I have an idea, I just need help with minor things.

[VIP3R]

I've been thinking about making a project for fun based on "AI". I would like to make a program that can have a conversation or answer questions with a user.

My idea is using a database, it will record all questions asked by users, and also record replies to them if it doesn't know the answer. The Database will look like this.

-User says this for the first time
|
|--- Answer from other users that I learnt
|--- Answer 2 from other users that I learnt
|--- Answer 3 from other users that I learnt
-User says this for the first time
|
|--- Answer from other users that I learnt
|--- Answer 2 from other users that I learnt

Etc..

If a user asks a question that the program hasn't learnt yet, the program will record it, and then ask a different user for his answer and record that also. If a user has already asked this and the program has an answer, then it will display the answer.

This isn't really AI but it's an idea that I will try to develop. I'd appreciate it if you would help me with by giving me ideas to improve this.

[filburt1]

Be sure to build in variations of common sayings, like "Hello", "Good Morning", "What's up?", "What time is it?", etc.

[dimsumZ]

um.... be sure to deal with sentence like :
"hey buddy, how are you?"
and
"hey, how are ya buddy?"

[VIP3R]

Oh yeah, thanks. I almost forgot about those! Those should be no problem!

[VIP3R]

Anything else I should look out for?

[Megatron]

Here's a programming tip: I'm sure you already know this, but you could use the Like operator to scan for words, e.g:

If MySentence Like "*apples*" Then Answer = "Speaking of apples..."

[VIP3R]

Yeah, thanx even though I already knew that. One question though, what's the difference between "Like" and "inStr"?

[filburt1]

Like does pattern matching and is slow whereas InStr finds the location of one string inside another (a bit faster).

[VIP3R]

Oh ok. I don't know what else I should add to this project. I want it to be great. Maybe it'll be sooooo great that it'll replace my actual friends. LOL