I before E except after C

The phrase "I before E, except after C" is a widely known mnemonic which is supposed to help when spelling English words.

Task

Using the word list from http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt,
check if the two sub-clauses of the phrase are plausible individually:

"I before E when not preceded by C"
"E before I when preceded by C"

If both sub-phrases are plausible then the original phrase can be said to be plausible.

Something is plausible if the number of words having the feature is more than two times the number of words having the opposite feature (where feature is 'ie' or 'ei' preceded or not by 'c' as appropriate).

Stretch goal

As a stretch goal use the entries from the table of Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: based on the British National Corpus, (selecting those rows with three space or tab separated words only), to see if the phrase is plausible when word frequencies are taken into account.

Show your output here as well as your program.

Other tasks related to string operations:

Metrics

Counting

Remove/replace

Anagrams/Derangements/shuffling

Find/Search/Determine

Formatting

Song lyrics/poems/Mad Libs/phrases

Tokenize

Sequences

cf.

Schools to rethink 'i before e' - BBC news, 20 June 2009
I Before E Except After C - QI Series 8 Ep 14, (humorous)
Companion website for the book: "Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: based on the British National Corpus".

11l

Translation of: Python

<lang 11l>V PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO = 2

F plausibility_check(comment, x, y)

  print("\n  Checking plausibility of: #.".format(comment))
  I x > :PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y
     print(‘    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of #. vs #., a ratio of #2.1 times’.format(x, y, Float(x) / y))
  E
     I x > y
        print(‘    IMPLAUSIBLE. As although we have counts of #. vs #., a ratio of #2.1 times does not make it plausible’.format(x, y, Float(x) / y))
     E
        print(‘    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of #. vs #., a ratio of #2.1 times’.format(x, y, Float(x) / y))
  R x > :PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y

F simple_stats()

  V words = File(‘unixdict.txt’).read().split("\n")
  V cie = Set(words.filter(word -> ‘cie’ C word)).len
  V cei = Set(words.filter(word -> ‘cei’ C word)).len
  V not_c_ie = Set(words.filter(word -> re:‘(^ie|[^c]ie)’.search(word))).len
  V not_c_ei = Set(words.filter(word -> re:‘(^ei|[^c]ei)’.search(word))).len
  R (cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei)

F print_result(cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei)

  I (plausibility_check(‘I before E when not preceded by C’, not_c_ie, not_c_ei) & plausibility_check(‘E before I when preceded by C’, cei, cie))
     print("\nOVERALL IT IS PLAUSIBLE!")
  E
     print("\nOVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!")
  print(‘(To be plausible, one count must exceed another by #. times)’.format(:PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO))

print(‘Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":’) V (cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei) = simple_stats() print_result(cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei)</lang>

Output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":

  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of 465 vs 213, a ratio of  2.2 times

  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of 13 vs 24, a ratio of  0.5 times

OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!
(To be plausible, one count must exceed another by 2 times)

8080 Assembly

This program is written to run under CP/M. It takes the filename on the command line. The file can be as large as you like, it does not need to fit in memory at once. (Indeed, unixdict.txt is 206k.)

<lang 8080asm> ;;; I before E, except after C fcb1: equ 5Ch ; FCB 1 (populated by file on command line) dma: equ 80h ; Standard DMA location bdos: equ 5 ; CP/M entry point puts: equ 9 ; CP/M call to write a string to the console fopen: equ 0Fh ; CP/M call to open a file fread: equ 14h ; CP/M call to read from a file CR: equ 13 LF: equ 10 EOF: equ 26 org 100h ;;; Open the file given on the command line lxi d,fcb1 mvi c,fopen call bdos inr a ; FF = error jz die ;;; We can only read one 128-byte block at a time, and the file ;;; will not fit in memory (max 64 k). So there are two things ;;; going on here: we copy from the block into a word buffer ;;; until we see the end of a line, at which point we process ;;; the word. In the meantime, if while copying we reach the end ;;; of the block, we read the next block. lxi b,curwrd ; Word pointer block: push b ; Keep word pointer while reading lxi d,fcb1 ; Read a block from the file mvi c,fread call bdos pop b ; Restore word pointer dcr a ; 1 = EOF jz done inr a ; otherwise, <>0 = error jnz die lxi h,dma ; Start reading at DMA char: mov a,m ; Get character cpi EOF ; If it's an EOF character, we're done jz done stax b ; Store character in current word inx b cpi LF ; If it's LF, then we've got a full word cz word ; Process the word inr l ; Go to next character jz block ; If we're done with this block, get next one jmp char ;;; When done, report the statistics done: lxi d,scie ; CIE call sout lhld cie call puthl lxi d,sxie ; xIE call sout lhld xie call puthl lxi d,scei ; CEI call sout lhld cei call puthl lxi d,sxei ; xEI call sout lhld xei call puthl ;;; Then say what is and isn't plausible lxi d,s_ienc ; I before E when not preceded by C call sout ; plausible if 2*xIE>CIE lhld cie xchg lhld xie call pplaus lxi d,s_eic ; E before I when preceded by C call sout ; plausible if 2*CEI>xEI lhld xei xchg lhld cei ;;; If HL = amount of words with feature, and ;;; DE = amount of words with opposit feature, then print ;;; '(not) plausible', as appropriate. pplaus: dad h ; 2 * feature mov a,d ; Compare high byte cmp h jc plaus ; If 2*H>D then plausible mov a,e ; Otherwise, compare low byte cmp l jc plaus ; If 2*L>E then plausible lxi d,snop ; Otherwise, not plausible jmp sout plaus: lxi d,splau jmp sout ;;; Process a word word: push h ; Save file read address xra a ; Zero out end of word stax b dcx b lxi h,curwrd ; Scan word start: mov a,m ; Get current character inx h ; Move pointer ahead ana a ; If zero, jz w_end ; we're done cpi 'c' ; Did we find a 'c'? jz findc cpi 'e' ; Otherwise, did we find 'e'? jz finde cpi 'i' ; Otherwise, did we find 'i'? jz findi jmp start ; Otherwise, keep going ;;; We found an 'e' finde: mov a,m ; Get following character cpi 'i' ; Is it 'i'? jnz start ; If not, keep going inx h ; Otherwise, move past it, xchg ; keep pointer in DE, lhld xie ; We found ie without c inx h shld xie xchg jmp start ;;; We found an 'i' findi: mov a,m ; Get following character cpi 'e' ; Is it 'e'? jnz start ; If not, keep going inx h ; Otherwise, move past it, xchg ; keep pointer in DE, lhld xei ; We found ei without c inx h shld xei xchg jmp start ;;; We found a 'c' findc: mov a,m ; Get following character cpi 'e' ; Is it 'e'? jz findce ; Then we have 'ce' cpi 'i' ; Is it 'i'? jz findci ; Then we have 'ci' jmp start ; Otherwise, just keep going findce: mov d,h ; set DE = start of 'e?' mov e,l inx d ; Get next character ldax d cpi 'i' ; Is it 'i'? jnz start ; If not, do nothing lhld cei ; But if so, we found 'cei' inx h ; Increment the counter shld cei xchg ; Keep scanning _after_ the 'cei' inx h jmp start findci: mov d,h ; set DE = start of 'i?' mov e,l inx d ; Get next character ldax d cpi 'e' ; Is it 'e'? jnz start ; If not, do nothing lhld cie ; But if so, we found 'cie' inx h ; Increment the counter shld cie xchg ; Keep scanning _after_ the 'cie' inx h jmp start w_end: lxi b,curwrd ; Set word pointer to beginning pop h ; Restore file read address ret ;;; Print error message and stop the program die: lxi d,errmsg mvi c,puts call bdos rst 0 ;;; Print string sout: mvi c,puts jmp bdos ;;; Print HL to the console as a decimal number puthl: push h lxi h,num xthl lxi b,-10 dgt: lxi d,-1 clcdgt: inx d dad b jc clcdgt mov a,l adi 10+'0' xthl dcx h mov m,a xthl xchg mov a,h ora l jnz dgt pop d mvi c,puts jmp bdos errmsg: db 'Error$' ; Good enough s_ienc: db 'I before E when not preceded by C:$' s_eic: db 'E before I when preceded by C:$' snop: db ' not' splau: db ' plausible',CR,LF,'$' scie: db 'CIE: $' ; Report strings sxie: db 'xIE: $' scei: db 'CEI: $' sxei: db 'xEI: $' db '00000' num: db CR,LF,'$' ; Space for number ;;; Counters xie: dw 0 ; I before E when not preceded by C cie: dw 0 ; I before E when preceded by C cei: dw 0 ; E before I when preceded by C xei: dw 0 ; E before I when not preceded by C curwrd: equ $ ; Current word stored here</lang>

Output:

A>iec unixdict.txt
CIE: 24
xIE: 217
CEI: 13
xEI: 464
I before E when not preceded by C: plausible
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible

ALGOL 68

Works with: ALGOL 68G version Any - tested with release 2.8.3.win32

Uses non-standard procedure to lower available in Algol 68G.

<lang algol68># tests the plausibility of "i before e except after c" using unixdict.txt #

implements the plausibility test specified by the task #
returns TRUE if with > 2 * without #

PROC plausible = ( INT with, without )BOOL: with > 2 * without;

shows the plausibility of with and without #

PROC show plausibility = ( STRING legend, INT with, without )VOID:

    print( ( legend, IF plausible( with, without ) THEN " is plausible" ELSE " is not plausible" FI, newline ) );

IF FILE input file;

   STRING file name = "unixdict.txt";
   open( input file, file name, stand in channel ) /= 0

THEN

   # failed to open the file #
   print( (  "Unable to open """ + file name + """", newline ) )

ELSE

   # file opened OK #
   BOOL at eof := FALSE;
   # set the EOF handler for the file #
   on logical file end( input file, ( REF FILE f )BOOL:
                                    BEGIN
                                        # note that we reached EOF on the #
                                        # latest read #
                                        at eof := TRUE;
                                        # return TRUE so processing can continue #
                                        TRUE
                                    END
                      );
   INT    cei := 0;
   INT    xei := 0;
   INT    cie := 0;
   INT    xie := 0;
   WHILE STRING word;
         get( input file, ( word, newline ) );
         NOT at eof
   DO
       # examine the word for cie, xie (x /= c), cei and xei (x /= c)      #
       FOR pos FROM LWB word TO UPB word DO word[ pos ] := to lower( word[ pos ] ) OD;
       IF   word = "ie" THEN
           xie +:= 1
       ELIF word = "ei" THEN
           xei +:= 1
       ELSE
           INT length = ( UPB word - LWB word ) + 1;
           IF length > 1 THEN
               IF   word[ LWB word ] = "i" AND word[ LWB word + 1 ] = "e" THEN
                   # word starts ie                                        #
                   xie +:= 1
               ELIF word[ LWB word ] = "e" AND word[ LWB word + 1 ] = "i" THEN
                   # word starts ei                                        #
                   xei +:= 1
               FI;
               FOR pos FROM LWB word + 1 TO UPB word - 1 DO
                   IF   word[ pos ] = "i" AND word[ pos + 1 ] = "e" THEN
                       # have i before e, check the preceeding character   #
                       IF word[ pos - 1 ] = "c" THEN cie ELSE xie FI +:= 1
                   ELIF word[ pos ] = "e" AND word[ pos + 1 ] = "i" THEN
                       # have e before i, check the preceeding character   #
                       IF word[ pos - 1 ] = "c" THEN cei ELSE xei FI +:= 1
                   FI
               OD
           FI
       FI
   OD;
   # close the file #
   close( input file );

   # test the hypothesis                                                    #
   print( ( "cie occurances: ", whole( cie, 0 ), newline ) );
   print( ( "xie occurances: ", whole( xie, 0 ), newline ) );
   print( ( "cei occurances: ", whole( cei, 0 ), newline ) );
   print( ( "xei occurances: ", whole( xei, 0 ), newline ) );
   show plausibility( "i before e except after c", xie, cie );
   show plausibility( "e before i except after c", xei, cei );
   show plausibility( "i before e   when after c", cie, xie );
   show plausibility( "e before i   when after c", cei, xei );
   show plausibility( "i before e     in general", xie + cie, xei + cei );
   show plausibility( "e before i     in general", xei + cei, xie + cie )

FI</lang>

Output:

cie occurances: 24
xie occurances: 466
cei occurances: 13
xei occurances: 217
i before e except after c is plausible
e before i except after c is plausible
i before e   when after c is not plausible
e before i   when after c is not plausible
i before e     in general is plausible
e before i     in general is not plausible

AppleScript

Ignoring the fact that all exceptions to the rule in unixdict.txt occur where the rule doesn't apply anyway, such as in diphthongs, adjacent syllables, foreign or borrowed words, etc.:

Vanilla

<lang applescript>on ibeeac()

   script o
       property wordList : words of (read file ((path to desktop as text) & "www.rosettacode.org:unixdict.txt") as «class utf8»)
       
       -- Subhandler called if thisWord contains either "ie" or "ei". Checks if there's an instance not preceded by "c".
       on testWithoutC(thisWord, letterPair)
           set AppleScript's text item delimiters to letterPair
           repeat with i from 1 to (count thisWord's text items) - 1
               if (text item i of thisWord does not end with "c") then return true
           end repeat
           return false
       end testWithoutC
   end script
   
   -- Counters: {i before e not after c, i before e after c, e before i not after c, e before i after c}.
   set {xie, cie, xei, cei} to {0, 0, 0, 0}
   
   set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "ie"
   repeat with thisWord in o's wordList
       set thisWord to thisWord's contents
       if (thisWord contains "ie") then
           if (thisWord contains "cie") then set cie to cie + 1
           if (o's testWithoutC(thisWord, "ie")) then set xie to xie + 1
       end if
       if (thisWord contains "ei") then
           if (thisWord contains "cei") then set cei to cei + 1
           if (o's testWithoutC(thisWord, "ei")) then set xei to xei + 1
       end if
   end repeat
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid
   
   set |1 is plausible| to (xie / cie > 2)
   set |2 is plausible| to (cei / xei > 2)
   
   return {|"I before E not after C" is plausible|:|1 is plausible|} & ¬

end ibeeac ibeeac()</lang>

Output:

<lang applescript>{|"I before E not after C" is plausible|:true, |"E before I after C" is plausible|:false, |Both are plausible|:false}</lang>

AppleScriptObjC

<lang applescript>use AppleScript version "2.4" -- OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later use framework "Foundation" use scripting additions

on ibeeac()

   set wordList to words of ¬
       (read (((path to desktop as text) & "www.rosettacode.org:unixdict.txt") as «class furl») as «class utf8»)
   set wordArray to current application's class "NSArray"'s arrayWithArray:(wordList)
   set counters to {}
   repeat with letterPair in {"ie", "ei"}
       set filter to (current application's class "NSPredicate"'s ¬
           predicateWithFormat_("(self CONTAINS[c] %@)", letterPair))
       set relevants to (wordArray's filteredArrayUsingPredicate:(filter))
       set filter to (current application's class "NSPredicate"'s ¬
           predicateWithFormat_("NOT (self CONTAINS[c] %@)", "c" & letterPair))
       set end of counters to (relevants's filteredArrayUsingPredicate:(filter))'s |count|()
       set filter to (current application's class "NSPredicate"'s ¬
           predicateWithFormat_("(self CONTAINS[c] %@)", "c" & letterPair))
       set end of counters to (relevants's filteredArrayUsingPredicate:(filter))'s |count|()
   end repeat
   set {xie, cie, xei, cei} to counters
   set |1 is plausible| to (xie / cie > 2)
   set |2 is plausible| to (cei / xei > 2)
   
   return {|"I before E not after C" is plausible|:|1 is plausible|} & ¬

end ibeeac ibeeac()</lang>

Output:

<lang applescript>{|"I before E not after C" is plausible|:true, |"E before I after C" is plausible|:false, |Both are plausible|:false}</lang>

Functional

<lang applescript>use AppleScript version "2.4" use framework "Foundation" use scripting additions

TEST OF CLAIMS --------------------

on run

   set fpWordList to scriptFolder() & "unixdict.txt"
   if doesFileExist(fpWordList) then
       
       set patterns to {"[^c]ie", "[^c]ei", "cei", "cie"}
       set counts to ap(map(matchCount, patterns), ¬
           {readFile(fpWordList)})
       
       script test
           on |λ|(kvs)
               set {common, rare} to kvs
               set {ck, cv} to common
               set {rk, rv} to rare
               
               set ratio to roundTo(2, cv / rv)
               if ratio > 2 then
                   set verdict to "plausible"
               else
                   set verdict to "unsupported"
               end if
               
               unwords({ck, ">", rk, "->", cv, "/", rv, ¬
                   "=", ratio, "::", verdict})
           end |λ|
       end script
       
       unlines(map(test, chunksOf(2, zip(patterns, counts))))
   else
       display dialog "Word list not found in this script's folder:" & ¬
           linefeed & tab & fpWordList
   end if

end run

GENERIC ------------------------

-- Tuple (,) :: a -> b -> (a, b) on Tuple(a, b)

   -- Constructor for a pair of values, possibly of two different types.
   {a, b}

end Tuple

-- ap (<*>) :: [(a -> b)] -> [a] -> [b] on ap(fs, xs)

   -- e.g. [(*2),(/2), sqrt] <*> [1,2,3]
   -- -->  ap([dbl, hlf, root], [1, 2, 3])
   -- -->  [2,4,6,0.5,1,1.5,1,1.4142135623730951,1.7320508075688772]
   -- Each member of a list of functions applied to
   -- each of a list of arguments, deriving a list of new values
   set lst to {}
   repeat with f in fs
       tell mReturn(contents of f)
           repeat with x in xs
               set end of lst to |λ|(contents of x)
           end repeat
       end tell
   end repeat
   return lst

end ap

-- chunksOf :: Int -> [a] -> a on chunksOf(k, xs)

   script
       on go(ys)
           set ab to splitAt(k, ys)
           set a to item 1 of ab
           if {} ≠ a then
               {a} & go(item 2 of ab)
           else
               a
           end if
       end go
   end script
   result's go(xs)

end chunksOf

-- doesFileExist :: FilePath -> IO Bool on doesFileExist(strPath)

   set ca to current application
   set oPath to (ca's NSString's stringWithString:strPath)'s ¬
       stringByStandardizingPath
   set {bln, int} to (ca's NSFileManager's defaultManager's ¬
       fileExistsAtPath:oPath isDirectory:(reference))
   bln and (int ≠ 1)

end doesFileExist

-- map :: (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b] on map(f, xs)

   -- The list obtained by applying f
   -- to each element of xs.
   tell mReturn(f)
       set lng to length of xs
       set lst to {}
       repeat with i from 1 to lng
           set end of lst to |λ|(item i of xs, i, xs)
       end repeat
       return lst
   end tell

end map

-- matchCount :: String -> NSString -> Int on matchCount(regexString)

   -- A count of the matches for a regular expression
   -- in a given NSString
   script
       on |λ|(s)
           set ca to current application
           ((ca's NSRegularExpression's ¬
               regularExpressionWithPattern:regexString ¬
                   options:(ca's NSRegularExpressionAnchorsMatchLines) ¬

:(missing value))'s ¬

               numberOfMatchesInString:s ¬
                   options:0 ¬
                   range:{location:0, |length|:s's |length|()}) as integer
       end |λ|
   end script

end matchCount

-- min :: Ord a => a -> a -> a on min(x, y)

   if y < x then
       y
   else
       x
   end if

end min

-- mReturn :: First-class m => (a -> b) -> m (a -> b) on mReturn(f)

   -- 2nd class handler function lifted into 1st class script wrapper. 
   if script is class of f then
       f
   else
       script
           property |λ| : f
       end script
   end if

end mReturn

-- readFile :: FilePath -> IO NSString on readFile(strPath)

   set ca to current application
   set e to reference
   set {s, e} to (ca's NSString's ¬
       stringWithContentsOfFile:((ca's NSString's ¬
           stringWithString:strPath)'s ¬
           stringByStandardizingPath) ¬
           encoding:(ca's NSUTF8StringEncoding) |error|:(e))
   if missing value is e then
       s
   else
       (localizedDescription of e) as string
   end if

end readFile

-- roundTo :: Int -> Float -> Float on roundTo(n, x)

   set d to 10 ^ n
   (round (x * d)) / d

end roundTo

-- scriptFolder :: () -> IO FilePath on scriptFolder()

   -- The path of the folder containing this script
   tell application "Finder" to ¬
       POSIX path of ((container of (path to me)) as alias)

end scriptFolder

-- splitAt :: Int -> [a] -> ([a], [a]) on splitAt(n, xs)

   if n > 0 and n < length of xs then
       if class of xs is text then
           {items 1 thru n of xs as text, ¬
               items (n + 1) thru -1 of xs as text}
       else
           {items 1 thru n of xs, items (n + 1) thru -1 of xs}
       end if
   else
       if n < 1 then
           {{}, xs}
       else
           {xs, {}}
       end if
   end if

end splitAt

-- unlines :: [String] -> String on unlines(xs)

   -- A single string formed by the intercalation
   -- of a list of strings with the newline character.
   set {dlm, my text item delimiters} to ¬
       {my text item delimiters, linefeed}
   set s to xs as text
   set my text item delimiters to dlm
   s

end unlines

-- unwords :: [String] -> String on unwords(xs)

   set {dlm, my text item delimiters} to ¬
       {my text item delimiters, space}
   set s to xs as text
   set my text item delimiters to dlm
   return s

end unwords

-- zip :: [a] -> [b] -> [(a, b)] on zip(xs, ys)

   zipWith(Tuple, xs, ys)

end zip

-- zipWith :: (a -> b -> c) -> [a] -> [b] -> [c] on zipWith(f, xs, ys)

   set lng to min(length of xs, length of ys)
   set lst to {}
   if 1 > lng then
       return {}
   else
       tell mReturn(f)
           repeat with i from 1 to lng
               set end of lst to |λ|(item i of xs, item i of ys)
           end repeat
           return lst
       end tell
   end if

end zipWith</lang>

Output:

[^c]ie > [^c]ei -> 466 / 217 = 2.15 :: plausible
cei > cie -> 13 / 24 = 0.54 :: unsupported

AutoHotkey

<lang AutoHotkey>WordList := URL_ToVar("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt") WordList := RegExReplace(WordList, "i)cie", "", cieN) WordList := RegExReplace(WordList, "i)cei", "", ceiN) RegExReplace(WordList, "i)ie", "", ieN) RegExReplace(WordList, "i)ei", "", eiN)

cei := ceiN / cieN > 2 ? "plausible" : "implausible" ei := ieN / eiN > 2 ? "plausible" : "implausible" ova := cei = "plausible." && ei = "plausible" ? "plausible" : "implausible"

MsgBox, % """I before E when not preceded by C"" is " ei ".`n"

       . ieN " cases for and " eiN " cases against is a ratio of " ieN / eiN ".`n`n"
       . """E before I when preceded by C"" is " cei ".`n"
       . ceiN " cases for and " cieN " cases against is a ratio of " ceiN / cieN ".`n`n"
       . "Overall the rule is " ova "."

