Systematic enumerating of strings using patterns and rules

An apparatus for generating a sequence of character strings, comprising:

• means for defining a template comprising a plurality of template character strings;
• means for defining an ordered series of production rules, each production rule comprising a comparison field, an operator, and a substitution field comprising a list of elements and defining an initial value and a current value;
• means for setting the current value of each production rule to the initial value;
• means for applying the production rule to the template by applying the production rule current value to the template characters when the production rule comparison field matches the template character string;
• means for applying each production rule in order until each production rule has been applied to the template;
• and
• means for enumerating the template.

A program storage medium, readable by a computer, embodying one or more instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps of generating a sequence of character strings, the method steps comprising the steps of:

• (a) defining a template comprising a plurality of template character strings;
• (b) defining an ordered series of production rules, each production rule comprising a comparison field, an operator, and a substitution field defining an initial value and a current value;
• (c) setting the current value of each production rule to the initial value;
• (d) applying a production rule to the template by applying the production rule current value to the template characters when the production rule comparison field matches the template character string;
• (e) repeating step (d), applying each production rule in order until each production rule has been applied to the template;
• and
• (f) enumerating the template.

A method of generating a sequence of character strings, comprising the steps of:

• defining a template comprising a plurality of template character strings;
• defining a production rule set comprising an ordered series of production rules, each production rule comprising a comparison field having at least one comparison character and a substitution field having at least one substitution character;
• and
• applying the series of production rules to the template one at a time by applying the substitution character of each production rule to the template when the comparison character of the production rule matches the template character string.