Word slips: First qualifying slip
Inputs
line is text. A character is one letter, digit, space, or punctuation mark.
Your tasks
- Create a list
wordLengths. Readlinefrom left to right. Here, a word is a group of characters with no spaces inside it. Record the length of each word. Ignore extra spaces before, after, or between words. For "a cat",wordLengthsis [1, 3]. - Read
wordLengthsfrom left to right. Find the first number that is at leastkand store that number, not its position, infirstMatch. - Complete
wordSlipsFirstQualifyingSlipso it returnsfirstMatch. Return it, do not print it.
Example
If line is "rz ceb" and k is 5, then wordLengths is [2, 3] and wordSlipsFirstQualifyingSlip returns -1.
Rules
- If no number is at least
k, return -1. k(a whole number from 1 to 8) is the threshold in task 2: compare each number with it.
Test data
TEST DATA 1: line is "woowb xqqqc" and k is 1.
TEST DATA 2: line is "OO oOO" and k is 6.
Examples
Input: line = "woowb xqqqc" k = 1 Output: 5
wordLengths is [5, 5]. Here k is 1. The first number at least 1 is 5. Return that value.
Input: line = "OO oOO" k = 6 Output: -1
wordLengths is [2, 3]. Here k is 6. No number is at least 6, so return -1.
Input: line = "" k = 5 Output: -1
wordLengths is []. Here k is 5. No number is at least 5, so return -1.
Input limits
- 0 <= input size <= 64.
- k is a whole number from 1 to 8. Answers fit in a signed 32-bit integer: -2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647.
- The text uses ASCII characters (a basic character set). Only an ordinary space separates words.
Efficiency goal
Big-O describes how the work or memory needed grows as the input gets larger.
Efficiency goal: time O(n); extra memory, including the helper list, O(n). n is the input length. These labels describe how work and memory grow with the input.
Practice focus
Build wordLengths first, then return exactly what the tasks ask for. Follow the order, keep repeated values when the rule says so, and check the empty case.