URL_ToVar(URL) {

   WebRequest := ComObjCreate("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")
   WebRequest.Open("GET", URL)
   WebRequest.Send()
   return, WebRequest.ResponseText

}</lang>

Output:

"I before E when not preceded by C" is plausible.
466 cases for and 217 cases against is a ratio of 2.147465.

"E before I when preceded by C" is implausible.
13 cases for and 24 cases against is a ratio of 0.541667.

Overall the rule is implausible.

AWK

<lang awk>#!/usr/bin/awk -f

/.ei/ {nei+=cnt($3)} /cei/ {cei+=cnt($3)}

/.ie/ {nie+=cnt($3)} /cie/ {cie+=cnt($3)}

function cnt(c) { if (c<1) return 1; return c; }

END { printf("cie: %i\nnie: %i\ncei: %i\nnei: %i\n",cie,nie-cie,cei,nei-cei); v = v2 = ""; if (nie < 3 * cie) { v =" not"; } print "I before E when not preceded by C: is"v" plausible"; if (nei > 3 * cei) { v = v2 =" not"; } print "E before I when preceded by C: is"v2" plausible";

       print "Overall rule is"v" plausible";

}</lang>

Usage:

$ awk -f ./i_before_e_except_after_c.awk unixdict.txt 
cie: 24
nie: 464
cei: 13
nei: 194
I before E when not preceded by C: is plausible
E before I when preceded by C: is not plausible

$ awk -f i_before_e_except_after_c.awk 1_2_all_freq.txt 
cie: 994
nie: 8148
cei: 327
nei: 4826
I before E when not preceded by C: is plausible
E before I when preceded by C: is not plausible
Overall rule is not plausible

Batch File

Download first the text file, then put it on the same directory with this sample code: <lang dos>::I before E except after C task from Rosetta Code Wiki

Batch File Implementation

@echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion ::Initialization set ie=0 set ei=0 set cie=0 set cei=0

set propos1=FALSE set propos2=FALSE set propos3=FALSE

::Do the matching for /f %%X in (unixdict.txt) do ( set word=%%X if not "!word:ie=!"=="!word!" if "!word:cie=!"=="!word!" (set /a ie+=1) if not "!word:ei=!"=="!word!" if "!word:cei=!"=="!word!" (set /a ei+=1) if not "!word:cei=!"=="!word!" (set /a cei+=1) if not "!word:cie=!"=="!word!" (set /a cie+=1) )

set /a "counter1=!ei!*2,counter2=!cie!*2"

if !ie! gtr !counter1! set propos1=TRUE echo.Plausibility of "I before E when not preceded by C": !propos1! (!ie! VS !ei!)

if !cei! gtr !counter2! set propos2=TRUE echo.Plausibility of "E before I when preceded by C": !propos2! (!cei! VS !cie!)

if !propos1!==TRUE if !propos2!==TRUE (set propos3=TRUE) echo.Overall plausibility of "I before E EXCEPT after C": !propos3!

pause exit /b 0</lang>

Output:

Plausibility of "I before E when not preceded by C": TRUE (465 VS 213)
Plausibility of "E before I when preceded by C": FALSE (13 VS 24)
Overall plausibility of "I before E EXCEPT after C": FALSE
Press any key to continue . . .

Fast solution using standard external commands FINDSTR and FIND:

Each word is counted once if word has at least one occurrence of test string (word with 2 or more occurrences only counts once). The same word may count toward different categories. <lang dos>@echo off setlocal enableDelayedExpansion for /f %%A in ('findstr /i "^ie [^c]ie" unixdict.txt ^| find /c /v ""') do set Atrue=%%A for /f %%A in ('findstr /i "^ei [^c]ei" unixdict.txt ^| find /c /v ""') do set Afalse=%%A for /f %%A in ('findstr /i "[c]ei" unixdict.txt ^| find /c /v ""') do set Btrue=%%A for /f %%A in ('findstr /i "[c]ie" unixdict.txt ^| find /c /v ""') do set Bfalse=%%A set /a "Aresult=Atrue/Afalse/2, Bresult=Btrue/Bfalse/2, Result=^!^!Aresult*Bresult" set "Answer1=Plausible" & set "Answer0=Implausible" echo I before E when not preceded by C: True=%Atrue% False=%Afalse% : !Answer%Aresult%! echo E before I when preceded by C: True=%Btrue% False=%Bfalse% : !Answer%Bresult%! echo I before E, except after C : !Answer%Result%!</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: True=465 False=213 : Plausible
E before I when preceded by C: True=13 False=24 : Implausible
I before E, except after C : Implausible

Stretch solution using standard external command FINDSTR:

Each word frequency is included once if word has at least one occurrence of test string (word with 2 or more occurrences only counts once). The same word frequency may count toward different categories. <lang dos>@echo off setlocal enableDelayedExpansion set /a Atrue=Afalse=Btrue=Bfalse=0 for /f "tokens=3*" %%A in ('findstr /i "[^c]ie" 1_2_all_freq.txt') do if "%%B" equ "" set /a Atrue+=%%A for /f "tokens=3*" %%A in ('findstr /i "[^c]ei" 1_2_all_freq.txt') do if "%%B" equ "" set /a Afalse+=%%A for /f "tokens=3*" %%A in ('findstr /i "[c]ei" 1_2_all_freq.txt') do if "%%B" equ "" set /a Btrue+=%%A for /f "tokens=3*" %%A in ('findstr /i "[c]ie" 1_2_all_freq.txt') do if "%%B" equ "" set /a Bfalse+=%%A set /a "Aresult=Atrue/Afalse/2, Bresult=Btrue/Bfalse/2, Result=^!^!Aresult*Bresult" set "Answer1=Plausible" & set "Answer0=Implausible" echo I before E when not preceded by C: True=%Atrue% False=%Afalse% : !Answer%Aresult%! echo E before I when preceded by C: True=%Btrue% False=%Bfalse% : !Answer%Bresult%! echo I before E, except after C : !Answer%Result%!</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: True=8192 False=4826 : Implausible
E before I when preceded by C: True=327 False=994 : Implausible
I before E, except after C : Implausible

BASIC

<lang basic>10 DEFINT A-Z 20 OPEN "I",1,"UNIXDICT.TXT": GOTO 60 30 LINE INPUT #1,W$ 40 IF INSTR(W$,"ie") THEN IF INSTR(W$,"cie") THEN CI=CI+1 ELSE XI=XI+1 50 IF INSTR(W$,"ei") THEN IF INSTR(W$,"cei") THEN CE=CE+1 ELSE XE=XE+1 60 IF NOT EOF(1) GOTO 30 ELSE CLOSE #1 70 PRINT "CIE:";CI 80 PRINT "xIE:";XI 90 PRINT "CEI:";CE 100 PRINT "xEI:";XE 110 PRINT 120 PRINT "I before E when not preceded by C: "; 130 IF 2*XI <= CI THEN PRINT "not "; 140 PRINT "plausible." 150 PRINT "E before I when preceded by C: "; 160 IF 2*CE <= XE THEN PRINT "not "; 170 PRINT "plausible."</lang>

Output:

CIE: 24
xIE: 465
CEI: 13
xEI: 213

I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.

BASIC256

Translation of: BASIC

<lang freebasic>CI = 0 : XI = 0 : CE = 0 : XE = 0 open 1, "unixdict.txt"

do pal$ = readline (1) if instr(pal$, "ie") then if instr(pal$, "cie") then CI += 1 else XI += 1 endif if instr(pal$, "ei") then if instr(pal$, "cei") then CE += 1 else XE += 1 endif until eof(1) close 1

print "CIE: "; CI print "xIE: "; XI print "CEI: "; CE print "xEI: "; XE print print "I before E when not preceded by C: "; if 2 * XI <= CI then print "not "; print "plausible." print "E before I when preceded by C: "; if 2 * CE <= XE then print "not "; print "plausible." end</lang>

BCPL

<lang bcpl>get "libhdr"

// Read word from selected input let readword(v) = valof $( let ch = ?

   v%0 := 0
   $(  ch := rdch()
       if ch = endstreamch then resultis false
       if ch = '*N' then resultis true
       v%0 := v%0 + 1
       v%(v%0) := ch
   $) repeat

$)

// Does s1 contain s2? let contains(s1, s2) = valof $( for i = 1 to s1%0 - s2%0 + 1

       if valof
       $(  for j = 1 to s2%0
               unless s1%(i+j-1) = s2%j resultis false
           resultis true
       $) resultis true
   resultis false

$)

// Test unixdict.txt let start() be $( let word = vec 2+64/BYTESPERWORD

   let file = findinput("unixdict.txt")
   let ncie, ncei, nxie, nxei = 0, 0, 0, 0
   
   selectinput(file)
   while readword(word)
       test contains(word, "ie")
           test contains(word, "cie")
               do ncie := ncie + 1
               or nxie := nxie + 1
       or if contains(word, "ei")
           test contains(word, "cei")
               do ncei := ncei + 1
               or nxei := nxei + 1
   endread()
   
   // Show results
   writef("CIE: %N*N", ncie)
   writef("xIE: %N*N", nxie)
   writef("CEI: %N*N", ncei)
   writef("xEI: %N*N", nxei)
   
   writef("I before E when not preceded by C: %Splausible.*N",
       2*nxie > ncie -> "", "not ")
   writef("E before I when preceded by C: %Splausible.*N",
       2*ncei > nxei -> "", "not ")

$)</lang>

Output:

CIE: 24
xIE: 465
CEI: 13
xEI: 209
I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.

C

Inspired by the J solution, but implemented as a single pass through the data, we have flex build the finite state machine in C. This may in turn motivate me to provide a second J solution as a single pass FSM. Please find the program output hidden at the top of the source as part of the build and example run. <lang c> %{

 /*
   compilation and example on a GNU linux system:

   $ flex --case-insensitive --noyywrap --outfile=cia.c source.l
   $ make LOADLIBES=-lfl cia 
   $ ./cia < unixdict.txt 
   I before E when not preceded by C: plausible
   E before I when preceded by C: implausible
   Overall, the rule is: implausible 
 */
 int cie, cei, ie, ei;

%}

%%

cie ++cie, ++ie; /* longer patterns are matched preferentially, consuming input */ cei ++cei, ++ei; ie ++ie; ei ++ei; .|\n ;

%%

int main() {

 cie = cei = ie = ei = 0;
 yylex();
 printf("%s: %s\n","I before E when not preceded by C", (2*ei < ie ? "plausible" : "implausible"));
 printf("%s: %s\n","E before I when preceded by C", (2*cie < cei ? "plausible" : "implausible"));
 printf("%s: %s\n","Overall, the rule is", (2*(cie+ei) < (cei+ie) ? "plausible" : "implausible"));
 return 0;

} </lang>

C#

Translation of: Java

<lang csharp>using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.IO;

namespace IBeforeE {

   class Program {
       static bool IsOppPlausibleWord(string word) {
           if (!word.Contains("c") && word.Contains("ei")) {
               return true;
           }
           if (word.Contains("cie")) {
               return true;
           }
           return false;
       }

       static bool IsPlausibleWord(string word) {
           if (!word.Contains("c") && word.Contains("ie")) {
               return true;
           }
           if (word.Contains("cei")) {
               return true;
           }
           return false;
       }

       static bool IsPlausibleRule(string filename) {
           IEnumerable<string> wordSource = File.ReadLines(filename);
           int trueCount = 0;
           int falseCount = 0;

           foreach (string word in wordSource) {
               if (IsPlausibleWord(word)) {
                   trueCount++;
               }
               else if (IsOppPlausibleWord(word)) {
                   falseCount++;
               }
           }

           Console.WriteLine("Plausible count: {0}", trueCount);
           Console.WriteLine("Implausible count: {0}", falseCount);
           return trueCount > 2 * falseCount;
       }

       static void Main(string[] args) {
           if (IsPlausibleRule("unixdict.txt")) {
               Console.WriteLine("Rule is plausible.");
           }
           else {
               Console.WriteLine("Rule is not plausible.");
           }
       }
   }

}</lang>

Output:

Plausible count: 384
Implausible count: 204
Rule is not plausible.

C++

If the file changes, the outcome will possibly be different.

sha1 of file 2013-12-30: 058f8872306ef36f679d44f1b556334a13a85b57 unixdict.txt

Build with: g++ -Wall -std=c++0x thisfile.cpp -lboost_regex

(Test used 4.4, so only a limited number of C++11 features were used.)

<lang cpp>#include <iostream>

include <fstream>
include <string>
include <tuple>
include <vector>
include <stdexcept>
include <boost/regex.hpp>

struct Claim {

       Claim(const std::string& name) : name_(name), pro_(0), against_(0), propats_(), againstpats_() {
       }
       
       void add_pro(const std::string& pat) { 
              propats_.push_back(std::make_tuple(boost::regex(pat), pat[0] == '^')); 
       }
       void add_against(const std::string& pat) { 
              againstpats_.push_back(std::make_tuple(boost::regex(pat), pat[0] == '^')); 
       }
       bool plausible() const { return pro_ > against_*2; }
       void check(const char * buf, uint32_t len) {
               for (auto i = propats_.begin(), ii = propats_.end(); i != ii; ++i) {
                       uint32_t pos = 0;
                       boost::cmatch m;
                       if (std::get<1>(*i) && pos > 0) continue;
                       while (pos < len && boost::regex_search(buf+pos, buf+len, m, std::get<0>(*i))) {
                               ++pro_;
                               if (pos > 0) std::cerr << name_ << " [pro] multiple matches in: " << buf << "\n";
                               pos += m.position() + m.length();
                       }
               }
               for (auto i = againstpats_.begin(), ii = againstpats_.end(); i != ii; ++i) {
                       uint32_t pos = 0;
                       boost::cmatch m;
                       if (std::get<1>(*i) && pos > 0) continue;
                       while (pos < len && boost::regex_search(buf+pos, buf+len, m, std::get<0>(*i))) {
                               ++against_;
                               if (pos > 0) std::cerr << name_ << " [against] multiple matches in: " << buf << "\n";
                               pos += m.position() + m.length();
                       }
               }
       }
       friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const Claim& c);

private:

       std::string name_;
       uint32_t pro_;
       uint32_t against_;
       // tuple<regex,begin only>
       std::vector<std::tuple<boost::regex,bool>> propats_;
       std::vector<std::tuple<boost::regex,bool>> againstpats_;

};

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const Claim& c) {

       os << c.name_ << ": matches: " << c.pro_ << " vs. counter matches: " << c.against_ << ". ";
       os << "Plausibility: " << (c.plausible() ? "yes" : "no") << ".";
       return os;

}

int main(int argc, char ** argv) {

       try {
               if (argc < 2) throw std::runtime_error("No input file.");
               std::ifstream is(argv[1]);
               if (! is) throw std::runtime_error("Input file not valid.");

               Claim ieclaim("[^c]ie");
               ieclaim.add_pro("[^c]ie");
               ieclaim.add_pro("^ie");
               ieclaim.add_against("[^c]ei");
               ieclaim.add_against("^ei");

               Claim ceiclaim("cei");
               ceiclaim.add_pro("cei");
               ceiclaim.add_against("cie");

               {
                       const uint32_t MAXLEN = 32;
                       char buf[MAXLEN];
                       uint32_t longest = 0;
                       while (is) {
                               is.getline(buf, sizeof(buf));
                               if (is.gcount() <= 0) break;
                               else if (is.gcount() > longest) longest = is.gcount();
                               ieclaim.check(buf, is.gcount());
                               ceiclaim.check(buf, is.gcount());
                       }
                       if (longest >= MAXLEN) throw std::runtime_error("Buffer too small.");
               }

               std::cout << ieclaim << "\n";
               std::cout << ceiclaim << "\n";
               std::cout << "Overall plausibility: " << (ieclaim.plausible() && ceiclaim.plausible() ? "yes" : "no") << "\n";

       } catch (const std::exception& ex) {
               std::cerr << "*** Error: " << ex.what() << "\n";
               return -1;
       }
       return 0;

} </lang>

Output:

[^c]ie [pro] multiple matches in: siegfried
[^c]ie [against] multiple matches in: weinstein
[^c]ie: matches: 466 vs. counter matches: 217. Plausibility: yes.
cei: matches: 13 vs. counter matches: 24. Plausibility: no.
Overall plausibility: no

Clojure

The output here was generated with the files as of 21st June 2016.

<lang clojure> (ns i-before-e.core

 (:require [clojure.string :as s])
 (:gen-class))

(def patterns {:cie #"cie" :ie #"(?<!c)ie" :cei #"cei" :ei #"(?<!c)ei"})

(defn update-counts

 "Given a map of counts of matching patterns and a word, increment any count if the word matches it's pattern."
 [counts [word freq]]
 (apply hash-map (mapcat (fn k v [k (if (re-seq (patterns k) word) (+ freq v) v)]) counts)))

(defn count-ie-ei-combinations

 "Update counts of all ie and ei combinations"
 [words]
 (reduce update-counts {:ie 0 :cie 0 :ei 0 :cei 0} words))

(defn apply-freq-1

 "Apply a frequency of one to words"
 [words]
 (map #(vector % 1) words))

(defn- format-plausible

 [plausible?]
 (if plausible? "plausible" "implausible"))

(defn- apply-rule [desc examples contra]

 (let [plausible? (<= (* 2 contra) examples)]
   (println (format "The sub rule %s is %s. There are %d examples and %d counter-examples.\n" desc (format-plausible plausible?) examples contra))
   plausible?))

(defn i-before-e-except-after-c-plausible?

