Identifying pre-defined key words from text input.

Top man.

I'd integrate the code into your program like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions; // added this

namespace WindowsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Exit1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.Close();
        }

        private void Answer1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string text = textBox1.Text; // get from first text box
            string expression = @"\bfitness\b|\bstrength\b|\bstamina\b";
            Regex r = new Regex(expression, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            MatchCollection mc = r.Matches(text);
            List keywords = null;         
            if (mc.Count == 0)
            {
               // nothing extra to add
            }
            else
            {       
               keywords = new List();
               foreach (Match m in mc)
               {        
                  keywords.Add(m.Value.ToLower());
               }
               if (keywords.Count > 1)
               {
                  // remove any duplicates
                  keywords.Sort();
                  for (int i = keywords.Count - 1; i > 0; i--)
                  {
                     if (keywords[i] == keywords[i-1])
                       keywords.RemoveAt(i);
                  }         
               }
 
               foreach(string keyword in keywords)
               {
                  text += " " + GetExtra(keyword);
               }
            }
            textBox2.Text = text; // output to second textbox
            // code to deal with voice output

         }

       private string GetExtra(string keyword)  // add helper method
       {
          switch(keyword)
          {
             case "fitness":
                return "To improve general fitness run 3 miles a day.";
             case "strength":
                return "To improve general strength use weights in the gym.";
             default: // stamina
                return "To improve stamina do some aerobic activities.";                    
          }
       }

       // other code or declarations

    }
} 

Thanks for your help Alan... I am now going to demonstrate how absolutely rubbish I am at this kind of stuff.

I have created a basic windows for in visual studio (it's just buttons and a text box at the moment):

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Exit1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.Close();
        }

        private void Answer1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }
    }
}

This is what the form looks like:

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/553/windowsformzl0.png

Where abouts do i put the code you have outlined above so that it will work? I want it to start when i click the Answer1 button, so I assume that it goes in the Answer1_Click section? I then want the answer to appear in the second text box.

Thanks, Sean.

Hi Sean,

No, the approach is perfectly general. The text can be anything you like and the regular expression can contain as many keywords as you like. I just had to put in some specific values so I could test the code.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much apreciated. I understand the general jist of the code you've typed.

But i'm wondering if the lines:

string text = @"I don't have much stamina just now. How can I improve my fitness, strength or stamina?";
         string expression = @"\bfitness\b|\bstrength\b|\bstamina\b";
         Regex r = new Regex(expression, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
         MatchCollection mc = r.Matches(text);
         List keywords = null;         
         if (mc.Count == 0)

Does this limit it to that particular sentence?

What i have is a text box (name: textBox1) on the form where the user can enter whatever question they like, and the program must take this input and scan it for key words (of which they'll be many, but i think from the code you've provided i will be able to add in additional keywords) and then provide the relevant output.

The program will begin to scan the text once a button (answer1) is clicked.

I can't help you on the voice output but I may be able to help on identifying keywords in a piece of text and then adding the appropriate extra text to what is to be read back to the user.

The easiest way to find keywords is to use regular expressions. The following console program (.NET 2.0 or later) contains some basic code for finding one of the three keywords fitness, strength or stamina ignoring case. It looks for distinct words so it wouldn't regard 'strengths' as a match and it also eliminates any duplicate occurrences of these words, so you're not reading the same thing back twice or more. I hope it helps with what you're trying to do:

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
     static void Main()
     {
         string text = @"I don't have much stamina just now. How can I improve my fitness, strength or stamina?";
         string expression = @"\bfitness\b|\bstrength\b|\bstamina\b";
         Regex r = new Regex(expression, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
         MatchCollection mc = r.Matches(text);
         List keywords = null;         
         if (mc.Count == 0)
         {
             // nothing extra to add
         }
         else
         {       
             keywords = new List();
             foreach (Match m in mc)
             {        
                 keywords.Add(m.Value.ToLower());
             }
             if (keywords.Count > 1)
             {
                 // remove any duplicates
                 keywords.Sort();
                 for (int i = keywords.Count - 1; i > 0; i--)
                 {
                    if (keywords[i] == keywords[i-1])
                       keywords.RemoveAt(i);
                 }         
             }
 
             foreach(string keyword in keywords)
             {
                text += " " + GetExtra(keyword);
             }
          }
          Console.WriteLine(text);
          Console.ReadKey();
       }

       static string GetExtra(string keyword)
       {
          switch(keyword)
          {
             case "fitness":
                return "To improve general fitness run 3 miles a day.";
             case "strength":
                return "To improve general strength use weights in the gym.";
             default: // stamina
                return "To improve stamina do some aerobic activities.";                    
          }
       }
}