BASH: WordCombinator - combine dictionary words by overlapping end/start characters

wordcombinator.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Author: Dusko Petrovic <[email protected]>
# 
#
# Usage:
# ./wordcombinator.sh WORD OVERLAPCHARS OVERLAPEND
# WORD - word you are looking to combine with something
# OVERLAPCHARS - number of characters to combine - default 2
# OVERLAPEND - 1 - overlap characters from the end - default
#	       0 - overlap characters from the start
#
# Examples:
# combine word "team", overlap 2 characters from the end
# ./wordcombinator.sh team 2 1
#
# combine word "hard", overlap 3 characters from the start
# ./wordcombinator.sh hard 3 0
#
# Copyright 2010 Dusko Petrovic
#
# This file is part of WordCombinator.sh
#
# WordCombinator.sh is free software: you can redistribute it and/or 
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as 
# published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the 
# License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# WordCombinator.sh is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU 
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 
# along with WordCombinator.sh. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.


# Get parameters
searchString=$1

# set default values
overlapChars=2
overlapEnd=1

if [ $# == 2 ];
then
	overlapChars=$2
	 
elif [ $# == 3 ];
then
	overlapChars=$2
	overlapEnd=$3
fi

#echo $searchString
#echo $overlapChars
#echo $overlapEnd
#exit 0

if [ $overlapEnd == 0 ]
then
#	echo "from the start"
	firstLetters=${searchString:0:$overlapChars};
	for i in $(grep "$firstLetters$" /usr/share/dict/words); do 
		echo $i' + '$searchString' = '${i%$firstLetters}$searchString; 
	done
else
#	echo "from the end"
	lastLetters=${searchString:(-$overlapChars)};
	for i in $(grep "^$lastLetters" /usr/share/dict/words); do 
		echo $searchString' + '$i' = '${searchString%$lastLetters}$i;
	done
fi