 "Check if i before e after c plausible?"
 [description words]
 (do
   (println description)
   (let [counts (count-ie-ei-combinations words)
         subrule1 (apply-rule "I before E when not preceeded by C" (:ie counts) (:ei counts))
         subrule2 (apply-rule "E before I when preceeded by C" (:cei counts) (:cie counts))
         rule (and subrule1 subrule2)]
     (println (format "Overall the rule 'I before E except after C' is %s" (format-plausible rule)))
     rule)))

(defn format-freq-line [line] (letfn [(format-line [xs] [(first xs) (read-string (last xs))])]

                                      (-> line
                                          s/trim
                                          (s/split #"\s")
                                          format-line)))

(defn -main []

 (with-open [rdr (clojure.java.io/reader "http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt")]
  (i-before-e-except-after-c-plausible? "Check unixdist list" (apply-freq-1 (line-seq rdr))))
 (with-open [rdr (clojure.java.io/reader "http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/lists/1_2_all_freq.txt")]
  (i-before-e-except-after-c-plausible? "Word frequencies (stretch goal)" (map format-freq-line (drop 1 (line-seq rdr))))))

</lang>

Output:

lein run
Check unixdist list
The sub rule I before E when not preceeded by C is plausible. There are 465 examples and 213 counter-examples.

The sub rule E before I when preceeded by C is implausible. There are 13 examples and 24 counter-examples.

Overall the rule 'I before E except after C' is implausible
Word frequencies (stretch goal)
The sub rule I before E when not preceeded by C is implausible. There are 8192 examples and 4826 counter-examples.

The sub rule E before I when preceeded by C is implausible. There are 327 examples and 994 counter-examples.

Overall the rule 'I before E except after C' is implausible

CLU

<lang clu>report = cluster is new, classify, results

   rep = record[cie, xie, cei, xei, words: int]
   
   new = proc () returns (cvt)
       return(rep${cie: 0, xie: 0, cei: 0, xei: 0, words: 0})
   end new
   
   classify = proc (r: cvt, word: string)
       r.words := r.words + 1
       if string$indexs("ie", word) ~= 0 then
           if string$indexs("cie", word) ~= 0
               then r.cie := r.cie + 1
               else r.xie := r.xie + 1
           end
       elseif string$indexs("ei", word) ~= 0 then
           if string$indexs("cei", word) ~= 0
               then r.cei := r.cei + 1
               else r.xei := r.xei + 1
           end
       end
   end classify
   
   stat = proc (s: stream, name: string, val: int)
       stream$puts(s, name)
       stream$puts(s, ": ")
       stream$putl(s, int$unparse(val))
   end stat
   
   plausible = proc (s: stream, feature: string, match, nomatch: int) 
               returns (bool)
       stream$puts(s, feature)
       stream$puts(s, ": ")
       plaus: bool := 2 * match > nomatch;
       if ~plaus then stream$puts(s, "not ") end
       stream$putl(s, "plausible.");
       return(plaus)
   end plausible
   
   results = proc (r: cvt) returns (string)
       ss: stream := stream$create_output()
       stat(ss, "Amount of words", r.words)
       stat(ss, "CIE", r.cie)
       stat(ss, "xIE", r.xie)
       stat(ss, "CEI", r.cei)
       stat(ss, "xEI", r.xei)
       stream$putl(ss, "")
       xie_p: bool := plausible(ss, "I before E when not preceded by C", r.xie, r.cie)
       cei_p: bool := plausible(ss, "E before I when preceded by C", r.cei, r.xei)
       stream$puts(ss, "I before E, except after C: ")
       if ~(xie_p & cei_p) then stream$puts(ss, "not ") end
       stream$putl(ss, "plausible.")
       return(stream$get_contents(ss))
   end results

end report

lines = iter (s: stream) yields (string)

   while true do
       yield(stream$getl(s))
       except when end_of_file: break end
   end

end lines

start_up = proc ()

   po: stream := stream$primary_output()
   file: file_name := file_name$parse("unixdict.txt")
   fstream: stream := stream$open(file, "read")
   r: report := report$new()
   for line: string in lines(fstream) do
       report$classify(r, line)
   end
   stream$close(fstream)
   stream$puts(po, report$results(r))

end start_up </lang>

Output:

Amount of words: 25104
CIE: 24
xIE: 465
CEI: 13
xEI: 209

I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.
I before E, except after C: not plausible.

Coco

First we need to set the variable dict to the text of the dictionary as a string. How to do this depends on your JavaScript platform. Using Node.js, for example, you could download a copy of the dictionary to /tmp/unixdict.txt and then say dict = fs.readFileSync '/tmp/unixdict.txt', {encoding: 'UTF-8'}.

Now we can do the task:

<lang coco>ie-npc = ei-npc = ie-pc = ei-pc = 0 for word of dict.toLowerCase!.match /\S+/g

   ++ie-npc if /(^|[^c])ie/.test word
   ++ei-npc if /(^|[^c])ei/.test word
   ++ie-pc if word.indexOf('cie') > -1
   ++ei-pc if word.indexOf('cei') > -1

p1 = ie-npc > 2 * ei-npc p2 = ei-pc > 2 * ie-pc

console.log '(1) is%s plausible.', if p1 then else ' not' console.log '(2) is%s plausible.', if p2 then else ' not' console.log 'The whole phrase is%s plausible.', if p1 and p2 then else ' not'</lang>

Common Lisp

<lang lisp> (defun test-rule (rule-name examples counter-examples)

 (let ((plausible (if (> examples (* 2 counter-examples)) 'plausible 'not-plausible)))
   (list rule-name plausible examples counter-examples)))

(defun plausibility (result-string file parser)

 (let ((cei 0) (cie 0) (ie 0) (ei 0))
   (macrolet ((search-count (&rest terms)
                (when terms
                  `(progn
                     (when (search ,(string-downcase (symbol-name (car terms))) word)
                       (incf ,(car terms) freq))
                     (search-count ,@(cdr terms))))))
     (with-open-file (stream file :external-format :latin-1)
       (loop :for raw-line = (read-line stream nil 'eof)
             :until (eq raw-line 'eof)
             :for line = (string-trim '(#\Tab #\Space) raw-line)
             :for (word freq) = (funcall parser line)
             :do (search-count cei cie ie ei))
       (print-result result-string cei cie ie ei)))))

(defun print-result (result-string cei cie ie ei)

 (let ((results (list (test-rule "I before E when not preceded by C" (- ie cie) (- ei cei))
                      (test-rule "E before I when preceded by C" cei cie))))
   (format t "~a:~%~{~{~2TThe rule \"~a\" is ~S. There were ~a examples and ~a counter-examples.~}~^~%~}~%~%~2TOverall the rule is ~S~%~%"
           result-string results (or (find 'not-plausible (mapcar #'cadr results)) 'plausible))))

(defun parse-dict (line) (list line 1))

(defun parse-freq (line)

 (list (subseq line 0 (position #\Tab line))
       (parse-integer (subseq line (position #\Tab line :from-end t)) :junk-allowed t)))

(plausibility "Dictionary" #p"unixdict.txt" #'parse-dict) (plausibility "Word frequencies (stretch goal)" #p"1_2_all_freq.txt" #'parse-freq) </lang>

Output:

Dictionary:
  The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is PLAUSIBLE. There were 465 examples and 213 counter-examples.
  The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is NOT-PLAUSIBLE. There were 13 examples and 24 counter-examples.

  Overall the rule is NOT-PLAUSIBLE

Word frequencies (stretch goal):
  The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is NOT-PLAUSIBLE. There were 8163 examples and 4826 counter-examples.
  The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is NOT-PLAUSIBLE. There were 327 examples and 994 counter-examples.

  Overall the rule is NOT-PLAUSIBLE

D

The extra work has not been attempted <lang D>import std.file; import std.stdio;

int main(string[] args) {

   if (args.length < 2) {
       stderr.writeln(args[0], " filename");
       return 1;
   }

   int cei, cie, ie, ei;
   auto file = File(args[1]);
   foreach(line; file.byLine) {
       auto res = eval(cast(string) line);
       cei += res.cei;
       cie += res.cie;
       ei += res.ei;
       ie += res.ie;
   }

   writeln("CEI: ", cei, "; CIE: ", cie);
   writeln("EI: ", ei, "; IE: ", ie);

   writeln("'I before E when not preceded by C' is ", verdict(ie, ei));
   writeln("'E before I when preceded by C' is ", verdict(cei, cie));

   return 0;

}

string verdict(int a, int b) {

   import std.format;
   if (a > 2*b) {
       return format("plausible with evidence %f", cast(double)a/b);
   }
   return format("not plausible with evidence %f", cast(double)a/b);

}

struct Evidence {

   int cei;
   int cie;
   int ei;
   int ie;

}

Evidence eval(string word) {

   enum State {
       START,
       C,
       E,
       I,
       CE,
       CI,
   }

   State state;
   Evidence cnt;
   for(int i=0; i<word.length; ++i) {
       char c = word[i];
       switch(state) {
           case State.START:
               if (c == 'c') {
                   state = State.C;
               }
               if (c == 'e') {
                   state = State.E;
               }
               if (c == 'i') {
                   state = State.I;
               }
               break;
           case State.C:
               if (c == 'e') {
                   state = State.CE;
               } else if (c == 'i') {
                   state = State.CI;
               } else if (c != 'c') {
                   state = State.START;
               }
               break;
           case State.E:
               if (c == 'c') {
                   state = State.C;
               } else if (c == 'i') {
                   cnt.ei++;
                   state = State.I;
               } else if (c != 'e') {
                   state = State.START;
               }
               break;
           case State.I:
               if (c == 'c') {
                   state = State.C;
               } else if (c == 'e') {
                   cnt.ie++;
                   state = State.E;
               } else if (c != 'i') {
                   state = State.START;
               }
               break;
           case State.CE:
               if (c == 'i') {
                   cnt.cei++;
                   state = State.I;
               }
               if (c == 'c') {
                   state = State.C;
               }
               state = State.START;
               break;
           case State.CI:
               if (c == 'e') {
                   cnt.cie++;
                   state = State.E;
               }
               if (c == 'c') {
                   state = State.C;
               }
               state = State.START;
               break;
           default:
               assert(0);
       }
   }
   return cnt;

}</lang>

Output:

CEI: 13; CIE: 24
EI: 217; IE: 466
'I before E when not preceded by C' is plausible with evidence 2.147465
'E before I when preceded by C' is not plausible with evidence 0.541667

Delphi

Library: System.SysUtils

Library: System.IOUtils

Translation of: C sharp

<lang Delphi> program I_before_E_except_after_C;

uses

 System.SysUtils, System.IOUtils;

function IsOppPlausibleWord(w: string): Boolean; begin

 if ((not w.Contains('c')) and (w.Contains('ei'))) then
   exit(True);

 if (w.Contains('cie')) then
   exit(True);

 exit(false);

end;

function IsPlausibleWord(w: string): Boolean; begin

 if ((not w.Contains('c')) and (w.Contains('ie'))) then
   exit(True);

 if (w.Contains('cie')) then
   exit(True);

 exit(false);

end;

function IsPlausibleRule(filename: TFileName): Boolean; var

 words: TArray<string>;
 trueCount, falseCount: Cardinal;
 w: string;

begin

 words := TFile.ReadAllLines(filename, TEncoding.UTF8);
 trueCount := 0;
 falseCount := 0;

 for w in words do
 begin
   if (IsPlausibleWord(w)) then
     inc(trueCount)
   else if (IsOppPlausibleWord(w)) then
     inc(falseCount);

 end;

 Writeln('Plausible count: ', trueCount);
 Writeln('Implausible  count: ', falseCount);

 Result := trueCount > 2 * falseCount;;

end;

begin

 if (IsPlausibleRule('unixdict.txt')) then
   Writeln('Rule is plausible.')
 else
   Writeln('Rule is not plausible.');

end.</lang>

Draco

<lang draco>\util.g

/* variables to hold totals for each possibility */ word cie, xie, cei, xei;

/* classify a word and add it to the proper total */ proc nonrec classify(*char w) void:

   if CharsIndex(w, "ie") /= -1 then
       if CharsIndex(w, "cie") /= -1
           then cie := cie + 1
           else xie := xie + 1
       fi
   elif CharsIndex(w, "ei") /= -1 then
       if CharsIndex(w, "cei") /= -1
           then cei := cei + 1
           else xei := xei + 1
       fi
   fi

corp

/* see if a clause is plausible */ proc nonrec plausible(*char clause; word match, nomatch) bool:

   bool p;
   p := 2*match > nomatch;
   writeln(clause, ": ", if p then "" else "not " fi, "plausible.");
   p

corp

proc nonrec main() void:

   file() dict_file;
   channel input text dict_ch;
   [256] char line;
   bool p;
   
   cie := 0;
   xie := 0;
   cei := 0;
   xei := 0;
   
   /* read every word */
   open(dict_ch, dict_file, "unixdict.txt");
   while readln(dict_ch; &line[0]) do
       classify(&line[0])
   od;
   close(dict_ch);
   
   /* print statistics */
   writeln("CIE: ", cie:5);
   writeln("xIE: ", xie:5);
   writeln("CEI: ", cei:5);
   writeln("xEI: ", xei:5);
   
   /* see if the propositions are plausible */
   p := plausible("I before E when not preceded by C", xie, cie);
   p := plausible("E before I when preceded by C", cei, xei) and p;
   writeln("I before E except after C: ",
           if p then "" else "not " fi,
           "plausible.")

corp</lang>

Output:

CIE:    24
xIE:   465
CEI:    13
xEI:   209
I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.
I before E except after C: not plausible.

Elixir

Translation of: Ruby

<lang elixir>defmodule RC do

 def task(path) do
   plausibility_ratio = 2
   rules = [ {"I before E when not preceded by C:", "ie", "ei"},
             {"E before I when preceded by C:", "cei", "cie"} ]
   regex = ~r/ie|ei|cie|cei/
   counter = File.read!(path) |> countup(regex)
   Enum.all?(rules, fn {str, x, y} ->
     nx = counter[x]
     ny = counter[y]
     ratio = nx / ny
     plausibility = if ratio > plausibility_ratio, do: "Plausible", else: "Implausible"
     IO.puts str
     IO.puts "  #{x}: #{nx}; #{y}: #{ny}; Ratio: #{Float.round(ratio,3)}: #{plausibility}"
     ratio > plausibility_ratio
   end)
 end
 
 def countup(binary, regex) do
   String.split(binary)

> Enum.reduce(Map.new, fn word,acc ->

        if match = Regex.run(regex, word),
            do: Dict.update(acc, hd(match), 1, &(&1+1)), else: acc
      end)
 end

end

path = hd(System.argv) IO.inspect RC.task(path)</lang>

Output:

C:\Elixir>elixir test.exs \work\unixdict.txt
I before E when not preceded by C:
  ie: 462; ei: 212; Ratio: 2.179: Plausible
E before I when preceded by C:
  cei: 13; cie: 24; Ratio: 0.542: Implausible
false

Erlang

<lang erlang> -module(cei). -export([plaus/0,count/3]).

plaus() ->

   {ok,Words} = file:read_file("unixdict.txt"),                              
   Swords = string:tokens(erlang:binary_to_list(Words), "\n"),                                                        
   EiF = count(Swords,"[^c]ei",0),                                               
   IeF = count(Swords,"[^c]ie",0),                                               
   CeiF = count(Swords,"cei",0),                                             
   CieF = count(Swords,"cie",0),                                             
   if CeiF >= 2 * CieF -> P1= 'is'; true -> P1 = 'is not' end,               
   if IeF >= 2 * EiF -> P2 = 'is'; true -> P2 = 'is not' end,                
   if P1 == 'is' andalso p2 == 'is' -> P3 ='is'; true -> P3 = 'is not' end,  
   io:format("Proposition 1. ~w plausible: ie ~w, ei ~w~n", [P2,IeF,EiF]),    
   io:format("Proposition 2. ~w plausible: cei ~w, cie ~w~n", [P1,CeiF,CieF]),
   io:format("The rule ~w plausible~n", [P3]).

count(List,Pattern,Acc) when length(List) == 0 -> Acc; count(List,Pattern,Acc) ->

   [H|T] = List,                                                             
   case re:run(H,Pattern,[global,{capture,none}]) of                         
       match -> count(T,Pattern, Acc + 1);                                   
       nomatch -> count(T,Pattern, Acc)                                      
   end.

</lang>

Output:

69> cei:plaus().
Proposition 1. is plausible: ie 464, ei 194
Proposition 2. is not plausible: cei 13, cie 24
The rule 'is not' plausible

Factor

<lang factor>USING: combinators formatting generalizations io.encodings.utf8 io.files kernel literals math prettyprint regexp sequences ; IN: rosetta-code.i-before-e

correct ( #correct #incorrect rule-str -- )

   pprint " is correct for %d and incorrect for %d.\n" printf ;

plausibility ( #correct #incorrect -- str )

   2 * > "plausible" "implausible" ? ;

output ( #correct #incorrect rule-str -- )

   [ correct ] curry
   [ plausibility "This is %s.\n\n" printf ] 2bi ;

"unixdict.txt" utf8 file-lines ${

   R/ cei/ R/ cie/ R/ [^c]ie/ R/ [^c]ei/
   [ count-matches ]
   [ map-sum       ]
   [ 4 apply-curry ] bi@

} cleave

"I before E when not preceded by C" "E before I when preceded by C" [ output ] bi@</lang>

Output:

"I before E when not preceded by C" is correct for 465 and incorrect for 195.
This is plausible.

"E before I when preceded by C" is correct for 13 and incorrect for 24.
This is implausible.

Fortran

Please find the linux build instructions along with example run in the comments at the beginning of the f90 source. Thank you. <lang FORTRAN>

-*- mode: compilation; default-directory: "/tmp/" -*-

Compilation started at Sat May 18 22:19:19

a=./F && make $a && $a < unixdict.txt

f95 -Wall -ffree-form F.F -o F

ie ei cie cei

490 230 24 13

[^c]ie plausible

cei implausible

(cei) implausible

Compilation finished at Sat May 18 22:19:19

test the plausibility of i before e except...

program cia

 implicit none
 character (len=256) :: s
 integer :: ie, ei, cie, cei
 integer :: ios
 data ie, ei, cie, cei/4*0/
 do while (.true.)
   read(5,*,iostat = ios)s
   if (0 .ne. ios) then
     exit
   endif
   call lower_case(s)
   cie = cie + occurrences(s, 'cie')
   cei = cei + occurrences(s, 'cei')
   ie = ie + occurrences(s, 'ie')
   ei = ei + occurrences(s, 'ei')
 enddo
 write(6,'(1x,4(a4,1x))') 'ie','ei','cie','cei'
 write(6,'(1x,4(i4,1x))') ie,ei,cie,cei ! 488 230 24 13
 write(6,'(1x,2(a,1x))') '        [^c]ie',plausibility(ie,ei)
 write(6,'(1x,2(a,1x))') '           cei',plausibility(cei,cie)
 write(6,'(1x,2(a,1x))') '([^c]ie)|(cei)',plausibility(ie+cei,ei+cie)

contains

 subroutine lower_case(s)
   character(len=*), intent(inout) :: s
   integer :: i
   do i=1, len_trim(s)
     s(i:i) = achar(ior(iachar(s(i:i)),32))
   enddo
 end subroutine lower_case

 integer function occurrences(a,b)
   character(len=*), intent(in) :: a, b
   integer :: i, j, n
   n = 0
   i = 0
   j = index(a, b)
   do while (0 .lt. j)
     n = n+1
     i = i+len(b)+j-1
     j = index(a(i:), b)
   end do
   occurrences = n
 end function occurrences

 character*(32) function plausibility(da, nyet)
   integer, intent(in) :: da, nyet

write(0,*)da,nyet

   if (nyet*2 .lt. da) then
     plausibility = 'plausible'
   else
     plausibility = 'implausible'
   endif
 end function plausibility

end program cia </lang>

FreeBASIC

<lang FreeBASIC>Function getfile(file As String) As String

   Dim As Integer F = Freefile
   Dim As String text,intext
   Open file For Input As #F
   Line Input #F,text
   While Not Eof(F) 
       Line Input #F,intext
       text=text+Chr(10)+intext 
   Wend
   close #F
   Return text

End Function

Function TALLY(instring As String,PartString As String) As Integer

       Dim count As Integer
       var lens2=Len(PartString)
       Dim As String s=instring 
       Dim As Integer position=Instr(s,PartString)
       If position=0 Then Return 0
       While position>0
           count=count+1
           position=Instr(position+Lens2,s,PartString)
       Wend
       Function=count
   End Function

Dim As String myfile="unixdict.txt"

Dim As String wordlist= getfile(myfile) wordlist=lcase(wordlist)

print print "The number of words in unixdict.txt ",TALLY(wordlist,chr(10))+1 print dim as integer cei=TALLY(wordlist,"cei") print "Instances of cei",cei dim as integer cie=TALLY(wordlist,"cie") print "Instances of cie",cie print dim as integer ei=TALLY(wordlist,"ei") print "Instances of *ei, where * is not c",ei-cei dim as integer ie=TALLY(wordlist,"ie") print "Instances of *ie, where * is not c",ie-cie print print "Conclusion:" print "ie is plausible when not preceeded by c, the ratio is ";(ie-cie)/(ei-cei) print "ei is not plausible when preceeded by c, the ratio is ";cei/cie print "So, the idea is not plausible."

