Robbie's Perl Programming Blog

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-03-10 through 2025-03-16 is #312. The tasks for challenge #312 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 312-1: Minimum Time Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a typewriter with lowercase english letters a to z arranged in a circle. Typing a character takes 1 second. Moving the pointer one character clockwise or anti-clockwise also takes 1 second. The pointer initially points to a. Write a script to return minimum time it takes to print a given string. Example #1: Input: $str = "abc" Output: 5 The pointer is at 'a' initially. 1 sec - type the letter 'a' 1 sec - move pointer clockwise to 'b' 1 sec - type the letter 'b' 1 sec - move pointer clockwise to 'c...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-03-03 through 2025-03-09 is #311. The tasks for challenge #311 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 311-1: Upper Lower Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a string consisting of english letters only. Write a script to convert lower case to upper and upper case to lower in the given string. Example #1: Input: $str = "pERl" Output: "PerL" Example #2: Input: $str = "rakU" Output: "RAKu" Example #3: Input: $str = "PyThOn" Output: "pYtHoN" This can be easily done with a one-liner using Perl's "transpose" operator, "tr", aka "y": y/[a-zA-Z]/[A-Za-z]/,print while <> Robbie Hatley's Pe...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-02-24 through 2025-03-02 is #310. The tasks for challenge #310 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 310-1: Arrays Intersection Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a list of arrays of integers. Write a script to return the common elements in all the arrays. Example #1: Input: $list = ( [1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5, 6, 1], [4, 2, 1, 3] ) Output: (1, 4) Example #2: Input: $list = ( [1, 0, 2, 3], [2, 4, 5] ) Output: (2) Example #3: Input: $list = ( [1, 2, 3], [4, 5], [6] ) Output: () I'll start by writing a subroutine that determines whether a given integer is in a given array of integers. Then I'll write a sub that determines whether a given integer is in all of the given arrays. Finally, I'll w...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-02-17 through 2025-02-23 is #309. The tasks for challenge #309 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 309-1: Min Gap Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given an array of integers, @ints, increasing order. Write a script to return the element before which you find the smallest gap. Example #1: Input: @ints = (2, 8, 10, 11, 15) Output: 11 8 - 2 => 6 10 - 8 => 2 11 - 10 => 1 15 - 11 => 4 11 is where we found the min gap. Example #2: Input: @ints = (1, 5, 6, 7, 14) Output: 6 5 - 1 => 4 6 - 5 => 1 7 - 6 => 1 14 - 7 => 7 6 and 7 where we found the min gap, so we pick the first instance. Example #3: Input: @ints = (8, 20, 25, 28) Output: 28 8 - 20 => 14 25 - 20 => 5 28 - 25 ...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-02-10 through 2025-02-16 is #308. The tasks for challenge #308 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 308-1: Count Common Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given two array of strings, @str1 and @str2. Write a script to return the count of common strings in both arrays. Example #1: Input: @str1 = ("perl", "weekly", "challenge") @str2 = ("raku", "weekly", "challenge") Output: 2 Example #2: Input: @str1 = ("perl", "raku", "python") @str2 = ("python", "java") Output: 1 Example #3: Input: @str1 = ("guest", "contribution") @str2 = ("fun", "weekly...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, cycling every Sunday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2025-02-03 through 2025-02-09 is #307. The tasks for challenge #307 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 307-1: "Check Order" Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given an array of integers, @ints. Write a script to re-arrange the given array in an increasing order and return the indices where it differs from the original array. Example #1: Input: @ints = (5, 2, 4, 3, 1) Output: (0, 2, 3, 4) Before: (5, 2, 4, 3, 1) After : (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Difference at indices: (0, 2, 3, 4) Example #2: Input: @ints = (1, 2, 1, 1, 3) Output: (1, 3) Before: (1, 2, 1, 1, 3) After : (1, 1, 1, 2, 3) Difference at indices: (1, 3) Example #3: Input: @ints = (3, 1, 3, 2, 3) Output: (0, 1, 3) Before: (3, 1, 3, 2, 3) After : ...