[VicPiMakers Projects] Progress on the Coding Challenge

[Mark G.]

For David:

Re: #7, I think you are right about the missing 118 in the
challenge document's output text for #7, it must be a typo
leaving it out.

Re: #8, although the challenge text hints at using #7, the output
text shown is using the unsorted list of numbers.  The characters
shown are the ASCII representation of the numeric values.

Updates to the original challenge text were made, if you weren't
aware, and are as follows:

"Output #6: 18543 (value of new 16-bit integer)
** the 1st 2 elements of the input data (72,111) are used to define a 
new 16-bit integer where 72 is the high byte and 111 the low byte"

-Changed 118543 to 18543

and:

"Output#10: Key (1 =<Key<=26)
** “HOUVYE “(Output #9) is a coded word for “BIOPSY’ that has been 
encrypted using the Caesar Cipher. The Key unknown. Decipher “HOUVYE” to 
produce “BIOPSY’. Output #10 is the numerical value of Key. "

- An E was removed from BIOPSEY to become BIOPSY.

Your newly spotted correction now in #7 updates that challenge to:

"Output #7: 56,61,61,61,63,63,69,72,85,111,118,121 (sorted)"

- Inserted 118 in proper position of sorted list, removed
trailing comma.

Mark

P.S.  I loaded the project in XCode and the live update
is quite neat, eh?