Sleep</lang>

Output:

The number of words in unixdict.txt        25104

Instances of cei             13
Instances of cie             24

Instances of *ei, where * is not c         217
Instances of *ie, where * is not c         466

Conclusion:
ie is plausible when not preceeded by c, the ratio is  2.147465437788018
ei is not plausible when preceeded by c, the ratio is  0.5416666666666666
So, the idea is not plausible.

FutureBasic

<lang futurebasic>include "NSLog.incl"

plist NSAppTransportSecurity @{NSAllowsArbitraryLoads:YES}

void local fn CheckWord( wrd as CFStringRef, txt as CFStringRef, c as ^long, x as ^long )

 CFRange range = fn StringRangeOfString( wrd, txt )
 while ( range.location != NSNotFound )
   if ( range.location > 0 )
     select ( fn StringCharacterAtIndex( wrd, range.location-1 ) )
       case _"c"
         *c += 1
       case else
         *x += 1
     end select
   else
     *x += 1
   end if
   range.location++
   range.length = len(wrd) - range.location
   range = fn StringRangeOfStringWithOptionsInRange( wrd, txt, 0, range )
 wend

end fn

void local fn Doit

 CFURLRef    url    = fn URLWithString( @"http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt" )
 CFStringRef string = fn StringWithContentsOfURL( url, NSUTF8StringEncoding, NULL )
 CFArrayRef  words  = fn StringComponentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet( string, fn CharacterSetNewlineSet )
 long        cei    = 0, cie = 0, xei = 0, xie = 0
 CFStringRef wrd, result
 
 for wrd in words
   fn CheckWord( wrd, @"ei", @cei, @xei )
   fn CheckWord( wrd, @"ie", @cie, @xie )
 next
 
 NSLog(@"cei: %ld",cei)
 NSLog(@"cie: %ld",cie)
 NSLog(@"xei: %ld",xei)
 NSLog(@"xie: %ld",xie)
 
 if 2 * xie <= cie then result = @"not plausible" else result = @"plausible"
 NSLog( @"\nI before E when not preceded by C: %@.\n¬
 There are %ld examples and %ld counter-examples for a ratio of %f.\n", ¬
 result, xie, xei, ( ( (float)xie - (float)cie ) / ( (float)xei - (float)cei ) ) )
 
 if 2 * cei <= xei then result = @"not plausible" else result = @"plausible"
 NSLog( @"E before I when preceded by C: %@.\n¬
 There are %ld examples and %ld counter-examples for a ratio of %f.\n", ¬
 result, cei, cie, ( (float)cei / (float)cie ) )

end fn

fn DoIt

HandleEvents</lang>

Output:

cei: 13
cie: 24
xei: 217
xie: 466

I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
There are 466 examples and 217 counter-examples for a ratio of 2.166667.

E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.
There are 13 examples and 24 counter-examples for a ratio of 0.541667.

Go

<lang go>package main

import ( "bufio" "fmt" "log" "os" "regexp" "strings" )

func main() { f, err := os.Open("unixdict.txt") if err != nil { log.Fatalln(err) } defer f.Close()

s := bufio.NewScanner(f) rie := regexp.MustCompile("^ie|[^c]ie") rei := regexp.MustCompile("^ei|[^c]ei") var cie, ie int var cei, ei int for s.Scan() { line := s.Text() if strings.Contains(line, "cie") { cie++ } if strings.Contains(line, "cei") { cei++ } if rie.MatchString(line) { ie++ } if rei.MatchString(line) { ei++ } } err = s.Err() if err != nil { log.Fatalln(err) }

if check(ie, ei, "I before E when not preceded by C") && check(cei, cie, "E before I when preceded by C") { fmt.Println("Both plausable.") fmt.Println(`"I before E, except after C" is plausable.`) } else { fmt.Println("One or both implausable.") fmt.Println(`"I before E, except after C" is implausable.`) } }

// check checks if a statement is plausible. Something is plausible if a is more // than two times b. func check(a, b int, s string) bool { switch { case a > b*2: fmt.Printf("%q is plausible (%d vs %d).\n", s, a, b) return true case a >= b: fmt.Printf("%q is implausible (%d vs %d).\n", s, a, b) default: fmt.Printf("%q is implausible and contra-indicated (%d vs %d).\n", s, a, b) } return false }</lang>

Output:

"I before E when not preceded by C" is plausible (465 vs 213).
"E before I when preceded by C" is implausible and contra-indicated (13 vs 24).
One or both implausable.
"I before E, except after C" is implausable.

Haskell

Using Regular Expressions, you can quickly count all occurrences of words that follow this rule and words that don't. In this solution, TDFA -- a fast, POSIX ERE engine -- was used. However, substituting any other regex engine for TDFA should only require changing the import statement. See this page for a list of the most common regex engines available in Haskell.

This solution does not attempt the stretch goal.

<lang Haskell>import Network.HTTP import Text.Regex.TDFA import Text.Printf

getWordList :: IO String getWordList = do

   response  <-  simpleHTTP.getRequest$ url
   getResponseBody response
       where url = "http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt"

main = do

   words <- getWordList
   putStrLn "Checking Rule 1: \"I before E when not preceded by C\"..."
   let numTrueRule1   =  matchCount (makeRegex "[^c]ie" :: Regex) words
       numFalseRule1  =  matchCount (makeRegex "[^c]ei" :: Regex) words
       rule1Plausible  =  numTrueRule1 > (2*numFalseRule1)
   printf "Rule 1 is correct for %d\n        incorrect for %d\n" numTrueRule1 numFalseRule1
   printf "*** Rule 1 is %splausible.\n" (if rule1Plausible then "" else "im")
   
   putStrLn "Checking Rule 2: \"E before I when preceded by C\"..."
   let numTrueRule2   =  matchCount (makeRegex "cei" :: Regex) words
       numFalseRule2  =  matchCount (makeRegex "cie" :: Regex) words
       rule2Plausible  =  numTrueRule2 > (2*numFalseRule2)
   printf "Rule 2 is correct for %d\n        incorrect for %d\n" numTrueRule2 numFalseRule2
   printf "*** Rule 2 is %splausible.\n" (if rule2Plausible then "" else "im")</lang>

Output:

Checking Rule 1: "I before E when not preceded by C"...
Rule 1 is correct for 465
        incorrect for 195
*** Rule 1 is plausible.
Checking Rule 2: "E before I when preceded by C"...
Rule 2 is correct for 13
        incorrect for 24
*** Rule 2 is implausible.

Icon and Unicon

This solution only works in Unicon, but wouldn't be hard to adapt to Icon. Assumes that words that start with "ei" violate "i before e except after c" and that occurrences of "ei" and "ie" that occur multiple times in the same input line should all be tested.

<lang Unicon>import Utils # To get the FindFirst class

procedure main(a)

   showCounts := "--showcounts" == !a
   totals := table(0)
   phrases := ["cei","cie","ei","ie"]  # Longer phrases first
   ff := FindFirst(phrases)

   every map(!&input) ?
       while totals[2(tab(ff.locate()), ff.moveMatch(), move(-1))] +:= 1

   eiP := totals["cei"] > 2* totals["cie"]
   ieP := (totals["ie"]+totals["cei"]) > 2* totals["ei"]
   write("phrase is ",((\ieP & \eiP),"plausible")|"not plausible")
   write("ie is ",(\ieP,"plausible")|"not plausible")
   write("ei is ",(\eiP,"plausible")|"not plausible")

   if \showCounts then every write(phrase := !phrases,": ",totals[phrase])

end</lang>

Output:

of running with --showcounts flag

-> ei --showcounts <unixdict.txt
phrase is not plausible
ie is plausible
ei is not plausible
cei: 13
cie: 24
ei: 217
ie: 466
->

stretch goal

<lang Unicon>import Utils # To get the FindFirst class

procedure main(a)

   WS := " \t"
   showCounts := "--showcounts" == !a
   phrases := ["cei","cie","ei","ie"]
   ff := FindFirst(phrases)
   totals := table(0)

   every map(!&input) ? {
       w := (tab(many(WS)),tab(upto(WS)))             # word
       (tab(many(WS)),tab(upto(WS)))                  # Skip part of speech
       n := integer((tab(many(WS)),tab(upto(WS)|0))) | next   # frequency?
       
       \w ? while totals[2(tab(ff.locate()), ff.moveMatch(), move(-1))] +:= n
       }

   eiP := totals["cei"] > 2* totals["cie"]
   ieP := (totals["ie"]+totals["cei"]) > 2* totals["ei"]
   write("phrase is ",((\ieP & \eiP),"plausible")|"not plausible")
   write("ie is ",(\ieP,"plausible")|"not plausible")
   write("ei is ",(\eiP,"plausible")|"not plausible")

   if \showCounts then every write(phrase := !phrases,": ",totals[phrase])

end</lang>

Output:

->ei2 --showcounts <1_2*txt
phrase is not plausible
ie is not plausible
ei is not plausible
cei: 327
cie: 994
ei: 4826
ie: 8207
->

J

After downloading unixdict to /tmp:

<lang J> dict=:tolower fread '/tmp/unixdict.txt'</lang>

Investigating the rules:

<lang J> +/'cie' E. dict 24

  +/'cei' E. dict

13

  +/'ie' E. dict

490

  +/'ei' E. dict

230</lang>

So, based on unixdict.txt, the "I before E" rule seems plausible (490 > 230 by more than a factor of 2), but the exception does not make much sense (we see almost twice as many i before e after a c as we see e before i after a c).

Note that if we looked at frequency of use for words, instead of considering all words to have equal weights, we might come up with a different answer.

stretch goal

After downloading 1_2_all_freq to /tmp, we can read it into J, and break out the first column (as words) and the third column as numbers:

<lang J>allfreq=: |:}.<;._1;._2]1!:1<'/tmp/1_2_all_freq.txt'

words=: >0 { allfreq freqs=: 0 {.@".&>2 { allfreq</lang>

With these definitions, we can define a prevalence verb which will tell us how often a particular substring is appears in use:

<lang J>prevalence=:verb define

 (y +./@E."1 words) +/ .* freqs

)</lang>

Investigating our original proposed rules:

<lang J> 'ie' %&prevalence 'ei' 1.76868</lang>

A generic "i before e" rule is not looking quite as good now - words that have i before e are used less than twice as much as words which use e before i.

<lang J> 'cei' %&prevalence 'cie' 0.328974</lang>

An "except after c" variant is looking awful now - words that use the cie sequence are three times as likely as words that use the cei sequence. So, of course, if we modified our original rule with this exception it would weaken the original rule:

<lang J> ('ie' -&prevalence 'cie') % ('ei' -&prevalence 'cei') 1.68255</lang>

Note that we might also want to consider non-adjacent matches (the regular expression 'i.*e' instead of 'ie' or perhaps 'c.*ie' or 'c.*i.*e' instead of 'cie') - this would be straightforward to check, but this would bulk up the page.

Java

Download and save wordlist to unixdict.txt.

<lang java> import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.FileReader;

public class IbeforeE { public static void main(String[] args) { IbeforeE now=new IbeforeE(); String wordlist="unixdict.txt"; if(now.isPlausibleRule(wordlist)) System.out.println("Rule is plausible."); else System.out.println("Rule is not plausible."); } boolean isPlausibleRule(String filename) { int truecount=0,falsecount=0; try { BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename)); String word; while((word=br.readLine())!=null) { if(isPlausibleWord(word)) truecount++; else if(isOppPlausibleWord(word)) falsecount++; } br.close(); } catch(Exception e) { System.out.println("Something went horribly wrong: "+e.getMessage()); }

System.out.println("Plausible count: "+truecount); System.out.println("Implausible count: "+falsecount); if(truecount>2*falsecount) return true; return false; } boolean isPlausibleWord(String word) { if(!word.contains("c")&&word.contains("ie")) return true; else if(word.contains("cei")) return true; return false; } boolean isOppPlausibleWord(String word) { if(!word.contains("c")&&word.contains("ei")) return true; else if(word.contains("cie")) return true; return false; } } </lang>

Output:

Plausible count: 384
Implausible count: 204
Rule is not plausible.

jq

Works with: jq version with regex support

WARNING: The problem statement is misleading as the rule only applies to syllables that rhyme with "see". <lang jq>def plausibility_ratio: 2;

scan/2 produces a stream of matches but the first match of a segment (e.g. cie)
blocks further matches with that segment, and therefore if scan produces "ie",
it was NOT preceded by "c".

def dictionary:

 reduce .[] as $word
   ( {};
     reduce ($word | scan("ie|ei|cie|cei")) as $found ( .; .[$found] += 1 ));

def rules:

 { "I before E when not preceded by C": ["ie",  "ei"],
   "E before I when preceded by C":     ["cei", "cie"]
  };

Round to nearest integer or else "round-up"

def round:

 if . < 0 then (-1 * ((- .) | round) | if . == -0 then 0 else . end)
 else floor as $x | if (. - $x) < 0.5 then $x else $x+1 end
 end;

def assess:

 (split("\n") | dictionary) as $dictionary

rules as $rules

keys[]) as $key

$rules[$key] as $fragments

$dictionary[$fragments[0]] as $x

$dictionary[$fragments[1]] as $y

($x / $y) as $ratio

(if $ratio > plausibility_ratio then "plausible"

    else "implausible" end) as $plausibility

" -- the rule \"\($key)\" is \($plausibility)

   as ratio = \($x)/\($y) ~ \($ratio * 100 |round)%"  ;

"Using the problematic criterion specified in the task requirements:", assess</lang>

Output:

Using http://www.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt as of June 2015: <lang sh>$ jq -s -R -r -f I_before_E_except_after_C.jq unixdict.txt Using the problematic criterion specified in the task requirements:

-- the rule "E before I when preceded by C" is implausible
   as ratio = 13/24 ~ 54%
-- the rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is plausible
   as ratio = 464/217 ~ 214%</lang>

Julia

<lang julia># v0.0.6

open("unixdict.txt") do txtfile

   rule1, notrule1, rule2, notrule2 = 0, 0, 0, 0
   for word in eachline(txtfile)
       # "I before E when not preceded by C"
       if ismatch(r"ie"i, word)
           if ismatch(r"cie"i, word)
               notrule1 += 1
           else
               rule1 += 1
           end
       end
       # "E before I when preceded by C"
       if ismatch(r"ei"i, word)
           if ismatch(r"cei"i, word)
               rule2 += 1
           else
               notrule2 += 1
           end
       end
   end

   print("Plausibility of \"I before E when not preceded by C\": ")
   println(rule1 > 2 * notrule1 ? "PLAUSIBLE" : "UNPLAUSIBLE")
   print("Plausibility of \"E before I when preceded by C\":")
   println(rule2 > 2 * notrule2 ? "PLAUSIBLE" : "UNPLAUSIBLE")

end</lang>

Output:

Plausibility of "I before E when not preceded by C": PLAUSIBLE
Plausibility of "E before I when preceded by C":UNPLAUSIBLE

Kotlin

<lang scala>// version 1.0.6

import java.net.URL import java.io.InputStreamReader import java.io.BufferedReader

fun isPlausible(n1: Int, n2: Int) = n1 > 2 * n2

fun printResults(source: String, counts: IntArray) {

   println("Results for $source")
   println("  i before e except after c")
   println("    for     ${counts[0]}")
   println("    against ${counts[1]}")
   val plausible1 = isPlausible(counts[0], counts[1])
   println("  sub-rule is${if (plausible1) "" else " not"} plausible\n")
   println("  e before i when preceded by c")
   println("    for     ${counts[2]}")
   println("    against ${counts[3]}")
   val plausible2 = isPlausible(counts[2], counts[3])
   println("  sub-rule is${if (plausible2) "" else " not"} plausible\n")
   val plausible = plausible1 && plausible2
   println("  rule is${if (plausible) "" else " not"} plausible")

}

fun main(args: Array<String>) {

   val url = URL("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt")
   val isr = InputStreamReader(url.openStream())
   val reader = BufferedReader(isr)
   val regexes = arrayOf(
       Regex("(^|[^c])ie"),     // i before e when not preceded by c (includes words starting with ie)
       Regex("(^|[^c])ei"),     // e before i when not preceded by c (includes words starting with ei)
       Regex("cei"),            // e before i when preceded by c
       Regex("cie")             // i before e when preceded by c       
   )
   val counts = IntArray(4) // corresponding counts of occurrences
   var word = reader.readLine()
   while (word != null) {
       for (i in 0..3) counts[i] += regexes[i].findAll(word).toList().size
       word = reader.readLine()
   }
   reader.close()
   printResults("unixdict.txt", counts)

   val url2 = URL("http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/lists/1_2_all_freq.txt")
   val isr2 = InputStreamReader(url2.openStream())
   val reader2 = BufferedReader(isr2)
   val counts2 = IntArray(4) 
   reader2.readLine() // read header line
   var line = reader2.readLine() // read first line and store it
   var words: List<String>
   val splitter = Regex("""(\t+|\s+)""")
   while (line != null) {
       words = line.split(splitter)
       if (words.size == 4)  // first element is empty
           for (i in 0..3) counts2[i] += regexes[i].findAll(words[1]).toList().size * words[3].toInt()
       line = reader2.readLine()
   }
   reader2.close()
   println()
   printResults("British National Corpus", counts2)

}</lang>

Output:

Results for unixdict.txt
  i before e except after c
    for     466
    against 217
  sub-rule is plausible

  e before i when preceded by c
    for     13
    against 24
  sub-rule is not plausible

  rule is not plausible

Results for British National Corpus
  i before e except after c
    for     8192
    against 4826
  sub-rule is not plausible

  e before i when preceded by c
    for     327
    against 994
  sub-rule is not plausible

  rule is not plausible

Lasso

<lang lasso> local(cie,cei,ie,ei) = (:0,0,0,0)

local(match_ie) = regExp(`[^c]ie`) local(match_ei) = regExp(`[^c]ei`)

with word in include_url(`http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt`)->asString->split("\n") where #word >> `ie` or #word >> `ei` do {

   #word >> `cie`
       ? #cie++
   #word >> `cei`
       ? #cei++

   #match_ie->reset(-input=#word, -ignoreCase)&find
       ? #ie++
   #match_ei->reset(-input=#word, -ignoreCase)&find
       ? #ei++

}

local(ie_plausible) = (#ie >= (2 * #ei)) local(cei_plausible) = (#cei >= (2 * #cie))

stdoutnl(

   `The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is ` +
   (#ie_plausible ?  | 'NOT-') + `PLAUSIBLE. There were ` +
   #ie + ` examples and ` + #ei + ` counter-examples.`

) stdoutnl(

   `The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is ` +
   (#cei_plausible ? `` | `NOT-`) + `PLAUSIBLE. There were ` +
   #cei + ` examples and ` + #cie + ` counter-examples.`

) stdoutnl(`Overall the rule is ` + (#ie_plausible and #cei_plausible ? `` | `NOT-`) + `PLAUSIBLE`) </lang>

Output:

The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is PLAUSIBLE. There were 464 examples and 194 counter-examples.
The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is NOT-PLAUSIBLE. There were 13 examples and 24 counter-examples.
Overall the rule is NOT-PLAUSIBLE

Lua

<lang Lua>-- Needed to get dictionary file from web server local http = require("socket.http")

-- Return count of words that contain pattern function count (pattern, wordList)

   local total = 0
   for word in wordList:gmatch("%S+") do
       if word:match(pattern) then total = total + 1 end
   end
   return total

end

-- Check plausibility of case given its opposite function plaus (case, opposite, words)

   if count(case, words) > 2 * count(opposite, words) then
       print("PLAUSIBLE")
       return true
   else
       print("IMPLAUSIBLE")
       return false
   end

end

-- Main procedure local page = http.request("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt") io.write("I before E when not preceded by C: ") local sub1 = plaus("[^c]ie", "cie", page) io.write("E before I when preceded by C: ") local sub2 = plaus("cei", "[^c]ei", page) io.write("Overall the phrase is ") if not (sub1 and sub2) then io.write("not ") end print("plausible.")</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: PLAUSIBLE
E before I when preceded by C: IMPLAUSIBLE
Overall the phrase is not plausible.

