I need to convert strings to 26-ary and then be able to convert them back.
My current code is:
(define (26-ary-word s)
(let ([len (string-length s)])
(let f ([n 0]
[acc (+
(- (char->integer (string-ref s 0)) 97)
1)]) ; adding 1 so that all strings start with 'b'
(if (< n len)
(f (add1 n) (+ (* acc 26) (- (char->integer (string-ref s n)) 97)))
acc))))
(define (word-ary-26 n)
(let f ([n (/ (- n (modulo n 26)) 26)]
[acc (cons (integer->char (+ (modulo n 26) 97)) '())])
(if (> n 0)
(f (/ (- n (modulo n 26)) 26) (cons (integer->char (+ (modulo n 26) 97)) acc))
(list->string (cdr acc))))) ; remove "b" from front of string
I add 1 to acc to start with, and remove the "b" at the end. This is because multiplying "a" - 97
by 26 is still 0.
This is already ugly, but it doesn't even work. "z" is recorded as "701" when it's in the first position (26^2
), which is translated back as "az".
I can add another if clause detecting if the first letter is z, but that's really ugly. Is there any way to do this that sidesteps this issue?
(if (and (= n 0) (= acc 26))
(f (add1 n) 51)
(f (add1 n) (+ (* acc 26) (- (char->integer (string-ref s n)) 97))))
This is the ugly edge case handling code I've had to use.