Wordle helper

Helps with smart word suggestions when playing the Wordle game. It can also automatically evaluate different strategies or combinations thereof.

And it's an excuse for me to mess around with Rust. This code is still a work in progress and rather messy, I wouldn't recommend using it unless you're me. 😉

That said, you might find the word lists or full decision trees helpful.

Interactive mode (play()):

A typical run (with lots of debug output) looks like this:

❯ cargo run --release

2315 words left
Best (fewest remaining solutions): 139883 roate, 141217 raise, 141981 raile, 144227 soare, 147525 arise
Enter your guess, or press enter to use the suggestion 'roate':

Enter feedback using upper-case for correct and lower-case for wrong positions,
or any non-alphabetic for illegal:
r
Inserting 'r' as illegal @ 0
Inserting globally illegal char 'o'
Inserting globally illegal char 'a'
Inserting globally illegal char 't'
Inserting globally illegal char 'e'

63 words left
Best (fewest remaining solutions): 1496 ureic, 1695 urite, 1705 urine, 1723 curie, 1817 arise
Enter your guess, or press enter to use the suggestion 'ureic':

Enter feedback using upper-case for correct and lower-case for wrong positions,
or any non-alphabetic for illegal:
_R_ic
Inserting 'r' as correct character @ 1
Inserting 'i' as illegal @ 3
Inserting 'c' as illegal @ 4
Inserting globally illegal char 'u'
Inserting globally illegal char 'e'

5 words left: brick, crick, crimp, crisp, prick
Words with most of wanted chars {'s', 'k', 'b', 'm', 'p'} are:
  4 skimp, 4 kemps, 4 kembs, 4 bumps, 3 zimbs
Best (fewest remaining solutions): 8 cripe, 10 crimp, 11 prick, 11 price, 11 crisp
Enter your guess, or press enter to use the suggestion 'cripe':
skimp
Enter feedback using upper-case for correct and lower-case for wrong positions,
or any non-alphabetic for illegal:
__IMP
Inserting 'i' as correct character @ 2
Inserting 'm' as correct character @ 3
Inserting 'p' as correct character @ 4
Inserting globally illegal char 's'
Inserting globally illegal char 'k'

The only word left in the list is 'crimp'

Interactive mode in German

❯ cargo run --release german

1171 words left
Best (fewest remaining solutions): 36655 'raine', 41291 'taler', 42405 'raten', 42461 'laser', 42897 'reale'
Enter your guess, or press enter to use the suggestion 'raine':

Enter feedback using upper-case for correct and lower-case for wrong positions,
or any non-alphabetic for illegal:
__INE
Inserting 'i' as correct character @ 2
Inserting 'n' as correct character @ 3
Inserting 'e' as correct character @ 4
Inserting globally illegal char 'r'
Inserting globally illegal char 'a'

2 words left: 'deine', 'leine'
Enter your guess, or press enter to use the suggestion 'deine':
     
Enter feedback using upper-case for correct and lower-case for wrong positions,
or any non-alphabetic for illegal:
DEINE
Inserting 'd' as correct character @ 0
Inserting 'e' as correct character @ 1
Inserting 'i' as correct character @ 2
Inserting 'n' as correct character @ 3
Inserting 'e' as correct character @ 4

The word is 'deine'

Simulation mode (autoplay()):

A typical simulation might produce output like the following text, but for all 2315 possible solutions:

2315 solutions left, 1. guess 'roate', hint '⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛', secret 'aback'
  71 solutions left, 2. guess 'slick', hint '⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩', secret 'aback'
   4 solutions left, 3. guess 'aback', hint '🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩', secret 'aback'

…

2315 solutions left, 1. guess 'roate', hint ⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛, secret 'taunt'
  50 solutions left, 2. guess 'clint', hint ⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩, secret 'taunt'
   6 solutions left, 3. guess 'dight', hint ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩, secret 'taunt'
   3 solutions left, 4. guess 'juves', hint ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛, secret 'taunt'
   1 solutions left, 5. guess 'taunt', hint 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩, secret 'taunt'

…

2315 solutions left, 1. guess 'roate', hint '⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛', secret 'zonal'
  16 solutions left, 2. guess 'liman', hint '🟨⬛⬛🟩🟨', secret 'zonal'
   1 solutions left, 3. guess 'zonal', hint '🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩', secret 'zonal'

Average attempts = 3.547; 2: 39, 3: 1015, 4: 1216, 5: 45

There is also a full (around 8k lines!) full example here.

Simulation of fixed word list:

❯ cargo run --release NYTimes roate linds chump gleby

Parsed language 'NYTimes'
Language: NYTimes. Choices: English, NYTimes, German, Primal.
Fixed guesses 'roate', 'linds', 'chump', 'gleby'

2309 solutions left, 1. guess 'roate', hint ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛, secret 'aback'
  71 solutions left, 2. guess 'linds', hint ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛, secret 'aback'
   6 solutions left, 3. guess 'chump', hint 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛, secret 'aback'
   1 solutions left, 4. guess 'aback', hint 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩, secret 'aback'
   
…

2309 solutions left, 1. guess 'roate', hint ⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛, secret 'zonal'
  16 solutions left, 2. guess 'linds', hint 🟨⬛🟩⬛⬛, secret 'zonal'
   1 solutions left, 3. guess 'zonal', hint 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩, secret 'zonal'

3.848 average attempts; 2: 34, 3: 691, 4: 1211, 5: 338, 6: 34, 7: 1; 1 (0.04%) failures