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Posted on Feb 18, 2020

Daily Challenge #191 - Alphabetical Addition

#challenge

Setup

Write a function that can add letters together. Each letter will be valued based on their position in the alphabet.

Rules:

Letters will always be lowercase.
Letters can overflow (see second to last example of the description)
If no letters are given, the function should return 'z'

Examples

addLetters('a', 'b', 'c') = 'f'
addLetters('a', 'b') = 'c'
addLetters('z') = 'z'
addLetters('z', 'a') = 'a'
addLetters('y', 'c', 'b') = 'd' // notice the letters overflowing
addLetters() = 'z'

Tests

addLetters('a', 'b', 'c')
addLetters('z')
addLetters('a','b')
addLetters('c')
addLetters('y', 'c', 'b')
addLetters()

Good luck!

This challenge comes from steffan153 on CodeWars. Thank you to CodeWars, who has licensed redistribution of this challenge under the 2-Clause BSD License!

Want to propose a challenge idea for a future post? Email yo+challenge@dev.to with your suggestions!

Top comments (8)

Vidit Sarkar • Feb 18 '20

C++

// takes letters in a vector
char addLetters(vector<char> letters){
    int sumLetters = 0; // holds the sum
    for(char c : letters){
        sumLetters += (c-'a'+1);
    }

    // if empty vector is passed returns 'z'
    if(sumLetters==0)
        return 'z';
    return (sumLetters-1)%26 +97;
}

// overloaded function for special case : addLetters()
// return 'z'
char addLetters(){
    return 'z';
}

Python

def addLetters(*args):
  return chr((sum(map(lambda arg: (ord(arg) - ord('a') + 1),args)) - 1) % 26 + 97)

Rohit Prasad • Feb 19 '20

Python

var = input("Enter input: ")
var = list(var)

def addLetters(var):
        if len(var) == 0:
                return 'z';
        else:
                sum = 0
                for i in var:
                        sum += ord(i) - 96

                while sum > ord('z') - 96:
                        sum -= ord('z') -96

                return chr(sum + 96)

print(addLetters(var))

Jay • Feb 24 '20

Rust solution

fn add_letters(chars: Vec<char>) -> char {
    if chars.is_empty() {
        return 'z';
    }
    let a_num = 'a' as u32;
    std::char::from_u32((chars.iter().map(|&c| c as u32 - a_num + 1).sum::<u32>() % 26) + a_num - 1)
        .unwrap()
}

Khauri • Feb 18 '20

Tried to Golf it with JS

function addLetters(...l) {
 return String.fromCharCode(96 + (l.reduce((s, c) => s + c.charCodeAt() - 96, 0) % 26 || 26))
}

Nijeesh Joshy • Feb 26 '20

Ruby

def addLetters(*args)
  sum = args
          .map{ |letter| letter.ord - 96 }
          .sum
  sum  = sum % 26
  sum = 26 if sum == 0
  (sum + 96).chr
end

puts addLetters('a', 'b', 'c')# = 'f'
puts addLetters('a', 'b') #= 'c'
puts addLetters('z') #= 'z'
puts addLetters('z', 'a') #= 'a'
puts addLetters('y', 'c', 'b') #= 'd'
puts addLetters() #= 'z'

Andrei McMillan • Feb 20 '20

python

def add_letter(*letters):
    letters = list(letters)
    start_num = 96
    total = start_num

    if len(letters) == 0:
        letters.append('z')

    for letter in letters:
        letter = str(letter).lower()
        num = ord(letter)

        if num > start_num:
            total += (num - start_num)

        if total > 122:
            total = (total - 122) + start_num

    print 'sum:', chr(total)


# ---------------------

add_letter('a', 'B', 'z')  # = c
add_letter('z', 'a')  # = a
add_letter('a', 'b', 'c')  # = 'f'
add_letter('a', 'b')  # = 'c'
add_letter('z')  # = 'z'
add_letter('z', 'a')  # = 'a'
add_letter('y', 'c', 'b')  # = 'd'
add_letter()  # = 'z'

'' • Feb 20 '20

Javascript

let letters = '%abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

const addLetters =(...args) => args.length == 0 ? 'z' : letters[(args.map(argument => letters.indexOf(argument)).reduce((a,b) => a + b , 0)) % 26]

official_dulin • Sep 8 '20

Go:

import (
    "unicode/utf8"
)

func AddLetters(letters []rune) rune {
    if len(letters) == 0 {
        r, _ := utf8.DecodeRuneInString("z")
        return r
    }
    var (
        t, tt int
        base  = 96
    )
    for _, letter := range letters {
        t += int(letter) - base
    }
    if tt = t % 26; tt == 0 {
        tt = 26
    }
    return rune(tt + base)
}

DEV Community

Daily Challenge #191 - Alphabetical Addition

Setup

Examples

Tests

Top comments (8)

Ruby

Javascript

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