Robbie's Perl Programming Blog

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-07-27 through 2026-08-02 is #384. The tasks for challenge #384 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 384-1: Base N Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a number and a base integer. Write a script to convert the given number in the given base integer. To solve this problem, I use the excellent base conversion routines provided by "Math::BigInt", augmented by Gnu's "GMP" library, which will provide both blazing speed and unlimited precision. (I usually "roll my own" in these challenges, but not this time; it would be an insult to the hard-working authors of "Math::BigInt" and "GMP" for me to NOT use their products in a case where they...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-07-20 through 2026-07-26 is #383. If anyone is wondering what happened to 377 through 382, I've been quite busy the last two months adjusting to my life as a "newly-retired person", so I haven't had the attention for The Perl Weekly Challenge Club. But after a 42-day absence, I'm back! I may eventually solve the skipped challenges and post my results here, but for now, here is Challenge 383. The tasks for challenge #383 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 383-1: Similar List Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given two lists of strings and a list of "similar-words groups". Write a script to find out if the two word lists are "similar" with the help ...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-06-01 through 2026-06-07 is #376. The tasks for challenge #376 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 376-1: Chessboard Squares Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar Write a script to determine if two chess-board squares (specified by standard chess notation) have the same color. To solve this problem, I query whether the sum of the first coordinate pair and the sum of the second coordinate pair have the same modulo 2. Robbie Hatley's Perl Solution to The Weekly Challenge 376-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 376-2: Doubled Words Submitted by: Matt Martini You are given a string (which may contain embedded newlines) which is taken from a pag...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-05-25 through 2026-05-31 is #375. The tasks for challenge #375 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 375-1: Single Common Word Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given two arrays of strings. Write a script to return the number of strings that appear exactly once in each of the two given arrays. String comparison is case sensitive. This looks like a job for "scalar grep {$_ eq $s} @a". Robbie Hatley's Perl Solution to The Weekly Challenge 375-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 375-2: Find K-Beauty Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a positive integer and a digit K. Write a script to find the K-Beauty of the ...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-05-11 through 2026-05-17 is #373. The tasks for challenge #373 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 373-1: Equal List Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given two arrays of strings. Write a script to return true if the two given array yield the same strings when joined; otherwise return false. I've reworded the above "description" to be much more unambiguous than the version on the web site. This is just a matter of joining and comparing. Robbie Hatley's Perl Solution to The Weekly Challenge 373-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 373-2: List Division Submitted by: Mark Anderson You are given a list and a non-negativ...

For those not familiar with "The Weekly Challenge", it is a weekly programming puzzle with two parts, with a new pair of tasks each Monday. You can find it here: The Weekly Challenge The Weekly Challenge for the week of 2026-05-04 through 2026-05-10 is #372. The tasks for challenge #372 are as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Task 372-1: Rearrange Spaces Submitted by: Mohammad Sajid Anwar You are given a string text of words that are placed among a number of spaces. Write a script to rearrange the spaces so that there is an equal number of spaces between every pair of adjacent words and that number is maximised. If you can’t distribute, place the extra spaces at the end. Finally return the string. I use this procedure: Count available spaces s. Trim leading and trailing spaces. Split string to @words on spaces. Count gaps between words (n words means n-1 gaps). Form quotient q and remainder r of sp...