Maple

<lang Maple>words:= HTTP:-Get("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt"): lst := StringTools:-Split(words[2],"\n"): xie, cie, cei, xei := 0, 0, 0, 0: for item in lst do if searchtext("ie", item) <> 0 then if searchtext("cie", item) <> 0 then cie := cie + 1: else xie := xie + 1: fi: fi: if searchtext("ei", item) <> 0 then if searchtext("cei", item) <> 0 then cei := cei + 1: else xei := xei + 1: fi: fi: od: p1, p2 := evalb(xie > 2*xei),evalb(cei > 2*cie); printf("The first phrase is %s with supporting features %d, anti features %d\n", piecewise(p1, "plausible", "not plausible"), xie, xei); printf("The seond phrase is %s with supporting features %d, anti features %d\n", piecewise(p2, "plausible", "not plausible"), cei, cie); printf("The overall phrase is %s\n", piecewise(p1 and p2, "plausible", "not plausible")):</lang>

Output:

The first phrase is plausible with supporting features 465 and anti features 213
The second phrase is not plausible with supporting features 13 and anti features 24
The overall phrase is not plausible

Mathematica / Wolfram Language

<lang mathematica>wordlist =

 Import["http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt", 
  "Words"];

Print["The number of words in unixdict.txt = " <>

 ToString[Length[wordlist]]]

StringMatchQ[#, ___ ~~ "c" ~~ "i" ~~ "e" ~~ ___] & /@ wordlist ; cie = Count[%, True]; StringMatchQ[#, ___ ~~ "c" ~~ "e" ~~ "i" ~~ ___] & /@ wordlist ; cei = Count[%, True]; StringMatchQ[#, ___ ~~ "i" ~~ "e" ~~ ___] & /@ wordlist ; ie = Count[%, True] - cie; StringMatchQ[#, ___ ~~ "e" ~~ "i" ~~ ___] & /@ wordlist ; ei = Count[%, True] - cei; test1 = ie > 2 ei; Print["The rule \"I before E when not preceded by C\" is " <>

 If[test1, "PLAUSIBLE", "NOT PLAUSIBLE"]]

Print["There were " <> ToString[ie] <> " examples and " <>

 ToString[ei]  <> " counter examples, for a ratio of " <> 
 ToString[N[ie/ei]]]

test2 = cei > 2 cie; Print["The rule \"E before I when preceded by C\" is " <>

 If[test2, "PLAUSIBLE", "NOT PLAUSIBLE"]]

Print["There were " <> ToString[cei] <> " examples and " <>

 ToString[cie]  <> " counter examples, for a ratio of " <> 
 ToString[N[cei/cie]]]

Print["Overall the rule is " <>

 If[test1 && test2, "PLAUSIBLE", "NOT PLAUSIBLE" ]]</lang>

Output:

<lang mathematica>The number of words in unixdict.txt = 25104 The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is PLAUSIBLE There were 465 examples and 213 counter examples, for a ratio of 2.1831 The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is NOT PLAUSIBLE There were 13 examples and 24 counter examples, for a ratio of 0.541667 Overall the rule is NOT PLAUSIBLE </lang>

MATLAB / Octave

This example is incomplete. Is the original phrase plausible? Please ensure that it meets all task requirements and remove this message.

<lang MATLAB>function i_before_e_except_after_c(f)

fid = fopen(f,'r'); nei = 0; cei = 0; nie = 0; cie = 0; while ~feof(fid) c = strsplit(strtrim(fgetl(fid)),char([9,32])); if length(c) > 2, n = str2num(c{3}); else n = 1; end; if strfind(c{1},'ei')>1, nei=nei+n; end; if strfind(c{1},'cei'), cei=cei+n; end; if strfind(c{1},'ie')>1, nie=nie+n; end; if strfind(c{1},'cie'), cie=cie+n; end; end; fclose(fid);

printf('cie: %i\nnie: %i\ncei: %i\nnei: %i\n',cie,nie-cie,cei,nei-cei); v = ; if (nie < 3 * cie) v=' not'; end printf('I before E when not preceded by C: is%s plausible\n',v); v = ; if (nei > 3 * cei) v=' not'; end printf('E before I when preceded by C: is%s plausible\n',v); </lang>

octave:23> i_before_e_except_after_c 1_2_all_freq.txt 
cie: 994
nie: 8133
cei: 327
nei: 4274
I before E when not preceded by C: is plausible
E before I when preceded by C: is not plausible
octave:24> i_before_e_except_after_c unixdict.txt
cie: 24
nie: 464
cei: 13
nei: 191
I before E when not preceded by C: is plausible
E before I when preceded by C: is not plausible

Modula-2

<lang modula2>MODULE IEC; IMPORT SeqIO; IMPORT Texts; FROM InOut IMPORT WriteString, WriteCard, WriteLn; FROM Strings IMPORT Pos;

VAR words, cie, cei, xie, xei: CARDINAL;

   xie_plausible, cei_plausible: BOOLEAN;

PROCEDURE Classify(word: ARRAY OF CHAR);

   VAR end: CARDINAL;

BEGIN

   INC(words);
   end := Pos("", word);
   
   IF Pos("ie", word) # end THEN
       IF Pos("cie", word) # end 
       THEN INC(cie);
       ELSE INC(xie);
       END;
   ELSIF Pos("ei", word) # end THEN
       IF Pos("cei", word) # end
       THEN INC(cei);
       ELSE INC(xei);
       END;
   END;

END Classify;

PROCEDURE ProcessFile(filename: ARRAY OF CHAR);

   VAR file: SeqIO.FILE;
       dict: Texts.TEXT;
       word: ARRAY [0..63] OF CHAR;
       fs: SeqIO.FileState;
       ts: Texts.TextState;

BEGIN

   fs := SeqIO.Open(file, filename);
   ts := Texts.Connect(dict, file);
   
   WHILE NOT Texts.EOT(dict) DO
       Texts.ReadLn(dict, word);
       Classify(word);
   END;
   
   ts := Texts.Disconnect(dict);
   fs := SeqIO.Close(file);

END ProcessFile;

PROCEDURE WriteStat(name: ARRAY OF CHAR; num: CARDINAL); BEGIN

   WriteString(name);
   WriteString(": ");
   WriteCard(num, 0);
   WriteLn;

END WriteStat;

PROCEDURE Plausible(feature: ARRAY OF CHAR; match, nomatch: CARDINAL): BOOLEAN;

   VAR plausible: BOOLEAN;

BEGIN

   WriteString(feature);
   WriteString(": ");
   plausible := 2 * match > nomatch;
   IF NOT plausible THEN
       WriteString("not ");
   END;
   WriteString("plausible.");
   WriteLn;
   RETURN plausible;

END Plausible;

BEGIN

   words := 0;
   cie := 0;
   cei := 0;
   xie := 0;
   xei := 0;
   
   ProcessFile("unixdict.txt");
   WriteStat("Amount of words", words);
   WriteStat("CIE", cie);
   WriteStat("xIE", xie);
   WriteStat("CEI", cei);
   WriteStat("xEI", xei);
   WriteLn;
   
   xie_plausible := 
       Plausible("I before E when not preceded by C", xie, cie);
   cei_plausible :=
       Plausible("E before I when preceded by C", cei, xei);
   
   WriteString("I before E, except after C: ");
   IF NOT (xie_plausible AND cei_plausible) THEN
       WriteString("not ");
   END;
   WriteString("plausible.");
   WriteLn;

END IEC.</lang>

Output:

Amount of words: 50209
CIE: 24
xIE: 465
CEI: 13
xEI: 209

I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.
I before E, except after C: not plausible.

Nim

<lang Nim>import httpclient, strutils, strformat

const

 Rule1 = "\"I before E when not preceded by C\""
 Rule2 = "\"E before I when preceded by C\""
 Phrase = "\"I before E except after C\""
 PlausibilityText: array[bool, string] = ["not plausible", "plausible"]

proc plausibility(rule: string; count1, count2: int): bool =

 ## Compute, display and return plausibility.
 result = count1 > 2 * count2
 stdout.write &"The rule {rule} is {PlausibilityText[result]}: "
 echo &"there were {count1} examples and {count2} counter-examples."

let client = newHttpClient()

var nie, cie, nei, cei = 0 for word in client.getContent("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt").split():

 if word.contains("ie"):
   if word.contains("cie"):
     inc cie
   else:
     inc nie
 if word.contains("ei"):
   if word.contains("cei"):
     inc cei
   else:
     inc nei

let p1 = plausibility(Rule1, nie, nei) let p2 = plausibility(Rule2, cei, cie) echo &"So the phrase {Phrase} is {PlausibilityText[p1 and p2]}."</lang>

Output:

The rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is plausible: there were 465 examples and 213 counter-examples.
The rule "E before I when preceded by C" is not plausible: there were 13 examples and 24 counter-examples.
So the phrase "I before E except after C" is not plausible.

Objeck

Translation of: Seed7

<lang objeck> use HTTP; use Collection;

class HttpTest {

 function : Main(args : String[]) ~ Nil {
   IsPlausibleRule("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt");
 }

 function : PlausibilityCheck(comment : String, x : Int, y : Int) ~ Bool {
   ratio := x->As(Float) / y->As(Float);
   "  Checking plausibility of: {$comment}"->PrintLine();
   if(x > 2 * y) {
     "    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of {$x} vs {$y} words, a ratio of {$ratio} times"->PrintLine();
   }
   else if(x > y) {
     "    IMPLAUSIBLE. As although we have counts of {$x} vs {$y} words, a ratio of {$ratio} times does not make it plausible"->PrintLine();
   }
   else {
     "    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of {$x} vs {$y} words, a ratio of {$ratio} times"->PrintLine();
   };

   return x > 2 * y;
 }

 function : IsPlausibleRule(url : String) ~ Nil {
   truecount := 0;
   falsecount := 0;

   client := HttpClient->New();
   data := client->Get(url)->Get(0)->As(String);
   data := data->ToLower();
   words := data->Split("\n");

   cie := Count("cie", words);
   cei := Count("cei", words);
   not_c_ie := Count("ie", words) - cie;
   not_c_ei := Count("ei", words) - cei;

   "Checking plausibility of \"I before E except after C\":"->PrintLine();
   if(PlausibilityCheck("I before E when not preceded by C", not_c_ie, not_c_ei) &
       PlausibilityCheck("E before I when preceded by C", cei, cie)) {
     "OVERALL IT IS PLAUSIBLE!"->PrintLine();
   }
   else {
     "OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!"->PrintLine();
     "(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by 2 times)"->PrintLine();
   };
 }

 function : Count(check: String, words : String[]) ~ Int {
   count := 0;

   each(i : words) {
     if(words[i]->Find(check) > -1) {
       count += 1;
     };
   };

   return count;
 }

} </lang>

Output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":
  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of 465 vs 213 words, a ratio of 2.183 times
  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
            IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of 13 vs 24 words, a ratio of 0.542 times
OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!
(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by 2 times)

Perl

<lang perl>#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict;

sub result {

   my ($support, $against) = @_;
   my $ratio  = sprintf '%.2f', $support / $against;
   my $result = $ratio >= 2;
   print "$support / $against = $ratio. ", 'NOT ' x !$result, "PLAUSIBLE\n";
   return $result;

}

my @keys = qw(ei cei ie cie); my %count;

while (<>) {

   for my $k (@keys) {
       $count{$k}++ if -1 != index $_, $k;
   }

}

my ($support, $against, $result);

print 'I before E when not preceded by C: '; $support = $count{ie} - $count{cie}; $against = $count{ei} - $count{cei}; $result += result($support, $against);

print 'E before I when preceded by C: '; $support = $count{cei}; $against = $count{cie}; $result += result($support, $against);

print 'Overall: ', 'NOT ' x ($result < 2), "PLAUSIBLE.\n";</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: 465 / 213 = 2.18. PLAUSIBLE
E before I when preceded by C: 13 / 24 = 0.54. NOT PLAUSIBLE
Overall: NOT PLAUSIBLE.

Perl: Stretch Goal

Just replace the while loop with the following one: <lang perl>while (<>) {

   my @columns = split;
   next if 3 < @columns;
   my ($word, $freq) = @columns[0, 2];
   for my $k (@keys) {
       $count{$k} += $freq if -1 != index $word, $k;
   }

}</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: 8148 / 4826 = 1.69. NOT PLAUSIBLE
E before I when preceded by C: 327 / 994 = 0.33. NOT PLAUSIBLE
Overall: NOT PLAUSIBLE.

Phix

Kept dirt simple, difficult to imagine any other approach being faster than this.

-- demo\rosetta\IbeforeE.exw
with javascript_semantics
procedure show_plausibility(string msg, integer w, wo)
    string no = iff(w<2*wo?" not":"")
    printf(1, "%s (pro: %3d, anti: %3d) is%s plausible\n",{msg,w,wo,no})
end procedure

string text = join(unix_dict())
-- Note: my unixdict.txt begins with "10th" and ends with "zygote", so 
-- boundary checks such as "i>=2 and i+1<=length(text)" can be skipped.
integer cei=0, xei=0, cie=0, xie=0
for i=1 to length(text) do
    if text[i]='i' then
        if text[i-1]='e' then
            if text[i-2]='c' then
                cei += 1
            else
                xei += 1
            end if
        end if
        -- (nb not elsif here; "eie" occurs twice)
        if text[i+1]='e' then
            if text[i-1]='c' then
                cie += 1
            else
                xie += 1
            end if
        end if
    end if
end for
printf(1,"occurances: cie:%d, xie:%d, cei:%d, xei:%d\n", {cie,xie,cei,xei})
show_plausibility( "i before e except after c", xie, cie );
show_plausibility( "e before i except after c", xei, cei );
show_plausibility( "i before e   when after c", cie, cei );
show_plausibility( "e before i   when after c", cei, cie );
show_plausibility( "i before e     in general", xie + cie, xei + cei );
show_plausibility( "e before i     in general", xei + cei, xie + cie )

Output:

Although the output matches, I decided to use different metrics from ALGOL 68 for the middle two conclusions.
I am not confident these are meaningful/correct logical inferences anyway, but the raw numbers are right.
(Being told ib4eeac is more often wrong than right has quite clearly made me start to doubt myself.)

occurances: cie:24, xie:466, cei:13, xei:217
i before e except after c (pro: 466, anti:  24) is plausible
e before i except after c (pro: 217, anti:  13) is plausible
i before e   when after c (pro:  24, anti:  13) is not plausible
e before i   when after c (pro:  13, anti:  24) is not plausible
i before e     in general (pro: 490, anti: 230) is plausible
e before i     in general (pro: 230, anti: 490) is not plausible

Picat

 Words = read_file_lines("unixdict.txt"),
 IEWords = [Word : Word in Words, find(Word,"ie",_,_)],
 EIWords = [Word : Word in Words, find(Word,"ei",_,_)],

 % cie vs not cie
 [CIE_len, CIE_not_len] = partition_len(IEWords,"cie"),
 println([cie=CIE_len,cie_not=CIE_not_len]),

 % cei vs not cei
 [CEI_len, CEI_not_len] = partition_len(EIWords,"cei"),
 println([cei=CEI_len,cei_not=CEI_not_len]),

 nl,
 printf("I before E when not preceeded by C (%d vs %d): %w\n",
                CIE_not_len,CEI_not_len,plausible(CIE_not_len,CEI_not_len)),  
 printf("E before I when preceeded by C (%d cs %d): %w\n",
                CEI_len,CIE_len,plausible(CEI_len,CIE_len)).

plausible(Len1,Len2) = cond(Len1 / Len2 > 2,"plausible","not plausible").

partition_len(Words,Sub) = [True.len, False.len] =>

 True = [],
 False = [],
 foreach(Word in Words)
   if find(Word,Sub,_,_) then
     True := [Word|True]
   else
     False := [Word|False]    
   end
 end.</lang>

Output:

[cie = 24,cie_not = 465]
[cei = 13,cei_not = 213]

I before E when not preceeded by C (465 vs 213): plausible
E before I when preceeded by C (13 cs 24): not plausible

PicoLisp

<lang PicoLisp>(de ibEeaC (File . Prg)

  (let
     (Cie (let N 0 (in File (while (from "cie") (run Prg))))
        Nie (let N 0 (in File (while (from "ie") (run Prg))))
        Cei (let N 0 (in File (while (from "cei") (run Prg))))
        Nei (let N 0 (in File (while (from "ei") (run Prg)))) )
     (prinl "cie: " Cie)
     (prinl "nie: " (dec 'Nie Cie))
     (prinl "cei: " Cei)
     (prinl "nei: " (dec 'Nei Cei))
     (let (NotI (> (* 3 Cie) Nie)  NotE (> Nei (* 3 Cei)))
        (prinl
           "I before E except after C: is"
           (and NotI " not")
           " plausible" )
        (prinl
           "E before I when after C: is"
           (and NotE " not")
           " plausible" )
        (prinl
           "Overall rule is"
           (and (or NotI NotE) " not")
           " plausible" ) ) ) )

(ibEeaC "unixdict.txt"

  (inc 'N) )

(prinl)

(ibEeaC "1_2_all_freq.txt"

  (inc 'N (format (stem (line) "\t"))) )</lang>

Output:

cie: 24
nie: 466
cei: 13
nei: 217
I before E except after C: is plausible
E before I when after C: is not plausible
Overall rule is not plausible

cie: 994
nie: 8148
cei: 327
nei: 4826
I before E except after C: is plausible
E before I when after C: is not plausible
Overall rule is not plausible

PL/I

<lang pli>iBeforeE: procedure options(main);

   declare dict file;
   open file(dict) title('unixdict.txt');
   on endfile(dict) go to report;
   
   declare (cie, xie, cei, xei) fixed;
   declare word char(32) varying;
   cie = 0;
   xie = 0;
   cei = 0;
   xei = 0;
   do while('1'b);
       get file(dict) list(word);
       if index(word, 'ie') ^= 0 then
           if index(word, 'cie') ^= 0 then
               cie = cie + 1;
           else
               xie = xie + 1;
       if index(word, 'ei') ^= 0 then
           if index(word, 'cei') ^= 0 then
               cei = cei + 1;
           else
               xei = xei + 1;
               
   end;

report:

   close file(dict);
   put skip list('CIE:', cie);
   put skip list('xIE:', xie);
   put skip list('CEI:', cei);
   put skip list('xEI:', xei);
   
   declare (ieNotC, eiC) bit;
   ieNotC = xie * 2 > cie;
   eiC = cei * 2 > xei;

   put skip list('I before E when not preceded by C:');
   if ^ieNotC then put list('not');
   put list('plausible.');

   put skip list('E before I when preceded by C:');
   if ^eiC then put list('not');
   put list('plausible.');

   put skip list('I before E, except after C:');
   if ^(ieNotC & eiC) then put list('not');
   put list('plausible.');

end iBeforeE;</lang>

Output:

CIE:        24
xIE:       465
CEI:        13
xEI:       213
I before E when not preceded by C: plausible.
E before I when preceded by C: not plausible.
I before E, except after C: not plausible.

