markov-strings

#Markov-strings

A simplistic Markov chain text generator.

Give it an array of strings, and it will output a randomly generated string.

##Prerequisites This module makes use of ES6 features.

##Installing npm install --save markov-strings

##Usage

let Markov = require('markov-strings');

// An array of strings
let data = [/* insert a few hundreds sentences here */];

// Some options to generate Twitter-ready strings
let options = {
  maxLength: 140,
  minWords: 10,
  minScore: 25,
};

// Instantiate the generator
let markov = new Markov(data, options);

// Generate some tweets
let tweets = [];
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  tweets.push(markov.generateSentence());
}

// Generate a shorter tweet to add a link
let shorterTweet = markov.generateSentence({
  maxLength: 140-24
});
shorterTweet += ' https://github.com/scambier/markov-strings'; // Links always take 23 characters in a tweet

console.log(shorterTweet);
/*
Possible output: 
{
  string: 'lorem ipsum dolor sit amet (etc.) https://github.com/scambier/markov-strings',
  score: 42
}
*/

API

Markov(data, [options])

Create a generator instance.

data

Type: array

data is an array of strings (sentences). The bigger the array, the better and more various the results.

options

Type: object

You can provide options during the generator instantiation, and/or while calling generateSentence().

The options object will alter the quality, length, etc. of the generated sentences.

Options given to generateSentence() overwrite those given during instantiation. It can be useful if you wish to generate multiple sentences with slight variations each time.

stateSize

Type: integer
Default: 2

The number of words for each state.
1 will output gibberish sentences without much sense.
2 is a sensible default.
3 and more could create good sentences, at the expense of randomness. You'll need a good corpus, though.

maxLength

Type: integer
Default: 0

Maximum characters.

minWords

Type: integer
Default: 5

Minimum number of words.

maxWords

Type: integer
Default: 0

Maximum number of words.

minScore

Type: integer
Default: 0

Each generated sentence will be associated to a score. The highest this score, the more random the sentence should be.

A good minScore value totally depends of your corpus, and the number of words of the sentence, so you'll have to try yourself.

markov.generateSentence([options])

Generate a random sentence.

options

Type: object

If set, these options will take precedence over those set in the constructor.

Todo

The generator should return a Promise, to not hang the thread.

Running the tests

npm test