Headline Puzzle Hat Solver

HatSolver.py

import re, string

global english, letters

letters = list(string.ascii_uppercase)

def without_nls(item):
	for line in range(len(item)):
		item[line] = item[line].rstrip('\n').upper()
	return item

def alpha_order(word):
	next_val = 1
	order = ['' for i in range(100)]

	for i in letters:
		starts = [match.start() for match in re.finditer(re.escape(i), word)]
		for j in starts:
			order[j] = str(next_val)
			next_val += 1

	for i in range(len(order)):
		if len(order[i]) == 0:
			chopped = order[:i]
			break;

	return ' '.join(chopped)

fp = open('bigenwords.txt', 'r')
english = without_nls(fp.readlines())
fp.close()

possibles = []

characters = int(raw_input('How many characters in the hat? '))
order = raw_input('Word order separated by spaces: ')

for i in english:
	if len(i) == characters:
		if order == alpha_order(i):
			possibles.append(i)

if len(possibles) > 0:
	fp = open('poss_hats.txt', 'w')
	fp.write('\n'.join(possibles))
	fp.close()
print
print str(len(possibles)) + ' results were generated.'
if raw_input('Show now? (Y/N) ').upper() == 'Y':
	print
	print '\n'.join(possibles)

This script is able to solve possibilities for the hat when solving headline puzzles (https://sites.google.com/site/theheadlinepuzzle/).

Configuration

To use this script it requires a dictionary list file, which is not provided. You will have to find one and substitute the file name in the script, replacing 'bigenwords.txt' with the name of your file.

Usage

To run the script all you have to do is set it to executable by running:

$ chmod a+x HatSolver.py

Then you can double click it or type $ /path/to/HatSolver.py and you will be prompted with the inputs.
Alternatively you can run the script from the command line by issuing:

$ python HatSolver.py

Output
The script will automatically create a file called 'poss_hats.txt' in the current working directory. After this file has been generated it will tell you how many results were found and ask you if you want the results printed on the screen.