PowerShell

<lang Powershell>$Web = New-Object -TypeName Net.Webclient $Words = $web.DownloadString('http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt')

$IE = $EI = $CIE = $CEI = @()

$Clause1 = $Clause2 = $MainClause = $false

foreach ($Word in $Words.split()) {

   switch ($Word)
   {
       {($_ -like '*ie*') -and ($_ -notlike '*cie*')} {$IE += $Word}
       {($_ -like '*ei*') -and ($_ -notlike '*cei*')} {$EI += $Word}
       {$_ -like '*cei*'} {$CEI += $Word}
       {$_ -like '*cie*'} {$CIE += $Word}
   }

}

if ($IE.count -gt $EI.count * 2) {$Clause1 = $true} "The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is $Clause1"

if ($CEI.count -gt $CIE.count * 2) {$Clause2 = $true} "The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is $Clause2"

if ($Clause1 -and $Clause2) {$MainClause = $True} "The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is $MainClause"</lang>

Output:

The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is True
The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is False
The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is False

Alternative Implementation

<lang Powershell>$Web = New-Object -TypeName Net.Webclient $Words = $web.DownloadString('http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt')

$IE = $EI = $CIE = $CEI = @()

$Clause1 = $Clause2 = $MainClause = $false

foreach ($Word in $Words.split()) {

   switch ($Word)
   {
       {$_ -like '*cei*'} {$CEI += $Word; break}
       {$_ -like '*cie*'} {$CIE += $Word; break}
       {$_ -like '*ie*'}  {$IE += $Word}
       {$_ -like '*ei*'}  {$EI += $Word}
   }

}

if ($IE.count -gt $EI.count * 2) {$Clause1 = $true} "The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is $Clause1"

if ($CEI.count -gt $CIE.count * 2) {$Clause2 = $true} "The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is $Clause2"

if ($Clause1 -and $Clause2) {$MainClause = $True} "The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is $MainClause"</lang>

Output:

The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is True
The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is False
The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is False

Alternative Implementation 2

A single pass through the wordlist using the regex engine. <lang Powershell>$webResult = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt -UseBasicParsing

$cie, $cei, $_ie, $_ei = 0, 0, 0, 0

[regex]::Matches($webResult.Content, '.(ie|ei)').foreach{

 if     ($_.Value    -eq 'cie') { $cie+=2 }
 elseif ($_.Value    -eq 'cei') { $cei++  }
 elseif ($_.Value[1] -eq  'i' ) { $_ie++  }
 else                           { $_ei+=2 }

}

"I before E when not preceded by C is plausible: $($_ie -gt $_ei)" "E before I when preceded by C is plausible: $($cei -gt $cie)" "I before E, except after C is plausible: $(($_ie -gt $_ei) -and ($cei -gt $cie))"</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C is plausible: True
E before I when preceded by C is plausible: False
I before E, except after C is plausible: False

PureBasic

<lang purebasic>If ReadFile(1,GetPathPart(ProgramFilename())+"wordlist(en).txt")

 While Not Eof(1)
   wl$+ReadString(1)+";"
 Wend
 CloseFile(1)

EndIf

OpenConsole() PrintN("Number of words in [wordlist(en).txt]: "+CountString(wl$,";")) cei.i=CountString(wl$,"cei") : PrintN("Instances of [cei] : "+Str(cei)) cie.i=CountString(wl$,"cie") : PrintN("Instances of [cie] : "+Str(cie)) Print("Rule: 'e' before 'i' when preceded by 'c' is = ") If cei>cie : PrintN("plausible") : Else : PrintN("not plausible") : EndIf wl$=RemoveString(wl$,"cei") : wl$=RemoveString(wl$,"cie") PrintN("") ei.i=CountString(wl$,"ei") : PrintN("Instances of [*ei] '*'<>'c' : "+Str(ei)) ie.i=CountString(wl$,"ie") : PrintN("Instances of [*ie] '*'<>'c' : "+Str(ie)) Print("Rule: 'i' before 'e' when not preceded by 'c' is = ") If ie>ei : PrintN("plausible") : Else : PrintN("not plausible") : EndIf PrintN("") Print("Overall the rule is : ") If cei>cie And ie>ei : PrintN("PLAUSIBLE") : Else : PrintN("NOT PLAUSIBLE") : EndIf Input()</lang>

Output:

Number of words in [wordlist(en).txt]: 25104
Instances of [cei]                   : 13
Instances of [cie]                   : 24
Rule: 'e' before 'i' when preceded by 'c' is = not plausible

Instances of [*ei] '*'<>'c'          : 217
Instances of [*ie] '*'<>'c'          : 466
Rule: 'i' before 'e' when not preceded by 'c' is = plausible

Overall the rule is : NOT PLAUSIBLE

Python

<lang python>import urllib.request import re

PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO = 2

def plausibility_check(comment, x, y):

   print('\n  Checking plausibility of: %s' % comment)
   if x > PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y:
       print('    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of %i vs %i, a ratio of %4.1f times'
             % (x, y, x / y))
   else:
       if x > y:
           print('    IMPLAUSIBLE. As although we have counts of %i vs %i, a ratio of %4.1f times does not make it plausible'
                 % (x, y, x / y))
       else:
           print('    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of %i vs %i, a ratio of %4.1f times'
                 % (x, y, x / y))
   return x > PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y

def simple_stats(url='http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt'):

   words = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read().decode().lower().split()
   cie = len({word for word in words if 'cie' in word})
   cei = len({word for word in words if 'cei' in word})
   not_c_ie = len({word for word in words if re.search(r'(^ie|[^c]ie)', word)})
   not_c_ei = len({word for word in words if re.search(r'(^ei|[^c]ei)', word)})
   return cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei

def print_result(cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei):

   if ( plausibility_check('I before E when not preceded by C', not_c_ie, not_c_ei)
        & plausibility_check('E before I when preceded by C', cei, cie) ):
       print('\nOVERALL IT IS PLAUSIBLE!')
   else:
       print('\nOVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!')
   print('(To be plausible, one count must exceed another by %i times)' % PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO)

print('Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":') print_result(*simple_stats())</lang>

Output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":

  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of 465 vs 213, a ratio of  2.2 times

  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of 13 vs 24, a ratio of  0.5 times

OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!
(To be plausible, one count must exceed another by 2 times)

Python: Stretch Goal

Add the following to the bottom of the previous program: <lang python>def stretch_stats(url='http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/lists/1_2_all_freq.txt'):

   freq = [line.strip().lower().split()
           for line in urllib.request.urlopen(url)
           if len(line.strip().split()) == 3]
   wordfreq = [(word.decode(), int(frq))
               for word, pos, frq in freq[1:]
               if (b'ie' in word) or (b'ei' in word)]
   cie = sum(frq for word, frq in wordfreq if 'cie' in word)
   cei = sum(frq for word, frq in wordfreq if 'cei' in word)
   not_c_ie = sum(frq for word, frq in wordfreq if re.search(r'(^ie|[^c]ie)', word))
   not_c_ei = sum(frq for word, frq in wordfreq if re.search(r'(^ei|[^c]ei)', word))
   return cei, cie, not_c_ie, not_c_ei

print('\n\nChecking plausibility of "I before E except after C"') print('And taking account of word frequencies in British English:') print_result(*stretch_stats())</lang>

Produces this extra output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C"
And taking account of word frequencies in British English:

  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE. As although we have counts of 8192 vs 4826, a ratio of  1.7 times does not make it plausible

  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of 327 vs 994, a ratio of  0.3 times

OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!
(To be plausible, one count must exceed another by 2 times)

QBasic

Translation of: BASIC

<lang QBasic>DEFINT A-Z DIM W AS STRING CLS OPEN "I", 1, "UNIXDICT.TXT" DO

   LINE INPUT #1, W
   IF INSTR(W, "ie") THEN IF INSTR(W, "cie") THEN CI = CI + 1 ELSE XI = XI + 1
   IF INSTR(W, "ei") THEN IF INSTR(W, "cei") THEN CE = CE + 1 ELSE XE = XE + 1

LOOP WHILE NOT EOF(1) CLOSE #1

PRINT "CIE:"; CI PRINT "xIE:"; XI PRINT "CEI:"; CE PRINT "xEI:"; XE PRINT PRINT "I before E when not preceded by C: "; IF 2 * XI <= CI THEN PRINT "not "; PRINT "plausible." PRINT "E before I when preceded by C: "; IF 2 * CE <= XE THEN PRINT "not "; PRINT "plausible."</lang>

R

<lang rsplus>words = tolower(readLines("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt")) ie.npc = sum(grepl("(?<!c)ie", words, perl = T)) ei.npc = sum(grepl("(?<!c)ei", words, perl = T)) ie.pc = sum(grepl("cie", words, fixed = T)) ei.pc = sum(grepl("cei", words, fixed = T))

p1 = ie.npc > 2 * ei.npc p2 = ei.pc > 2 * ie.pc

message("(1) is ", (if (p1) "" else "not "), "plausible.") message("(2) is ", (if (p2) "" else "not "), "plausible.") message("The whole phrase is ", (if (p1 && p2) "" else "not "), "plausible.")</lang>

Output:

(1) is plausible.
(2) is not plausible.
The whole phrase is not plausible.

Racket

<lang racket>#lang racket

(define (get-tallies filename line-parser . patterns)

 (for/fold ([totals (make-list (length patterns) 0)])
   ([line (file->lines filename)])
   (match-let ([(list word n) (line-parser line)])
     (for/list ([p patterns] [t totals])
       (if (regexp-match? p word) 
           (+ n t) t)))))

(define (plausible test) (string-append (if test "" "IM") "PLAUSIBLE"))

(define (subrule description examples counters)

 (let ([result (> examples (* 2 counters))])
   (printf "  The sub-rule \"~a\" is ~a.  There were ~a examples and ~a counter-examples.\n" 
           description (plausible result) examples counters)
   result))

(define (plausibility description filename parser)

 (printf "~a:\n" description)
 (match-let ([(list cei cie ie ei) (get-tallies filename parser "cei" "cie" "ie" "ei")])
   (let ([rule1 (subrule "I before E when not preceded by C" (- ie cie) (- ei cei))]
         [rule2 (subrule "E before I when preceded by C" cei cie)])
     (printf "\n  Overall, the rule \"I before E, except after C\" is ~a.\n"
             (plausible (and rule1 rule2))))))

(define (parse-frequency-data line)

 (let ([words (string-split line)])
   (list (string-join (drop-right words 2)) (string->number (last words)))))

(plausibility "Dictionary" "unixdict.txt" (λ (line) (list line 1))) (newline) (plausibility "Word frequencies (stretch goal)" "1_2_all_freq.txt" parse-frequency-data)</lang>

Output:

Dictionary:
  The sub-rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is PLAUSIBLE.  There were 465 examples and 213 counter-examples.
  The sub-rule "E before I when preceded by C" is IMPLAUSIBLE.  There were 13 examples and 24 counter-examples.

  Overall, the rule "I before E, except after C" is IMPLAUSIBLE.

Word frequencies (stretch goal):
  The sub-rule "I before E when not preceded by C" is IMPLAUSIBLE.  There were 8163 examples and 4826 counter-examples.
  The sub-rule "E before I when preceded by C" is IMPLAUSIBLE.  There were 327 examples and 994 counter-examples.

  Overall, the rule "I before E, except after C" is IMPLAUSIBLE.

Raku

(formerly Perl 6) This solution uses grammars and actions to parse the given file, the Bag for tallying up occurrences of each possible thing we're looking for ("ie", "ei", "cie", and "cei"), and junctions to determine the plausibility of a phrase from the subphrases. Note that a version of rakudo newer than the January 2014 compiler or Star releases is needed, as this code relies on a recent bugfix to the make function. <lang perl6>grammar CollectWords {

   token TOP {
       [^^ <word> $$ \n?]+
   }

   token word {
       [ <with_c> | <no_c> | \N ]+
   }

   token with_c {
       c <ie_part>
   }

   token no_c {
       <ie_part>
   }

   token ie_part {
       ie | ei | eie # a couple words in the list have "eie"
   }

}

class CollectWords::Actions {

   method TOP($/) {
       make $<word>».ast.flat.Bag;
   }

   method word($/) {
       if $<with_c> + $<no_c> {
           make flat $<with_c>».ast, $<no_c>».ast;
       } else {
           make ();
       }
   }

   method with_c($/) {
       make "c" X~ $<ie_part>.ast;
   }

   method no_c($/) {
       make "!c" X~ $<ie_part>.ast;
   }

   method ie_part($/) {
       if ~$/ eq 'eie' {
           make ('ei', 'ie');
       } else {
           make ~$/;
       }
   }

}

sub plausible($good, $bad, $msg) {

   if $good > 2*$bad {
       say "$msg: PLAUSIBLE ($good  vs. $bad ✘)";
       return True;
   } else {
       say "$msg: NOT PLAUSIBLE ($good  vs. $bad ✘)";
       return False;
   }

}

my $results = CollectWords.parsefile("unixdict.txt", :actions(CollectWords::Actions)).ast;

my $phrasetest = [&] plausible($results<!cie>, $results<!cei>, "I before E when not preceded by C"),

                    plausible($results<cei>, $results<cie>, "E before I when preceded by C");

say "I before E except after C: ", $phrasetest ?? "PLAUSIBLE" !! "NOT PLAUSIBLE";</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: PLAUSIBLE (466  vs. 217 ✘)
E before I when preceded by C: NOT PLAUSIBLE (13  vs. 24 ✘)
I before E except after C: NOT PLAUSIBLE

Raku: Stretch Goal

Note that within the original text file, a tab character was erroneously replaced with a space. Thus, the following changes to the text file are needed before this solution will run:

--- orig_1_2_all_freq.txt	2014-02-01 14:36:53.124121018 -0800
+++ 1_2_all_freq.txt	2014-02-01 14:37:10.525552980 -0800
@@ -2488,7 +2488,7 @@
 	other than	Prep	43
 	visited	Verb	43
 	cross	NoC	43
-	lie Verb	43
+	lie	Verb	43
 	grown	Verb	43
 	crowd	NoC	43
 	recognised	Verb	43

This solution requires just a few modifications to the grammar and actions from the non-stretch goal. <lang perl6>grammar CollectWords {

   token TOP {
       ^^ \t Word \t PoS \t Freq $$ \n
       [^^ <word> $$ \n?]+
   }

   token word {
       \t+
       [ <with_c> | <no_c> | \T ]+ \t+
       \T+ \t+ # PoS doesn't matter to us, so ignore it
       $<freq>=[<.digit>+] \h*
   }

   token with_c {
       c <ie_part>
   }

   token no_c {
       <ie_part>
   }

   token ie_part {
       ie | ei
   }

}

class CollectWords::Actions {

   method TOP($/) {
       make $<word>».ast.flat.Bag;
   }

   method word($/) {
       if $<with_c> + $<no_c> {
           make flat $<with_c>».ast xx +$<freq>, $<no_c>».ast xx +$<freq>;
       } else {
           make ();
       }
   }

   method with_c($/) {
       make "c" ~ $<ie_part>;
   }

   method no_c($/) {
       make "!c" ~ $<ie_part>;
   }

}

sub plausible($good, $bad, $msg) {

   if $good > 2*$bad {
       say "$msg: PLAUSIBLE ($good  vs. $bad ✘)";
       return True;
   } else {
       say "$msg: NOT PLAUSIBLE ($good  vs. $bad ✘)";
       return False;
   }

}

can't use .parsefile like before due to the non-Unicode £ in this file.

my $file = slurp("1_2_all_freq.txt", :enc<iso-8859-1>); my $results = CollectWords.parse($file, :actions(CollectWords::Actions)).ast;

my $phrasetest = [&] plausible($results<!cie>, $results<!cei>, "I before E when not preceded by C"),

                    plausible($results<cei>, $results<cie>, "E before I when preceded by C");

say "I before E except after C: ", $phrasetest ?? "PLAUSIBLE" !! "NOT PLAUSIBLE";</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: NOT PLAUSIBLE (8222  vs. 4826 ✘)
E before I when preceded by C: NOT PLAUSIBLE (327  vs. 994 ✘)
I before E except after C: NOT PLAUSIBLE

Red

The script processes both the task and the stretch goal. In the stretch goal, "rows with three space or tab separated words only" (7574 out of 7726) are processed, excluding all expressions like "out of". <lang Red>Red ["i before e except after c"]

testlist: function [wordlist /wfreq] [ cie: cei: ie: ei: 0 if not wfreq [forall wordlist [insert wordlist: next wordlist 1]] foreach [word freq] wordlist [ parse word [ some [ "cie" (cie: cie + freq) | "cei" (cei: cei + freq) | "ie" (ie: ie + freq) | "ei" (ei: ei + freq) | skip ]] ] print rejoin [ "i is before e " ie " times, and also " cie " times following c.^/" "i is after e " ei " times, and also " cei " times following c.^/" "Hence ^"i before e^" is " either a: 2 * ei < ie [""] ["not "] "plausible,^/" "while ^"except after c^" is " either b: 2 * cie < cei [""] ["not "] "plausible.^/" "Overall the rule is " either a and b [""] ["not "] "plausible."] ]

print "Results for unixdict.txt:" testlist read/lines http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt

print "^/Results for British National Corpus:" bnc: next read/lines %1_2_all_freq.txt spaces: charset "^- " bnclist: collect [ foreach w bnc [ if 3 = length? seq: split trim w spaces [ keep seq/1 keep to-integer seq/3 ]]] testlist/wfreq bnclist</lang>

Output:

Results for unixdict.txt:
i is before e 464 times, and also 24 times following c.
i is after e 217 times, and also 13 times following c.
Hence "i before e" is plausible,
while "except after c" is not plausible.
Overall the rule is not plausible.

Results for British National Corpus:
i is before e 8207 times, and also 994 times following c.
i is after e 4826 times, and also 327 times following c.
Hence "i before e" is not plausible,
while "except after c" is not plausible.
Overall the rule is not plausible.

REXX

The following assumptions were made about the (default) dictionary:

there could be leading and/or trailing blanks or tabs
the dictionary words are in mixed case.
there could be blank lines
there may be more than one occurrence of a target string within a word [einsteinium]

unweighted version

<lang rexx>/*REXX program shows plausibility of "I before E" when not preceded by C, and */ /*───────────────────────────────────── "E before I" when preceded by C. */ parse arg iFID . /*obtain optional argument from the CL.*/ if iFID== | iFID=="," then iFID='UNIXDICT.TXT' /*Not specified? Then use the default.*/

.=0 /*zero out the various word counters. */

    do r=0  while  lines(iFID)\==0              /*keep reading the dictionary 'til done*/
    u=space( lineIn(iFID), 0);      upper u     /*elide superfluous blanks and tabs.   */
    if u==  then iterate                      /*Is it a blank line?   Then ignore it.*/
    #.words=#.words + 1                         /*keep running count of number of words*/
    if pos('EI', u)\==0 & pos('IE', u)\==0  then #.both=#.both + 1  /*the word has both*/
    call find  'ie'                                                 /*look for   ie    */
    call find  'ei'                                                 /*  "   "    ei    */
    end   /*r*/                                 /*at exit of DO loop,   R = # of lines.*/

L=length(#.words) /*use this to align the output numbers.*/ say 'lines in the ' iFID " dictionary: " r say 'words in the ' iFID " dictionary: " #.words say say 'words with "IE" and "EI" (in same word): ' right(#.both, L) say 'words with "IE" and preceded by "C": ' right(#.ie.c ,L) say 'words with "IE" and not preceded by "C": ' right(#.ie.z ,L) say 'words with "EI" and preceded by "C": ' right(#.ei.c ,L) say 'words with "EI" and not preceded by "C": ' right(#.ei.z ,L) say; mantra= 'The spelling mantra ' p1=#.ie.z / max(1, #.ei.z); phrase= '"I before E when not preceded by C"' say mantra phrase ' is ' word("im", 1 + (p1>2) )'plausible.' p2=#.ie.c / max(1, #.ei.c); phrase= '"E before I when preceded by C"' say mantra phrase ' is ' word("im", 1 + (p2>2) )'plausible.' po=(p1>2 & p2>2); say 'Overall, it is' word("im", 1 + po)'plausible.' exit /*stick a fork in it, we're all done. */ /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/ find: arg x; s=1; do forever; _=pos(x, u, s); if _==0 then return

                   if substr(u, _ - 1 + (_==1)*999, 1)=='C'  then #.x.c=#.x.c + 1
                                                             else #.x.z=#.x.z + 1
                   s=_ + 1                      /*handle the cases of multiple finds.  */
                   end   /*forever*/</lang>

output when using the default dictionary:

lines in the   UNIXDICT.TXT  dictionary:  25104
words in the   UNIXDICT.TXT  dictionary:  25104

words with "IE" and "EI" (in same word):      4
words with "IE" and     preceded by "C":     24
words with "IE" and not preceded by "C":    466
words with "EI" and     preceded by "C":     13
words with "EI" and not preceded by "C":    217

The spelling mantra   "I before E when not preceded by C"  is  plausible.
The spelling mantra   "E before I when     preceded by C"  is  implausible.
Overall, it is implausible.

weighted version

Using the default word frequency count file, several discrepancies (or not) became apparent:

some "words" were in fact, phrases
some words were in the form of x / y indicating x OR y
some words were in the form of x/y (with no blanks) indicating x OR y, or a word
some words had a ~ prefix
some words had a * suffix
some words had a ~ suffix
some words had a ~ and * suffix
one word had a ~ prefix and a ~ suffix
some lines had an imbedded [xxx] comment
some words had a ' (quote) prefix to indicate a:

possessive
plural
contraction
word (as is)

All of the cases when an asterisk [*] or tilde [~] was used weren't programmatically handled within the REXX program; it is assumed that prefixes and suffixes were being used to indicate multiple words that either begin or end with (any) string (or in some case, both).

