dictionary
    entropies = calculate_entropies(candidates, all_words, pattern_dict, all_patterns)

instead of: https://github.com/GillesVandewiele/Wordle-Bot/blob/f6334959105549745300ff2c1fc7f80e7c8d7a07/wordle.py#L112-L117

[GillesVandewiele]

Ok yes, you are correct! This logic seems to indeed be switched up & the calculations in the if-block are redundant. I think it should indeed be switched as you suggested, but we could bench the code to be sure the results are the same (or better)? We could iterate over every possible word and calculate how many guesses the bot needs on average.

I will merge your PRs later this week. Once again, many thanks for your contributions!

[woctezuma]

No problem. I agree it is better to test before merging:

• that I have not broken anything with the chunks,
• whether the logic with the if-block works better if it is switched.