From: Juraj Plavcan <yamess@...>
Date: 2007-12-11T00:06:46+09:00
Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Word Loop (#149) [SOLUTION]

My solution...

def find_knot letters     #returns first and last index which become a 
"knot"
  letters.each_with_index do |letter1, ind1|
    (ind1+4).upto(letters.length - 1) do |ind2|
      if (ind2 - ind1) % 2 == 0
        if letters[ind2].casecmp(letter1) == 0
          return [ind1, ind2]
        end
      end
    end
  end
  return nil
end

def loop word
  letters = word.split(//)
  first, last = find_knot letters
  if first.nil?
    puts "No loop"
  else
    (letters.length-1).downto(last+1) { |i|
      print " "*first
      puts letters[i]
    }
    print letters[0..first+(last-first)/2-1]
    puts " "*first
    first.times {print " "}
    (last-1).downto(first+(last-first)/2) { |i| print letters[i] }
    puts
  end
 
end

loop "Mississippi"
puts
loop "Markham"
puts
loop "Yummy"
puts
loop "Dana"


Ruby Quiz wrote:
> The three rules of Ruby Quiz:
>
> 1.  Please do not post any solutions or spoiler discussion for this quiz until
> 48 hours have passed from the time on this message.
>
> 2.  Support Ruby Quiz by submitting ideas as often as you can:
>
> http://www.rubyquiz.com/
>
> 3.  Enjoy!
>
> Suggestion:  A [QUIZ] in the subject of emails about the problem helps everyone
> on Ruby Talk follow the discussion.  Please reply to the original quiz message,
> if you can.
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
> Here's a fun little challenge from the Educational Computing Organization of
> Ontario.
>
> Given a single word as input try to find a repeated letter inside of it such
> that you can loop the text around and reuse that letter.  For example:
>
> 	$ ruby word_loop.rb Mississippi
> 	 i
> 	 p
> 	 p
> 	Mis
> 	 ss
> 	 si
>
> or:
>
> 	$ ruby word_loop.rb Markham
> 	Ma
> 	ar
> 	hk
>
> or:
>
> 	$ ruby word_loop.rb yummy
> 	yu
> 	mm
>
> If a loop cannot be made, your code can just print an error message:
>
> 	$ ruby word_loop.rb Dana
> 	No loop.
>
>
>