Welcome to an exciting exploration of string manipulation and array operations! In this Unit, we’ll tackle a unique challenge: processing a string and an array in parallel while adhering to specific conditions. This engaging task is part of a mysterious book club's cryptic coding adventure.
Get ready to uncover the secrets of combining string and numerical logic into one seamless solution!
Our goal is to create a unique encoded message and manage an array of numbers simultaneously. Here's what we need to do:
- Replace each letter in a string with the next letter alphabetically. If the letter is
'z'
, wrap around to'a'
. - For an accompanying array of numbers, divide each number by
2
, round the result, and accumulate these rounded values. - Stop processing once the accumulated sum exceeds
20
. - Reverse the updated string to complete the cryptic transformation.
- Return the reversed string and the unprocessed numbers from the array.
For example, given the input string "books"
and the array [10, 20, 30, 50, 100]
:
- Start with an empty string and a sum of
0
. - Process
'b'
(becomes'c'
) and10
(half is5
), sum becomes5
. - Process
'o'
(becomes'p'
) and20
(half is10
), sum becomes15
. - Process
'o'
(becomes'p'
) and30
(half is15
), sum becomes30
, exceeding20
. Stop processing.
The resulting string is "cpp"
, reversed to "ppc"
. The unprocessed numbers are [50, 100]
.
The output will be:
Ruby1["ppc", [50, 100]]
We begin by setting up our components: the result string to store the transformed characters, a variable to track the cumulative sum, and an index to keep track of how many elements have been processed.
Ruby1def generate_cryptic_message(input_string, numbers) 2 result = '' # Holds the processed characters 3 sum_so_far = 0 # Tracks the cumulative sum of half numbers 4 index = 0 # Tracks how many elements have been processed
With these initialized, we are ready to start processing the input.
Next, we iterate over the characters in the input string along with their corresponding numbers. For each character:
- Replace it with the next alphabetical character, wrapping around from
'z'
to'a'
. - Append the transformed character to the result string.
- Divide the corresponding number by
2
, round it, and add the result to the cumulative sum. - Stop processing as soon as the sum exceeds
20
.
Ruby1 input_string.each_char.with_index do |char, i| 2 shifted_char = char == 'z' ? 'a' : (char.ord + 1).chr 3 result += shifted_char 4 5 half_number = (numbers[i] / 2.0).round 6 sum_so_far += half_number 7 index = i + 1 # Update the index to reflect processed characters 8 9 break if sum_so_far > 20 # Stop processing if the sum exceeds 20 10 end
At this stage, we have a partially processed string and a cumulative sum that determines how far we’ve gone.
With the processing complete, we finalize the result string by reversing it to complete the encoding. Then, we determine the remaining unprocessed numbers in the array, starting from the index where the loop stopped.
Ruby1 reversed_result = result.reverse # Reverse the processed string 2 remaining_numbers = numbers[index..-1] || [] # Extract unprocessed numbers 3 4 [reversed_result, remaining_numbers] # Return the final results 5end
The reversed string and the remaining numbers are now ready to be returned as the output.
Here’s the complete implementation of the solution:
Ruby1def generate_cryptic_message(input_string, numbers) 2 result = '' # Holds the processed characters 3 sum_so_far = 0 # Tracks the cumulative sum of half numbers 4 index = 0 # Tracks how many elements have been processed 5 6 input_string.each_char.with_index do |char, i| 7 shifted_char = char == 'z' ? 'a' : (char.ord + 1).chr 8 result += shifted_char 9 10 half_number = (numbers[i] / 2.0).round 11 sum_so_far += half_number 12 index = i + 1 # Update the index to reflect processed characters 13 14 break if sum_so_far > 20 # Stop processing if the sum exceeds 20 15 end 16 17 reversed_result = result.reverse # Reverse the processed string 18 remaining_numbers = numbers[index..-1] || [] # Extract unprocessed numbers 19 20 [reversed_result, remaining_numbers] # Return the final results 21end
Congratulations! You’ve successfully implemented a solution that combines string manipulation and numerical processing into a cohesive algorithm. This task demonstrated how to handle parallel operations efficiently and stop dynamically based on a condition.
These skills are essential for solving complex problems that blend logic and creativity. Keep practicing, and happy coding!