# \[QUIZ\] Text Munger (#76) **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 22, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530 "2006-04-22T18:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/1 "2006-04-22T18:46:22Z")
Might as well send it in seperately: puts gets.gsub(/\B[a-z]+\B/i){|s|l=s.length ;l.times{|i|r=rand(l);s[i],s[r]=s[r],s[i]};s} 88 characters in total. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/2 "2006-04-22T18:53:04Z")
Alex Barrett wrote: > Might as well send it in seperately: > > puts gets.gsub(/\B[a-z]+\B/i){|s|l=s.length > ;l.times{|i|r=rand(l);s[i],s[r]=s[r],s[i]};s} > > 88 characters in total. Hellfire and damnations. Just read the rules. I didn’t realize about the spoiler period. Sorry guys. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/3 "2006-04-22T19:01:49Z")
On Apr 22, 2006, at 18:45, Alex Barrett wrote: > Might as well send it in seperately: > > puts gets.gsub(/\B[a-z]+\B/i){|s|l=s.length > ;l.times{|i|r=rand(l);s[i],s[r]=s[r],s[i]};s} There was some golf in ruby-talk when that study was mentioned in Slashdot back in 2003, it was an intensive day 🙂 and I blogged some solutions: ``` http://www.advogato.org/person/fxn/diary.html?start=238 ``` The Perl one-liner is just a start, I am sure a Perl golf tournament would squeeze that one quite a lot. – fxn ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/4 "2006-04-22T19:01:54Z")
On Apr 22, 2006, at 18:53, Alex Barrett wrote: > spoiler period. Sorry guys. > Argh, I assumed it was over after reading that email, I am very sorry. – fxn ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/5 "2006-04-22T19:18:45Z")
Xavier N. wrote: > On Apr 22, 2006, at 18:53, Alex Barrett wrote: > > > spoiler period. Sorry guys. > > Argh, I assumed it was over after reading that email, I am very sorry. > > – fxn Looks I’ve caused trouble 😕 Nice touch with the rand sort though. And the $&! ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/6 "2006-04-22T19:25:29Z")
Xavier N. wrote: > The Perl one-liner is just a start, I am sure a Perl golf tournament > would squeeze that one quite a lot. > I can take off 3. “sort\_by” can simply be “sort” as Array overwrites > Enumberable’s implementation. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/7 "2006-04-22T19:53:31Z")
Alex Barrett wrote: > rand(9) fixes this. But not 100% satisfactorily. I’ll stick with my first version 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/8 "2006-04-22T19:49:20Z")
Alex Barrett wrote: > I can take off 3. But now, sadly, I have to put them back on 😕 rand on it’s own doesn’t scramble the letters properly. You get the same gibberish every time. rand(9) fixes this. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Alex\_Barrett](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Alex_Barrett)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/quiz-text-munger-76/58530/9 "2006-04-23T14:47:33Z")
Here is my solution. I didn’t focus on trying to make a one-liner, as others have, but made a couple of methods (shuffle and swap) for Array which I might find useful in another context. -albert # ‘scramble.rb’: class Array def shuffle # Fisher Yates shuffling of an array self.length.step(1,-1) do |i| j = rand(i) next if j == i - 1 self.swap!(j,i-1) end self end def swap!(a,b) # Swap array elements in place. self[a], self[b] = self[b], self[a] self end end if ARGV[0] == nil abort(“Usage: scramble.rb file”) else file = ARGV[0] end f = File.open(file) while line = f.gets # Using a regex, shuffle all alphabetic characters which are ‘internal’ within a word. line.gsub!(/([A-z])([A-z]{2,})(?=[A-z])/) {$1 + $2.split (//).shuffle.join} puts(line) end