From: Frederick Cheung <frederick.cheung@...>
Date: 2008-07-12T11:47:22+09:00
Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Symbolify (#169)


On 11 Jul 2008, at 20:25, Alex LeDonne wrote:
>>
>> I also have a longer solution that produces relatively compact
>> representations relatively quickly such that
>>
>> symbolify(999).length == 145
>> symbolify(9999).length == 145
>> symbolify(999999).length == 389
>> symbolify(12345678901234567890).length == 1290
>> symbolify(("9"*2100).to_i).length == 402035
>>
>
> After clearing a "duh" moment, I've improved these encoded lengths...
> symbolify(999).length == 127
> symbolify(9999).length == 127
> symbolify(999999).length == 337
> symbolify(12345678901234567890).length == 1112
> symbolify(("9"*2100).to_i).length == 350265

I've been trying the short representations that are just plain old  
strings thing too. I've got it down to

symbolify(9999).length == 48
symbolify(999999).length == 87
symbolify(12345678901234567890).length == 221
symbolify 
(1234567899999999999999999999999999999999999901234567890).length ==796
symbolify(("9"*2100).to_i).length == 33219

not quite the prettiest code you've ever seen though :-)

Fred