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Lists
Output

Join the elements of a list, separated by commas

Given the list [Apple, Banana, Carrot] produce "Apple, Banana, Carrot"
perl
print join ', ', qw(Apple Banana Carrot);
# Longer and less efficient than join(), but illustrates
# Perl's foreach operator, which can be useful for
# less trivial problems with lists

@list = ('Apple', 'Banana', 'Carrot');
foreach $fruit (@list) {
print "$fruit,";
}
print "\n";
my @a = qw/Apple Banana Carrot/;
{
local $, = ", ";
print @a
}
print "\n";
my @a = qw/Apple Banana Carrot/;
{
local $" = ", ";
print "@a\n";
}
java
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
for (Iterator it = fruit.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
sb.append(it.next());
if (it.hasNext()) {
sb.append(", ");
}
}
String result = sb.toString();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(fruit.get(0));
for (String item : fruit.subList(1, fruit.size())) sb.append(", ").append(item);
String result = sb.toString();
String result = StringUtils.join(fruit, ", ");

Join the elements of a list, in correct english

Create a function join that takes a List and produces a string containing an english language concatenation of the list. It should work with the following examples:
join([Apple, Banana, Carrot]) = "Apple, Banana, and Carrot"
join([One, Two]) = "One and Two"
join([Lonely]) = "Lonely"
join([]) = ""
perl
sub myjoin {
$_ = join ', ', @_;
s/, ([^,]+)$/ and $1/;
return $_;
}


# Note: I don't think this meets the spec --Geoff
sub myjoin {
if ($#_ < 2) {
return join ' and ', @_;
} else {
return join(', ', @_[0..$#_-1]) . ' and ' . $_[-1];
}
}

# Note: I don't think this meets the spec --Geoff
# Previous "myjoin()" responses don't meet the spec of including
# the final comma before the "and" if the list has more than
# two elements...this is one way to meet that spec...it may
# not be the most efficient...

sub AnotherMyJoin {
my @list = @_;

if ($#list == -1) {return}
elsif ($#list == 0) {return $list[0]}
elsif ($#list == 1) {return $list[0].' and '.$list[1]}
else {
return join(", ", @list[0..$#list - 1]) . ', and '. $list[$#list];
}
}
# This is the long way, but it's kind of fun
# It illustrates the use of Perl's reverse()
# operator to work our way through the list
# elements backwards...I wrote this one before
# getting smart and looking at some of the other
# algorithms from the other languages. Still,
# it is only 12 lines of code vs 9 for my other
# solution if you disregard the comments.

sub myjoin {
my @list = reverse(@_); # Reverse original order of elements
my $retval;

# Make our exit here if we were passed an empty list
if ($#list == -1) {return}

# Loop through reversed elements in end-to-start order
for (0..$#list) {
# Add the reversed form of each element plus a space char
$retval .= reverse($list[$_]).' ';

# Add 'and' to lists with two or more elements
# placing it in between final and 'next to final'
$retval .= "dna " if ($#list > 0 and $_== 0);

# Add ',' to each element as long as there are more
# than two elements and the current element isn't the
# final element
$retval .= "," if ($#list > 1 and $_ != $#list);
}

# Remove what will end up as an extraneous leading space
chop($retval);

# Done looping, now reverse things back into correct order and return
$retval = reverse($retval);
return($retval);
}
# Yes, this doesn't meet the spec, the spec is flawed
# the serial comma (Oxford comma) is not required in a list
sub english_join {
return join(', ', @_[0..$#_-1])
. ($#_ ? ' and ' : '' )
. $_[-1];
}
java
private String join(List elements) {
if (elements == null || elements.size() == 0) {
return "";
} else if (elements.size() == 1) {
return elements.get(0).toString();
} else if (elements.size() == 2) {
return elements.get(0) + " and " + elements.get(1);
}
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
for (Iterator it = elements.iterator(); it.hasNext();) {
String next = (String) it.next();
if (sb.length() > 0) {
if (it.hasNext()) {
sb.append(", ");
} else {
sb.append(", and ");
}
}
sb.append(next);
}
return sb.toString();
}
System.out.println(join(fruit));

Produce the combinations from two lists

Given two lists, produce the list of tuples formed by taking the combinations from the individual lists. E.g. given the letters ["a", "b", "c"] and the numbers [4, 5], produce the list: [["a", 4], ["b", 4], ["c", 4], ["a", 5], ["b", 5], ["c", 5]]
perl
@letters = qw(a b c);
@numbers = (4, 5);
@list = map { $number=$_; map [$_, $number], @letters; } @numbers;
@letters = qw(a b c);
@numbers = (4, 5);

for $number (@numbers) {
for $letter (@letters) {
push @list, [$letter, $number];
}
}
java
List<String> combinations = new ArrayList<String>();

for (int number : numbers)
for (String letter : letters)
combinations.add(letter + ":" + Integer.toString(number));
SortedSet<AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry<String, Integer> > combinations =
new TreeSet<AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry<String, Integer> >(new CombinationComparator());

for (int number : numbers)
for (String letter : letters)
combinations.add(new AbstractMap.SimpleImmutableEntry<String, Integer>(letter, Integer.valueOf(number)));

From a List Produce a List of Duplicate Entries

Taking a list:
["andrew", "bob", "chris", "bob"]

Write the code to produce a list of duplicates in the list:
["bob"]
perl
my @input = ("andrew", "bob", "chris", "bob", "bob");

my %input_count;
my @output = grep { $input_count{$_}++; $input_count{$_} == 2 } @input;
java
List listOfDuplicates = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList(new String[]{"andrew", "bob", "chris", "bob"}));

Set set = new HashSet(listOfDuplicates);
for (Object element : set)
listOfDuplicates.remove(element);