A cursory look at the file seems to indicate that the use of the tilde and/or asterisk doesn't affect the rules for the mantra phrases. <lang rexx>/*REXX program shows plausibility of "I before E" when not preceded by C, and */ /*───────────────────────────────────── "E before I" when preceded by C, using a */ /*───────────────────────────────────── weighted frequency for each word. */ parse arg iFID wFID . /*obtain optional arguments from the CL*/ if iFID== | iFID=="," then iFID='UNIXDICT.TXT' /*Not specified? Then use the default.*/ if wFID== | wFID=="," then wFID='WORDFREQ.TXT' /* " " " " " " */ cntl=xrange(, ' ') /*get all manner of tabs, control chars*/

.=0 /*zero out the various word counters. */

f.=1 /*default word frequency multiplier. */

   do recs=0  while lines(wFID)\==0             /*read a record from the file 'til done*/
   u=translate( linein(wFID), , cntl);  upper u /*translate various tabs and cntl chars*/
   u=translate(u, '*', "~")                     /*translate tildes (~)  to an asterisk.*/
   if u==                 then iterate        /*Is this a blank line? Then ignore it.*/
   freq=word(u, words(u) )                      /*obtain the last token on the line.   */
   if \datatype(freq, 'W')  then iterate        /*FREQ not an integer?  Then ignore it.*/
   parse var  u   w.1  '/'  w.2  .              /*handle case of:   ααα/ßßß  ···       */

        do j=1  for 2;  w.j=word(w.j, 1)        /*strip leading and/or trailing blanks.*/
        _=w.j;   if _==          then iterate /*if not present, then ignore it.      */
        if j==2  then if w.2==w.1  then iterate /*second word ≡ first word?  Then skip.*/
        #.freqs=#.freqs + 1                     /*bump word counter in the  FREQ  list.*/
        f._=f._ + freq                          /*add to a word's frequency count.     */
        end   /*ws*/
   end        /*recs*/                          /*at exit of DO loop, RECS = # of recs.*/

if recs\==0 then say 'lines in the ' wFID " list: " recs if #.freqs\==0 then say 'words in the ' wFID " list: " #.freqs if #.freqs ==0 then weighted=

               else weighted= ' (weighted)'

say

   do r=0  while  lines(iFID)\==0               /*keep reading the dictionary 'til done*/
   u=space( linein(iFID), 0);      upper u      /*elide superfluous blanks and tabs.   */
   if u==  then iterate                       /*Is it a blank line?   Then ignore it.*/
   #.words=#.words + 1                          /*keep running count of number of words*/
   one=f.u
   if pos('EI', u)\==0 & pos('IE', u)\==0  then #.both=#.both + one /*the word has both*/
   call find  'ie'                                                  /*look for   ie    */
   call find  'ei'                                                  /*  "   "    ei    */
   end   /*r*/                                  /*at exit of DO loop,   R = # of lines.*/

L=length(#.words) /*use this to align the output numbers.*/ say 'lines in the ' iFID ' dictionary: ' r say 'words in the ' iFID ' dictionary: ' #.words say say 'words with "IE" and "EI" (in same word): ' right(#.both, L) weighted say 'words with "IE" and preceded by "C": ' right(#.ie.c ,L) weighted say 'words with "IE" and not preceded by "C": ' right(#.ie.z ,L) weighted say 'words with "EI" and preceded by "C": ' right(#.ei.c ,L) weighted say 'words with "EI" and not preceded by "C": ' right(#.ei.z ,L) weighted say; mantra= 'The spelling mantra ' p1=#.ie.z / max(1, #.ei.z); phrase= '"I before E when not preceded by C"' say mantra phrase ' is ' word("im", 1 + (p1>2) )'plausible.' p2=#.ie.c / max(1, #.ei.c); phrase= '"E before I when preceded by C"' say mantra phrase ' is ' word("im", 1 + (p2>2) )'plausible.' po=(p1>2 & p2>2); say 'Overall, it is' word("im",1 + po)'plausible.' exit /*stick a fork in it, we're all done. */ /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/ find: arg x; s=1; do forever; _=pos(x, u, s); if _==0 then return

                   if substr(u, _ - 1 + (_==1)*999, 1)=='C'  then #.x.c=#.x.c + one
                                                             else #.x.z=#.x.z + one
                   s=_ + 1                      /*handle the cases of multiple finds.  */</lang>

output when using the default dictionary and default word frequency list:

lines in the   WORDFREQ.TXT        list:  7727
words in the   WORDFREQ.TXT        list:  7728

lines in the   UNIXDICT.TXT  dictionary:  25104
words in the   UNIXDICT.TXT  dictionary:  25104

words with "IE" and "EI" (in same word):      4  (weighted)
words with "IE" and     preceded by "C":    719  (weighted)
words with "IE" and not preceded by "C":   3818  (weighted)
words with "EI" and     preceded by "C":    100  (weighted)
words with "EI" and not preceded by "C":   4875  (weighted)

The spelling mantra   "I before E when not preceded by C"  is  implausible.
The spelling mantra   "E before I when     preceded by C"  is  plausible.
Overall, it is implausible.

Ring

Project : I before E except after C

fn1 = "unixdict.txt"

fp = fopen(fn1,"r") str = fread(fp, getFileSize(fp)) fclose(fp) strcount = str2list(str) see "The number of words in unixdict : " + len(strcount) + nl cei = count(str, "cei") cie = count(str, "cie") ei = count(str, "ei") ie = count(str, "ie") see "Instances of cei : " + cei + nl see "Instances of cie : " + cie + nl see "Rule: 'e' before 'i' when preceded by 'c' is = " if cei>cie see "plausible" + nl else see"not plausible" + nl ok see "Instances of *ei, where * is not c : " + (ei-cei) + nl see "Instances of *ie, where * is not c: " + (ie-cie) + nl see "Rule: 'i' before 'e' when not preceded by 'c' is = " if ie>ei see "plausible" + nl else see "not plausible" + nl ok see "Overall the rule is : " if cei>cie and ie>ei see "PLAUSIBLE" + nl else see "NOT PLAUSIBLE" + nl ok

func getFileSize fp

      c_filestart = 0
      c_fileend = 2
      fseek(fp,0,c_fileend)
      nfilesize = ftell(fp)
      fseek(fp,0,c_filestart)
      return nfilesize

func count(cString,dString)

      sum = 0
      while substr(cString,dString) > 0
              sum = sum + 1
              cString = substr(cString,substr(cString,dString)+len(string(sum)))
      end
      return sum

</lang> Output:

The number of words in unixdict : 25104
Instances of cei : 13
Instances of cie : 24
Rule: 'e' before 'i' when preceded by 'c' is = not plausible
Instances of *ei, where * is not c : 217
Instances of *ie, where * is not c: 466
Rule: 'i' before 'e' when not preceded by 'c' is = plausible
Overall the rule is : NOT PLAUSIBLE

Ruby

<lang ruby>require 'open-uri'

plausibility_ratio = 2 counter = Hash.new(0) path = 'http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt' rules = [['I before E when not preceded by C:', 'ie', 'ei'],

        ['E before I when preceded by C:', 'cei', 'cie']]

open(path){|f| f.each{|line| line.scan(/ie|ei|cie|cei/){|match| counter[match] += 1 }}}

overall_plausible = rules.all? do |(str, x, y)|

 num_x, num_y, ratio = counter[x], counter[y], counter[x] / counter[y].to_f
 plausibility = ratio > plausibility_ratio
 puts str
 puts "#{x}: #{num_x}; #{y}: #{num_y}; Ratio: #{ratio.round(2)}: #{ plausibility ? 'Plausible' : 'Implausible'}"
 plausibility

end

puts "Overall: #{overall_plausible ? 'Plausible' : 'Implausible'}." </lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C:
ie: 464; ei: 217; Ratio: 2.14: Plausible
E before I when preceded by C:
cei: 13; cie: 24; Ratio: 0.54: Implausible
Overall: Implausible.

Rust

<lang rust>use std::default::Default; use std::ops::AddAssign;

use itertools::Itertools; use reqwest::get;

[derive(Default, Debug)]

struct Feature<T> {

   pub cie: T,
   pub xie: T,
   pub cei: T,
   pub xei: T,

}

impl AddAssign<Feature<bool>> for Feature<u64> {

   fn add_assign(&mut self, rhs: Feature<bool>) {
       self.cei += rhs.cei as u64;
       self.xei += rhs.xei as u64;
       self.cie += rhs.cie as u64;
       self.xie += rhs.xie as u64;
   }

}

fn check_feature(word: &str) -> Feature<bool> {

   let mut feature: Feature<bool> = Default::default();

   for window in word.chars().tuple_windows::<(char, char, char)>() {
       match window {
           ('c', 'e', 'i') => { feature.cei = true }
           ('c', 'i', 'e') => { feature.cie = true }
           (not_c, 'e', 'i') if not_c != 'c' => (feature.xei = true),
           (not_c, 'i', 'e') if not_c != 'c' => (feature.xie = true),
           _ => {}
       }
   }

   feature

}

fn maybe_is_feature_plausible(feature_count: u64, opposing_count: u64) -> Option<bool> {

   if feature_count > 2 * opposing_count { Some(true) } else if opposing_count > 2 * feature_count { Some(false) } else { None }

}

fn print_feature_plausibility(feature_plausibility: Option<bool>, feature_name: &str) {

   let plausible_msg =
       match feature_plausibility {
           None => " is implausible",
           Some(true) => "is plausible",
           Some(false) => "is definitely implausible",
       };

   println!("{} {}", feature_name, plausible_msg)

}

fn main() {

   let mut res = get(" http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt").unwrap();
   let texts = res.text().unwrap();

   let mut feature_count: Feature<u64> = Default::default();
   for word in texts.lines() {
       let feature = check_feature(word);
       feature_count += feature;
   }

   println!("Counting {:#?}", feature_count);

   let xie_plausibility =
       maybe_is_feature_plausible(feature_count.xie, feature_count.cie);
   let cei_plausibility =
       maybe_is_feature_plausible(feature_count.cei, feature_count.xei);

   print_feature_plausibility(xie_plausibility, "I before E when not preceded by C");
   print_feature_plausibility(cei_plausibility, "E before I when preceded by C");
   println!("The rule in general is {}",
            if xie_plausibility.unwrap_or(false) && cei_plausibility.unwrap_or(false)
            { "Plausible" } else { "Implausible" }
   );

} </lang>

Counting Feature {
    cie: 24,
    xie: 464,
    cei: 13,
    xei: 194,
}
I before E when not preceded by C is plausible
E before I when preceded by C is definitely implausible
The rule in general is Implausible

Scala

<lang Scala>object I_before_E_except_after_C extends App {

 val testIE1 = "(^|[^c])ie".r // i before e when not preceded by c
 val testIE2 = "cie".r // i before e when preceded by c
 var countsIE = (0,0)

 val testCEI1 = "cei".r // e before i when preceded by c
 val testCEI2 = "(^|[^c])ei".r // e before i when not preceded by c
 var countsCEI = (0,0)

 scala.io.Source.fromURL("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt").getLines.map(_.toLowerCase).foreach{word =>
   if (testIE1.findFirstIn(word).isDefined) countsIE = (countsIE._1 + 1, countsIE._2)
   if (testIE2.findFirstIn(word).isDefined) countsIE = (countsIE._1, countsIE._2 + 1)
   if (testCEI1.findFirstIn(word).isDefined) countsCEI = (countsCEI._1 + 1, countsCEI._2)
   if (testCEI2.findFirstIn(word).isDefined) countsCEI = (countsCEI._1, countsCEI._2 + 1)
 }

 def plausible(counts: (Int,Int)) = counts._1 > (2 * counts._2)
 def plausibility(plausible: Boolean) = if (plausible) "plausible" else "implausible"
 def plausibility(counts: (Int, Int)): String = plausibility(plausible(counts))
 println("I before E when not preceded by C: "+plausibility(countsIE))
 println("E before I when preceded by C: "+plausibility(countsCEI))
 println("Overall: "+plausibility(plausible(countsIE) && plausible(countsCEI)))

}</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C: plausible
E before I when preceded by C: implausible
Overall: implausible

Seed7

<lang seed7>$ include "seed7_05.s7i";

 include "gethttp.s7i";
 include "float.s7i";

const integer: PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO is 2;

const func boolean: plausibilityCheck (in string: comment, in integer: x, in integer: y) is func

 result
   var boolean: plausible is FALSE;
 begin
   writeln("  Checking plausibility of: " <& comment);
   if x > PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y then
     writeln("    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of " <& x <& " vs " <& y <&
             " words, a ratio of " <& flt(x) / flt(y) digits 1 lpad 4 <& " times");
   elsif x > y then
     writeln("    IMPLAUSIBLE. As although we have counts of " <& x <& " vs " <& y <&
             " words, a ratio of " <& flt(x) / flt(y) digits 1 lpad 4 <& " times does not make it plausible");
   else
     writeln("    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of " <& x <& " vs " <& y <&
             " words, a ratio of " <& flt(x) / flt(y) digits 1 lpad 4 <& " times");
   end if;
   plausible := x > PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * y;
 end func;

const func integer: count (in string: stri, in array string: words) is func

 result
   var integer: count is 0;
 local
   var integer: index is 0;
 begin
   for key index range words do
     if pos(words[index], stri) <> 0 then
       incr(count);
     end if;
   end for;
 end func;

const proc: main is func

 local
   var array string: words is 0 times "";
   var integer: cie is 0;
   var integer: cei is 0;
   var integer: not_c_ie is 0;
   var integer: not_c_ei is 0;
 begin
   words := split(lower(getHttp("wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt")), "\n");
   cie := count("cie", words);
   cei := count("cei", words);
   not_c_ie := count("ie", words) - cie;
   not_c_ei := count("ei", words) - cei;
   writeln("Checking plausibility of \"I before E except after C\":");
   if plausibilityCheck("I before E when not preceded by C", not_c_ie, not_c_ei) and
       plausibilityCheck("E before I when preceded by C", cei, cie) then
     writeln("OVERALL IT IS PLAUSIBLE!");
   else
     writeln("OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!");
     writeln("(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by " <& PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO <& " times)");
   end if;
 end func;</lang>

Output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":
  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    PLAUSIBLE. As we have counts of 465 vs 213 words, a ratio of  2.2 times
  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated. As we have counts of 13 vs 24 words, a ratio of  0.5 times
OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!
(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by 2 times)

Swift

Using SwiftRegex for easy regex in strings. <lang Swift>import Foundation

let request = NSURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: "http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt")!)

NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(request, queue: NSOperationQueue()) {res, data, err in

   if (data != nil) {
       if let fileAsString = NSString(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding) {
           var firstCase = false
           var secondCase = false
           var cie = 0
           var cei = 0
           var not_c_ie = 0
           var not_c_ei = 0
           let words = fileAsString.componentsSeparatedByString("\n")
           for word in words {
               var wordRegex = RegexMutable(word as String)
               if (wordRegex["cie"]) {
                   cie++
               }
               if (wordRegex["cei"]) {
                   cei++
               }
               if (wordRegex["(^ie|[^c]ie)"].matches().count != 0) {
                   not_c_ie++
               }
               if (wordRegex["(^ei|[^c]ei)"].matches().count != 0) {
                   not_c_ei++
               }
           }
           
           
           if (not_c_ie > not_c_ei * 2) {
               println("I before E when not preceded by C is plausable")
               firstCase = true
           } else {
               println("I before E when not preceded by C is not plausable")
           }
           
           if (cei > cie * 2) {
               secondCase = true
               println("E before I when preceded by C is plausable")
           } else {
               println("E before I when preceded by C is not plausable")
           }
           
           if (firstCase && secondCase) {
               println("I before E except after C is plausible")
           } else {
               println("I before E except after C is not plausible")
           }
       }
   }

}

CFRunLoopRun()</lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C is plausable
E before I when preceded by C is not plausable
I before E except after C is not plausible

True BASIC

Translation of: BASIC

<lang qbasic>DEF EOF(f)

   IF END #f THEN LET EOF = -1 ELSE LET EOF = 0

END DEF

CLEAR OPEN #1: NAME "UNIXDICT.TXT", org text, ACCESS INPUT, create old DO

  LINE INPUT #1: w$
  IF POS(w$,"ie")<>0 THEN
     IF POS(w$,"cie")<>0 THEN LET ci = ci+1 ELSE LET xi = xi+1
  END IF
  IF POS(w$,"ei")<>0 THEN
     IF POS(w$,"cei")<>0 THEN LET ce = ce+1 ELSE LET xe = xe+1
  END IF

LOOP WHILE (NOT EOF(1)<>0) CLOSE #1

PRINT "CIE:"; ci PRINT "xIE:"; xi PRINT "CEI:"; ce PRINT "xEI:"; xe PRINT PRINT "I before E when not preceded by C: "; IF 2*xi <= ci THEN PRINT "not "; PRINT "plausible." PRINT "E before I when preceded by C: "; IF 2*ce <= xe THEN PRINT "not "; PRINT "plausible." END</lang>

Tcl

Translation of: Python

<lang tcl>package require http

variable PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO 2.0 proc plausible {description x y} {

   variable PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO
   puts "  Checking plausibility of: $description"
   if {$x > $PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO * $y} {

set conclusion "PLAUSIBLE" set fmt "As we have counts of %i vs %i words, a ratio of %.1f times" set result true

   } elseif {$x > $y} {

set conclusion "IMPLAUSIBLE" set fmt "As although we have counts of %i vs %i words," append fmt " a ratio of %.1f times does not make it plausible" set result false

   } else {

set conclusion "IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated" set fmt "As we have counts of %i vs %i words, a ratio of %.1f times" set result false

   }
   puts [format "    %s.\n    $fmt" $conclusion $x $y [expr {double($x)/$y}]]
   return $result

}

set t [http::geturl http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt] set words [split [http::data $t] "\n"] http::cleanup $t foreach {name pattern} {ie (?:^|[^c])ie ei (?:^|[^c])ei cie cie cei cei} {

   set count($name) [llength [lsearch -nocase -all -regexp $words $pattern]]

}

puts "Checking plausibility of \"I before E except after C\":" if {

   [plausible "I before E when not preceded by C" $count(ie) $count(ei)] &&
   [plausible "E before I when preceded by C" $count(cei) $count(cie)]

} then {

   puts "\nOVERALL IT IS PLAUSIBLE!"

} else {

   puts "\nOVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!"

} puts "\n(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by\ $PLAUSIBILITY_RATIO times)"</lang>

Output:

Checking plausibility of "I before E except after C":
  Checking plausibility of: I before E when not preceded by C
    PLAUSIBLE.
    As we have counts of 465 vs 213 words, a ratio of 2.2 times
  Checking plausibility of: E before I when preceded by C
    IMPLAUSIBLE, probably contra-indicated.
    As we have counts of 13 vs 24 words, a ratio of 0.5 times

OVERALL IT IS IMPLAUSIBLE!