On 2020-10-22 2:24 a.m., David Reid wrote:
> Hello VicPiMakers Gang :)
> 
> I’m joining remotely from Thailand where a much-appreciated job has 
> taken me these days .. but it’s a +14 hour time change from Victoria, so 
> I haven’t managed to make any of the online meetings yet. I’m meant to 
> be here until July, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to join in online at 
> some point coming up.
> 
> Craig and Deid were kind enough to send me the last Coding Challenge 
> though, and I’ve been enjoying some of the 2 week quarantine time here 
> puzzling away on this fun task :) THANKS !!
> 
> So .. earlier on in the emails, someone said this seemed like a good 
> opportunity to learn a new programming language. Lately I've had it in 
> the back of my mind to check out ‘Swift' as I’ve got mostly Mac’s 
> running at home (aside from tinkering with the Raspberry Pi and also a 
> couple of Ubuntu VMs) .. so it seemed like a great opportunity.
> 
> I’m not finished quite yet but quarantine is coming to an end in a 
> couple of days, so here’s my progress so far .. I’m done #7 .. stuck on 
> #8 .. it did occur to me that there’s one number missing from the 
> sequence which I think should be 118 .. not sure if the discussion has 
> floated to the top as to whether this omission is a typo or not, but I 
> think that including the number might make the sort process a lot easier 
> .. just haven’t got to it yet :)
> 
> As for my first bits of learning Swift, the language seems mostly 
> sensible, coming from a hobbyist level of C.
> - Swift includes what seems a bare minimum of formatting requirements .. 
> just some very C-like use of brackets, braces and parentheses.
> - Indentation doesn’t seem to matter
> - no line terminators are required
> - Casting variables, calling functions etc. seem to be pretty sensible.
> - The defining of the return type of a function is a little interesting 
> with a “func name(arguments) -> returnType" format.
> - The defining of variables is interesting .. ‘let’ = constants, ‘var’ = 
> variables, and variables are automatically typed by the compiler, or if 
> you like, you can cast them upon initialization.
> - I had to dig around a bit to find the ‘ceil(float)’ function which is 
> a sort of dedicated rounding process to force the .41 to round up. 
> There’s also a corresponding ‘floor(float)’ function which always rounds 
> down .. handy :)
> - Within Xcode, I really enjoyed the fact that you can sort of type a 
> something, anything, then add a dot, and a list of possibilities will 
> present itself .. very nice for learning :) I’ll drop in a screenshot 
> here. The red warning is only because I haven’t made up my mind yet in 
> this case as to what function I actually need .. it goes away when 
> warranted after you complete the function and arguments.
> 
> 
> One puzzle .. when I was working on output #6, The for loop in Swift 
> seems very stripped down vs C, and the only problem I found was when I 
> wanted it to iterate from high to low during the ‘bit adding process’ .. 
> apparently that’s uncommon in Swift. I was able to get the job done by 
> building an array of ’loopValue’ seeds and iterating through that array 
> to give me the 1 and 0 in the right order. I might not have found the 
> right way to do this .. someone correct me if you can find a better way :)
> 
> I’ll paste my swift code in here, as well as attach my Swift Playground 
> file which anyone can open, provided you have Xcode on your Mac. These 
> Playgrounds are pretty slick .. they have 2 columns, one for code, where 
> I’ve done all of this, then another on the right where they explain the 
> number of times through a loop, variables get written out etc. there’s 
> also a command-line output you can pop up at the bottom. The cool thing 
> is when you edit the file, Xcode more or less updates the right column 
> in real-time and you don’t have to manually compile and run your code .. 
> seems pretty cool.
> 
> Anyhow, cheers to all .. 32C here and (even though I can’t get out to 
> enjoy it until Saturday morning) some sunshine made its way through the 
> rainy-season weather we’ve had here this last couple of weeks.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> 
> *import* UIKit
> 
> // here are the inputs
> *var*inputInts = [72,111,63,85,61,56,118,121,61,69,63,61]
> 
> // working on Output #1
> *var* sum = 0
> *for* number *in* inputInts {
> sum += number
> }
> 
> print("Output #1 - Sum of inputs is: \(sum)")
> 
> // working on Output #2
> *var*average :Float = 0.0
> average = Float(sum) /Float(inputInts.count)
> *var*averageInt :Int = Int(average)
> // ceil is like rounding but forced up
> *var*averageRemainder = Int(ceil(Float(inputInts.count) 
> * (average-Float(averageInt))))
> 
> print("Output #2 - Average of inputs is: \(averageInt), 
> \(averageRemainder)")
> 
> // working on Output #3
> *var*arrayOfEvens = [Int]()
> *for* number *in* inputInts {
> *if* ((Int(number / 2) * 2) == number) {
> arrayOfEvens.append(number)
>      }
> }
> 
> print("Output #3 - Even numbers: \(arrayOfEvens)")
> 
> // working on Output #4
> *var*largest = 0
> *var*largestPosition = 0
> *for* n *in*0..<inputInts.count {
> *if* (inputInts[n] >largest) {
> largest = inputInts[n]
> largestPosition = n
>      }
> }
> // print("largest is \(largest) at position \(largestPosition)")
> *var*smallest = largest
> *var*smallestPosition = 0
> *for* n *in*0..<inputInts.count {
> *if* (inputInts[n] <largest) {
> smallest = inputInts[n]
> smallestPosition = n
>      }
> }
> 
> print("Output #4 - Smallest is \(smallest) in position \(smallestPosition)")
> 
> // working on Output #5
> *var* repeats = [Int]()
> *var*repeatsTotalCount = 0
> *var*alreadyFoundThese = [Int]()
> 
> *for* lookingFor *in* inputInts {
> *if* (alreadyFoundThese.contains(lookingFor)) {
> // nothing to do if we've already found it once
>      } *else* {
> *var* count = 0
> *for* thisPosition *in* inputInts {
> *if* (thisPosition == lookingFor) {
>                  count += 1
>              }
>          }
> *if* (count > 1) {
> *for* *_* *in* 0..<count {
> repeats.append(lookingFor)
> repeatsTotalCount += 1
>              }
>          }
> alreadyFoundThese.append(lookingFor)
>      }
> }
> 
> print("Output #5 - Number of repeats: \(repeatsTotalCount) consisting 
> of: \(repeats)")
> 
> // working on Output #6
> // Ok the idea of laying down the two input numbers as a line of bits, 
> end to end, then treating the pile of bits as another format by grouping 
> them in a differen way is very cool .. but I had to google this one like 
> crazy !!
> inputInts[0]
> *let*firstInt = Int8(inputInts[0])
> *let*secondInt = Int8(inputInts[1])
> 
> *let*loopValues = [1,0]
> 
> *func* load16(incomingArray: [UInt8]) -> UInt16{
> *var* u: UInt16 = 0
> *for* index *in* loopValues {
>          u = u << 8
> print (u)
>          u = u | UInt16(incomingArray[index])
> print (u)
>      }
> *return* u
> }
> 
> *var*intsToCombine = [UInt8(inputInts[1]),UInt8(inputInts[0])]
> *var* resultInt16 = load16(incomingArray: intsToCombine)
> 
> print("Output #6 - New number is: \(resultInt16)")
> 
> // working on Output #7
> *var*sortArray = inputInts
> *var*neededToSwapStuff = 1
> *var*totalSortActions = 0
> *while* (neededToSwapStuff>0) {
> neededToSwapStuff = 0
> *for* number *in* 0..<(sortArray.count-1) {
> *if* (sortArray[number] > sortArray[number+1]){
> neededToSwapStuff+=1
> totalSortActions+=1
> *let* numberBeingMoved = sortArray[number]
> sortArray[number] = sortArray[number+1]
> sortArray[number+1] = numberBeingMoved
>          }
>      }
> }
> 
> print("Output #7 - Input 'ints' were sorted to \(sortArray) in: 
> \(totalSortActions) actions")
> 
> // working on Output #8
> // the 11th value (118) was missing from the sorted sring in the 
> coding_challenge1 file .. made this very interesting
> 
> // still stuck here .. thinking the 11th value was omitted and should be 
> in the set for full comprehension as 118 corresponds to the lower case 
> 'v' in ascii.
>