PyEnchant

Warnings

• breaking Version 3.0.0 introduced significant breaking changes, including dropping support for Python 2. On macOS, the Enchant C library is no longer embedded in the wheel and must be installed separately via Homebrew or MacPorts. It also uncoupled PyEnchant's version from the Enchant C library's version and fixed compatibility issues with Enchant C library versions 2.0 and above.
  Fix: Upgrade Python to 3.7+ (preferably 3.9+). For macOS, manually install the Enchant C library (e.g., `brew install enchant`). Review `pyenchant` documentation for detailed migration steps from older versions.
• breaking The return type of `enchant.get_enchant_version()` changed from `bytes` to `str` in version 3.1.0.
  Fix: Ensure your code expects a `str` return type for `get_enchant_version()`. If you were previously decoding bytes, that step is no longer necessary.
• gotcha PyEnchant requires the underlying Enchant C library to be installed on your system. It is NOT installed automatically by `pip install pyenchant` on Linux or macOS. On Windows, pre-built binary wheels might include a basic Enchant C library, but for full functionality or specific configurations (e.g., `--no-binary`), manual installation is required.
  Fix: Install the Enchant C library via your operating system's package manager (e.g., `sudo apt-get install libenchant-2-dev` on Debian/Ubuntu, `brew install enchant` on macOS). For Windows, consider using MinGW/Chocolatey to install the library or ensure you're using a compatible wheel.
• gotcha After installing PyEnchant and the Enchant C library, you also need to install language-specific dictionaries (e.g., for `en_US`, `de_DE`) which are typically provided as separate system packages (e.g., `hunspell-en-us`). Without these, PyEnchant will raise a `DictNotFoundError`.
  Fix: Install the necessary dictionary packages using your OS package manager (e.g., `sudo apt-get install hunspell-en-us` on Debian/Ubuntu). Consult the PyEnchant documentation for details on locating or installing dictionaries on your platform.
• gotcha On Windows, PyEnchant version 3.1.1 changed its behavior from using `SetDllDirectory` to manipulating the `PATH` environment variable when loading the Enchant C library. This was to improve coexistence with other libraries. If you encounter DLL loading issues, especially in complex environments, this change might be relevant.
  Fix: If experiencing DLL issues on Windows, ensure your environment's `PATH` is correctly configured to include the Enchant C library's location, or consider the implications of how PyEnchant interacts with DLL search paths in your specific deployment.

Install

• pip install pyenchant Install PyEnchant

Imports

• enchant

  import enchant

  The PyPI package is 'pyenchant', but the module imported is 'enchant'.

Quickstart

This example demonstrates how to initialize a dictionary for a specific language (e.g., American English), check the spelling of words, and retrieve spelling suggestions for misspelled words. It includes error handling for missing dictionaries or the Enchant C library.

import enchant

try:
    # Initialize a dictionary for American English
    # Replace 'en_US' with your desired language tag
    # Ensure the corresponding Enchant dictionaries are installed on your system
    d = enchant.Dict("en_US")

    # Check if a word is spelled correctly
    word_correct = "hello"
    print(f"'{word_correct}' is spelled correctly: {d.check(word_correct)}")

    word_incorrect = "helllo"
    print(f"'{word_incorrect}' is spelled correctly: {d.check(word_incorrect)}")

    # Get suggestions for a misspelled word
    suggestions = d.suggest(word_incorrect)
    print(f"Suggestions for '{word_incorrect}': {suggestions}")

except enchant.errors.DictNotFoundError:
    print("Error: Dictionary for the specified language was not found.")
    print("Please ensure the Enchant C library and relevant language dictionaries are installed.")
except enchant.errors.EnchantError as e:
    print(f"An Enchant error occurred: {e}")
    print("Ensure the Enchant C library is properly installed and accessible.")