(To be plausible, one word count must exceed another by 2.0 times)

TUSCRIPT

<lang tuscript> $$ MODE TUSCRIPT,{} words=REQUEST("http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt") size=SIZE(words) ieei=cie=xie=cei=xei=0

LOOP word=words IF (word.nc." ie "," ei ") CYCLE

IF (word.ct." ie "&& word.ct." ei ") THEN

ieei=ieei+1
 IF (word.ct." Cie ") THEN
  cie=cie+1
 ELSEIF (word.ct." Cei ") THEN
  cei=cei+1
 ELSE
  xei=xei+1
 ENDIF

ENDIF

IF (word.ct." ie ") THEN

 IF (word.ct." Cie ") THEN
   cie=cie+1
 ELSE
   xie=xie+1
 ENDIF

ELSEIF (word.ct." ei ") THEN

 IF (word.ct." Cei ") THEN
   cei=cei+1
 ELSE
   xei=xei+1
 ENDIF

ENDIF

ENDLOOP

PRINT "ieee ", ieei PRINT "cie ", cie PRINT "xie ", xie PRINT "cei ", cei PRINT "xei ", xei

doublexei=2*xei doublecei=cei*2

IF (xie>doublexei) THEN

check1="plausible"

ELSE

check1="not plausible"

ENDIF

IF (cei>xei) THEN

check2="plausible"

ELSE

check2="not plausible"

ENDIF IF (check1==check2) THEN

checkall="plausible"

ELSE

checkall="not plausible"

ENDIF

TRAcE *check1,check2,checkall </lang> Output:

ieee 4
cie  24
xie  465
cei  13
xei  213
TRACE *    62    -*SKRIPTE  203
check1       = plausible
check2       = not plausible
checkall     = not plausible

uBasic/4tH

Translation of: Power shell

<lang>If Set(a, Open ("unixdict.txt", "r")) < 0 Then Print "Cannot open \qunixdict.txt\q" : End

x = Set (y, Set (p, Set (q, 0)))

Do While Read (a)

 w = Tok(0)
 If FUNC(_Search(w, Dup("cei"))) > -1 Then x = x + 1
 If FUNC(_Search(w, Dup("cie"))) > -1 Then y = y + 1
 If FUNC(_Search(w, Dup("ie")))  > -1 Then p = p + 1
 If FUNC(_Search(w, Dup("ei")))  > -1 Then q = q + 1

Loop

Print "The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is "; Print Show (Iif (p>(q+q), "True", "False"))

Print "The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is "; Print Show (Iif (x>(y+y), "True", "False"))

Print "The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is "; Print Show (Iif ((x>(y+y))*(p>(q+q)), "True", "False"))

Close a End

_Search

 Param (2)
 Local (1)
 For c@ = 0 to Len (a@) - Len (b@)
   If Comp(Clip(Chop(a@,c@),Len(a@)-c@-Len(b@)),b@)=0 Then Unloop : Return (c@)
 Next

Return (-1)</lang>

Output:

The plausibility of 'I before E when not preceded by C' is True
The plausibility of 'E before I when preceded by C' is False
The plausibility of the phrase 'I before E except after C' is False

0 OK, 0:800

UNIX Shell

<lang bash>#!/bin/sh

matched() {

 grep -Poe "$1" unixdict.txt | wc -l

}

check() {

 local num_for="$(matched "$3")"
 local num_against="$(matched "$2")"
 if [ "$num_for" -le "$(expr 2 \* "$num_against")" ]; then
   echo "Clause $1 not plausible ($num_for examples; $num_against counterexamples)"
   return 1
 else
   echo "Clause $1 is plausible ($num_for examples; $num_against counterexamples)"
   return 0
 fi

}

check 1 '(?<!c)ei' '(?<!c)ie' PLAUSIBLE_1=$? check 2 'cie' 'cei' PLAUSIBLE_2=$? if [ $PLAUSIBLE_1 -eq 0 -a $PLAUSIBLE_2 -eq 0 ]; then

 echo "Overall, the rule is plausible"

else

 echo "Overall, the rule is not plausible"

fi </lang>

Output:

Clause 1 is plausible (466 examples; 217 counterexamples)
Clause 2 not plausible (13 examples; 24 counterexamples)
Overall, the rule is not plausible

VBScript

The sample text was downloaded and saved in the same folder as the script. <lang vb> Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set srcFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(objFSO.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName) &_ "\unixdict.txt",1,False,0)

cei = 0 : cie = 0 : ei = 0 : ie = 0

Do Until srcFile.AtEndOfStream word = srcFile.ReadLine If InStr(word,"cei") Then cei = cei + 1 ElseIf InStr(word,"cie") Then cie = cie + 1 ElseIf InStr(word,"ei") Then ei = ei + 1 ElseIf InStr(word,"ie") Then ie = ie + 1 End If Loop

FirstClause = False SecondClause = False Overall = False

'testing the first clause If ie > ei*2 Then WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "I before E when not preceded by C is plausible." FirstClause = True Else WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "I before E when not preceded by C is NOT plausible." End If

'testing the second clause If cei > cie*2 Then WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "E before I when not preceded by C is plausible." SecondClause = True Else WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "E before I when not preceded by C is NOT plausible." End If

'overall clause If FirstClause And SecondClause Then WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Overall it is plausible." Else WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Overall it is NOT plausible." End If

srcFile.Close Set objFSO = Nothing </lang>

Output:

I before E when not preceded by C is plausible.
E before I when not preceded by C is NOT plausible.
Overall it is NOT plausible.

Visual Basic .NET

Compiler: Roslyn Visual Basic (language version >= 15.3)

Works with: .NET Core version 2.1

Implemented using both a single-pass loop and regex. Implementation used is toggled with compiler constant.

Regex implementation does not technically conform to specification because it counts the number of occurrences of "ie" and "ei" instead of the number of words.

<lang vbnet>Option Compare Binary Option Explicit On Option Infer On Option Strict On

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Const USE_REGEX = False

Module Program

   ' Supports both local and remote files
   Const WORDLIST_URI = "http://wiki.puzzlers.org/pub/wordlists/unixdict.txt"

   ' The support factor of a word for EI or IE is the number of occurrences that support the rule minus the number that oppose it.
   ' I.e., for IE:
   '   - increased when not preceded by C
   '   - decreased when preceded by C
   ' and for EI:
   '   - increased when preceded by C
   '   - decreased when not preceded by C
   Private Function GetSupportFactor(word As String) As (IE As Integer, EI As Integer)
       Dim IE, EI As Integer

       ' Enumerate the letter pairs in the word.
       For i = 0 To word.Length - 2
           Dim pair = word.Substring(i, 2)

           ' Instances at the beginning of a word count towards the factor and are treated as not preceded by C.
           Dim prevIsC As Boolean = i > 0 AndAlso String.Equals(word(i - 1), "c"c, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)

           If pair.Equals("ie", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
               IE += If(Not prevIsC, 1, -1)
           ElseIf pair.Equals("ei", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) Then
               EI += If(prevIsC, 1, -1)
           End If
       Next

       If Math.Abs(IE) > 1 Or Math.Abs(EI) > 1 Then Debug.WriteLine($"{word}: {GetSupportFactor}")
       Return (IE, EI)
   End Function

   ' Returns the number of words that support or oppose the rule.
   Private Function GetPlausabilities(words As IEnumerable(Of String)) As (ieSuppCount As Integer, ieOppCount As Integer, eiSuppCount As Integer, eiOppCount As Integer)
       Dim ieSuppCount, ieOppCount, eiSuppCount, eiOppCount As Integer

       For Each word In words
           Dim status = GetSupportFactor(word)
           If status.IE > 0 Then
               ieSuppCount += 1
           ElseIf status.IE < 0 Then
               ieOppCount += 1
           End If
           If status.EI > 0 Then
               eiSuppCount += 1
           ElseIf status.EI < 0 Then
               eiOppCount += 1
           End If
       Next

       Return (ieSuppCount, ieOppCount, eiSuppCount, eiOppCount)
   End Function

   ' Takes entire file instead of individual words.
   ' Returns the number of instances of IE or EI that support or oppose the rule.
   Private Function GetPlausabilitiesRegex(words As String) As (ieSuppCount As Integer, ieOppCount As Integer, eiSuppCount As Integer, eiOppCount As Integer)
       ' Gets number of occurrences of the pattern, case-insensitive.
       Dim count = Function(pattern As String) Regex.Matches(words, pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase).Count

       Dim ie = count("[^c]ie")
       Dim ei = count("[^c]ei")
       Dim cie = count("cie")
       Dim cei = count("cei")

       Return (ie, cie, cei, ei)
   End Function

   Sub Main()
       Dim file As String
       Dim wc As New Net.WebClient()
       Try
           Console.WriteLine("Fetching file...")
           file = wc.DownloadString(WORDLIST_URI)
           Console.WriteLine("Success.")
           Console.WriteLine()
       Catch ex As Net.WebException
           Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)
           Exit Sub
       Finally
           wc.Dispose()
       End Try

If USE_REGEX Then

       Dim res = GetPlausabilitiesRegex(file)

Else

       Dim words = file.Split({vbCr, vbLf}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
       Dim res = GetPlausabilities(words)

End If

       Dim PrintResult =
       Function(suppCount As Integer, oppCount As Integer, printEI As Boolean) As Boolean
           Dim ratio = suppCount / oppCount,
               plausible = ratio > 2

If Not USE_REGEX Then

           Console.WriteLine($"    Words with no instances of {If(printEI, "EI", "IE")} or equal numbers of supporting/opposing occurrences: {words.Length - suppCount - oppCount}")

End If

           Console.WriteLine($"    Number supporting: {suppCount}")
           Console.WriteLine($"    Number opposing: {oppCount}")
           Console.WriteLine($"    {suppCount}/{oppCount}={ratio:N3}")
           Console.WriteLine($"    Rule therefore IS {If(plausible, "", "NOT ")}plausible.")
           Return plausible
       End Function

If USE_REGEX Then

       Console.WriteLine($"Total occurrences of IE: {res.ieOppCount + res.ieSuppCount}")
       Console.WriteLine($"Total occurrences of EI: {res.eiOppCount + res.eiSuppCount}")

Else

       Console.WriteLine($"Total words: {words.Length}")

End If

       Console.WriteLine()
       Console.WriteLine("""IE is not preceded by C""")
       Dim iePlausible = PrintResult(res.ieSuppCount, res.ieOppCount, False)

       Console.WriteLine()
       Console.WriteLine("""EI is preceded by C""")
       Dim eiPlausible = PrintResult(res.eiSuppCount, res.eiOppCount, True)

       Console.WriteLine()
       Console.WriteLine($"Rule thus overall IS {If(iePlausible AndAlso eiPlausible, "", "NOT ")}plausible.")
   End Sub

End Module </lang>

Output — Loop implementation:

Fetching file...
Success.

Total words: 25104

"IE is not preceded by C"
    Words with no instances of IE or equal numbers of supporting/opposing occurrences: 24615
    Number supporting: 465
    Number opposing: 24
    465/24=19.375
    Rule therefore IS plausible.

"EI is preceded by C"
    Words with no instances of EI or equal numbers of supporting/opposing occurrences: 24878
    Number supporting: 13
    Number opposing: 213
    13/213=0.061
    Rule therefore IS NOT plausible.

Rule thus overall IS NOT plausible.

Output — Regex implementation:

Fetching file...
Success.

Total occurrences of IE: 490
Total occurrences of EI: 230

"IE is not preceded by C"
    Number supporting: 466
    Number opposing: 24
    466/24=19.417
    Rule therefore IS plausible.

"EI is preceded by C"
    Number supporting: 13
    Number opposing: 217
    13/217=0.060
    Rule therefore IS NOT plausible.

Rule thus overall IS NOT plausible.

Wren

Library: Wren-pattern

Library: Wren-fmt

It's a moot point whether one should include words beginning with "ei" or "ie" in this analysis as I've certainly never applied the rule to them and there are clearly a lot more of the former than the latter (22 to 1 for unixdict.txt). Despite this reservation I've included them anyway.

Also there are seven words which fall into two categories and which have therefore been double-counted. <lang ecmascript>import "io" for File import "/pattern" for Pattern import "/fmt" for Fmt

var yesNo = Fn.new { |b| (b) ? "yes" : "no" }

var plausRatio = 2

var count1 = 0 // [^c]ie var count2 = 0 // [^c]ei var count3 = 0 // cie var count4 = 0 // cei var count5 = 0 // ^ie var count6 = 0 // ^ei

var p1 = Pattern.new("^cie") var p2 = Pattern.new("^cei")

var words = File.read("unixdict.txt").split("\n").map { |w| w.trim() }.where { |w| w != "" } System.print("The following words fall into more than one category") System.print("and so are counted more than once:") for (word in words) {

   var tc1 = count1 + count2 + count3 + count4 + count5 + count6
   if (p1.isMatch(word)) count1 = count1 + 1
   if (p2.isMatch(word)) count2 = count2 + 1
   if (word.contains("cie")) count3 = count3 + 1
   if (word.contains("cei")) count4 = count4 + 1
   if (word.startsWith("ie")) count5 = count5 + 1
   if (word.startsWith("ei")) count6 = count6 + 1
   var tc2 = count1 + count2 + count3 + count4 + count5 + count6
   if ((tc2 -tc1) > 1) System.print("  " + word)

}

System.print("\nChecking plausability of \"i before e except after c\":") var nFor = count1 + count5 var nAgst = count2 + count6 var ratio = nFor / nAgst var plaus = (ratio > plausRatio) Fmt.print(" Cases for : $d", nFor) Fmt.print(" Cases against : $d", nAgst) Fmt.print(" Ratio for/agst : $4.2f", ratio) Fmt.print(" Plausible : $s", yesNo.call(plaus))

System.print("\nChecking plausability of \"e before i when preceded by c\":") var ratio2 = count4 / count3 var plaus2 = (ratio2 > plausRatio) Fmt.print(" Cases for : $d", count4) Fmt.print(" Cases against : $d", count3) Fmt.print(" Ratio for/agst : $4.2f", ratio2) Fmt.print(" Plausible : $s", yesNo.call(plaus2))

Fmt.print("\nPlausible overall: $s", yesNo.call(plaus && plaus2))</lang>

Output:

The following words fall into more than one category
and so are counted more than once:
  eightieth
  einstein
  einsteinian
  einsteinium
  liechtenstein
  meier
  weierstrass

Checking plausability of "i before e except after c":
  Cases for      : 465
  Cases against  : 216
  Ratio for/agst : 2.15
  Plausible      : yes

Checking plausability of "e before i when preceded by c":
  Cases for      : 13
  Cases against  : 24
  Ratio for/agst : 0.54
  Plausible      : no

Plausible overall: no

And the code and results for the 'stretch goal' which has just the one double-counted word:

<lang ecmascript>import "io" for File import "/pattern" for Pattern import "/fmt" for Fmt

var yesNo = Fn.new { |b| (b) ? "yes" : "no" }

var plausRatio = 2

var count1 = 0 // [^c]ie var count2 = 0 // [^c]ei var count3 = 0 // cie var count4 = 0 // cei var count5 = 0 // ^ie var count6 = 0 // ^ei

var p0 = Pattern.new("+1/s") var p1 = Pattern.new("^cie") var p2 = Pattern.new("^cei")

var entries = File.read("corpus.txt").split("\n").map { |w| w.trim() }.where { |w| w != "" } System.print("The following words fall into more than one category") System.print("and so are counted more than their frequency:") for (entry in entries.skip(1)) {

   var items = p0.splitAll(entry)
   if (items.count == 3) {
       var word = items[0]  // leave any trailing * in place
       var freq = Num.fromString(items[2])
       var tc1 = count1 + count2 + count3 + count4 + count5 + count6
       if (p1.isMatch(word)) count1 = count1 + freq
       if (p2.isMatch(word)) count2 = count2 + freq
       if (word.contains("cie")) count3 = count3 + freq
       if (word.contains("cei")) count4 = count4 + freq
       if (word.startsWith("ie")) count5 = count5 + freq
       if (word.startsWith("ei")) count6 = count6 + freq
       var tc2 = count1 + count2 + count3 + count4 + count5 + count6
       if ((tc2 -tc1) > freq) System.print("  " + word)
   }

}

System.print("\nChecking plausability of \"i before e except after c\":") var nFor = count1 + count5 var nAgst = count2 + count6 var ratio = nFor / nAgst var plaus = (ratio > plausRatio) Fmt.print(" Cases for : $d", nFor) Fmt.print(" Cases against : $d", nAgst) Fmt.print(" Ratio for/agst : $4.2f", ratio) Fmt.print(" Plausible : $s", yesNo.call(plaus))

System.print("\nChecking plausability of \"e before i when preceded by c\":") var ratio2 = count4 / count3 var plaus2 = (ratio2 > plausRatio) Fmt.print(" Cases for : $d", count4) Fmt.print(" Cases against : $d", count3) Fmt.print(" Ratio for/agst : $4.2f", ratio2) Fmt.print(" Plausible : $s", yesNo.call(plaus2))

Fmt.print("\nPlausible overall: $s", yesNo.call(plaus && plaus2))</lang>

Output:

The following words fall into more than one category
and so are counted more than their frequency:
  societies

Checking plausability of "i before e except after c":
  Cases for      : 8192
  Cases against  : 4826
  Ratio for/agst : 1.70
  Plausible      : no

Checking plausability of "e before i when preceded by c":
  Cases for      : 327
  Cases against  : 994
  Ratio for/agst : 0.33
  Plausible      : no

Plausible overall: no

Yabasic

Translation of: BASIC

<lang freebasic>open "unixdict.txt" for reading as #1

repeat

   line input #1 pal$
   if instr(pal$, "ie") then

if instr(pal$, "cie") then CI = CI + 1 else XI = XI + 1 : fi endif

   if instr(pal$, "ei") then

if instr(pal$, "cei") then CE = CE + 1 else XE = XE + 1 : fi endif until eof(1) close #1

print "CIE: ", CI print "xIE: ", XI print "CEI: ", CE print "xEI: ", XE print "\nI before E when not preceded by C: "; if 2 * XI <= CI then print "not "; : fi print "plausible." print "E before I when preceded by C: "; if 2 * CE <= XE then print "not "; : fi print "plausible." end</lang>

zkl

<lang zkl>fcn wcnt(wordList,altrs,aAdjust,bltrs,bAdjust,text){

  a:=wordList.reduce('wrap(cnt,word){ cnt+word.holds(altrs) },0) - aAdjust;
  b:=wordList.reduce('wrap(cnt,word){ cnt+word.holds(bltrs) },0) - bAdjust;
  ratio:=a.toFloat()/b;
  "%s is %splausible".fmt(text,ratio<2 and "im" or "").println();
  "  %d cases for and %d cases against is a ratio of %.3f.".fmt(a,b,ratio).println();
  return(a,b,ratio);

} wordList:=File("unixdict.txt").read();</lang> <lang zkl>a,b,r1:=wcnt(wordList,"cei",0,"cie",0,"E before I when preceded by C"); _,_,r2:=wcnt(wordList,"ie",b,"ei",a, "I before E when not preceded by C"); "Overall the rule is %splausible".fmt((r1<2 or r2<2) and "im" or "").println();</lang>

Output:

E before I when preceded by C is implausible
  13 cases for and 24 cases against is a ratio of 0.542.
I before E when not preceded by C is plausible
  465 cases for and 213 cases against is a ratio of 2.183.
Overall the rule is implausible

Stretch <lang zkl>fcn wc2(wordList,altrs,aAdjust,bltrs,bAdjust,text){

  a,b:=wordList.reduce('wrap(cnts,line){
     // don't care if line is "Word PoS Freq" or "as yet Adv 14"
     word,_,n:=line.split();  
     if(word.holds(altrs)) cnts[0]=cnts[0]+n;
     if(word.holds(bltrs)) cnts[1]=cnts[1]+n;
     cnts
  },L(0,0));
  a-=aAdjust; b-=bAdjust;
  ratio:=a.toFloat()/b;
  "%s is %splausible".fmt(text,ratio<2 and "im" or "").println();
  "  %d cases for and %d cases against is a ratio of %.3f.".fmt(a,b,ratio).println();
  return(a,b,ratio);

} wordList:=File("1_2_all_freq.txt").read();</lang>

Output:

E before I when preceded by C is implausible
  327 cases for and 994 cases against is a ratio of 0.329.
I before E when not preceded by C is implausible
  8148 cases for and 4826 cases against is a ratio of 1.688.
Overall the rule is implausible