iOS stumped on my next step - word search game

[lockwood]

I'm new at this "self teaching" so bare with me.

I'm trying to build a basic word search game and I'm not sure how to go about making it so the user can select each individual letter "highlight each" until the complete word is found. would i need to put each letter into a button or image. then use some sort of array to validate if correct/incorrect??

any help in the right direction will do. thx in advance.



additional info:
as in word search i mean something like..

a z p S T O P t v m c
a p t O o i z l m v p
b l i l l a v p c t m

..etc

 

[1458279]

I'd start by making all the letter into buttons, display the puzzle by loading the words and placing random letters around them. Once the puzzle is shown, the user starts selecting letters and you display the string of selected letter at the top of the screen.

Every time they select or unselect a letter, you run it past the dictionary to see if it matches. The dictionary will have to be huge as words might show up you didn't plan on from the random letters.

I don't know where you'd get a dictionary from, might check if one is free/cheap online somewhere in a database. All you need is a spelling check type word list and those have been around for years.