https://jiby.tech/tags/information-theory/ Recent content in Information-Theory on Jiby's toolbox Hugo en-us Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0100 https://jiby.tech/post/solving-wordle-sqlite-entropy/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0100 https://jiby.tech/post/solving-wordle-sqlite-entropy/ <p>I&rsquo;ve previously spent some time <a href="../../post/literate-wordle">implementing wordle</a>, and since then enjoyed watching others discuss how to solve the game using programming, especially the solutions based on information theory.</p> <p>Naturally, I was interested in trying them out, given my own implementation of the game. Let me show you how I used SQL to solve Wordle, using maths from information theory.</p> <h2 id="wordle">Wordle?</h2> <p>Briefly, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html">Wordle</a> is a daily word game run by the New York Times, where we need to find a secret 5-letter word within 6 attempts. You may know this game from the American/Dutch TV game Lingo, or the French TV game Motus. To guide us, each character of each attempt is scored as either perfect (right letter, right position) = &ldquo;🟩&rdquo;, or wrong position (letter is used but elsewhere) = &ldquo;🟨&rdquo;, or a miss (character not used at all in the word) = &ldquo;⬜&rdquo; (or &ldquo;⬛&rdquo; depending on OS).</p>