If the input string s is a word like 'hello', then the output word product p is a number based on the correspondence a=1, b=2, ... z=26. Assume the input will be a single word, although it may mixed case. Note that A=a=1 and B=b=2.
So
s = 'hello'
means
p = 8 * 5 * 12 * 12 * 15 = 86400
Bonus question: How close can you get to a word product of one million?
Solution Stats
Problem Comments
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5 Comments
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2 older comments
Jason Friedman
on 27 Jan 2012
For the bonus question (on OSX):
words= textread('/usr/share/dict/words','%s');
for k=1:numel(words)
wordprod(k) = word_product(words{k});
end
[~,i] = min(abs(wordprod-1000000));
words{i}
wordprod(i)
% curing with word product of 1000188
Everett Rubel
on 14 Oct 2012
For the bonus question, we can rule out any number that has a prime factor greater than 26 (z). The product found by Jason Friedman is the first number greater than 10^6 that does not have such a prime factor. The product 999856 is the largest number less than 10^6 to be part of a possible solution.
Krzysztof
on 5 Jun 2013
I like playing with strings and ASCII table ;)
Jon
on 4 Dec 2013
Everett appears to miss the fact that 1000000 has no prime factors above 26, and Jason's dictionary doesn't seem to include obsolete words. 'tetty' scores a perfect 1000000.
John D'Errico
on 20 Aug 2016
Well, if you happen to know someone named 'BettyJ', thus a first name of Betty, last initial J, this works: word_product('BettyJ').
Solution Comments
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1 Comment
Toolman Thoolen
on 8 Dec 2017
easy ;)
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2 Comments
Stephen Cook
on 23 Mar 2017
'curing' returns 1000188.
Stephen Cook
on 23 Mar 2017
Closest 10 words are 'curing', 'Nicaragua', 'comers', 'Moors', 'rooms', 'banquet', 'Arkansas', 'sulks', 'alkaline' and 'Canaveral'.
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1 Comment
Ian Harrison
on 22 Oct 2016
Words that make 1000,000, tetty and typey apparently, :)
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1 Comment
David Browne
on 5 Oct 2016
Very clever way of converting to a number
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1 Comment
Jim Myers
on 6 Sep 2016
closest I can get is 'curing', 188 away.
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1 Comment
Sandy Rogers
on 22 Feb 2015
'god' equals 420.
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1 Comment
Martin
on 3 Jun 2013
large but working ;-)
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2 Comments
Youssef Khmou
on 24 Dec 2012
'j' corresponds to 10 according to the code above so, the word that gives exaclty 1E+6 is 'jjjjjj'
% word_product('jjjjjj')=1E+6
Sylvain
on 13 Mar 2013
I don't think that 'jjjjjj' is really a word...
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