Daily Challenge #166 - Cat and Mouse

#challenge

You will be given a string (x) featuring a cat 'C', a dog 'D' and a mouse 'm'. The rest of the string will be made up of '.'.

You need to find out if the cat can catch the mouse from its current position. The cat can jump (j) characters.

Also, the cat cannot jump over the dog.

So:

if j = 5:

..C.....m. returns 'Caught!' <-- not more than j characters between

.....C............m...... returns 'Escaped!' <-- as there are more than j characters between the two, the cat can't jump far enough

if j = 10:

...m.........C...D returns 'Caught!' <--Cat can jump far enough and jump is not over dog

...m....D....C....... returns 'Protected!' <-- Cat can jump far enough, but dog is in the way, protecting the mouse

Finally, if all three animals are not present, return 'boring without all three'

This challenge comes from A.Partridge on CodeWars. Thank you to CodeWars, who has licensed redistribution of this challenge under the 2-Clause BSD License!

Want to propose a challenge idea for a future post? Email yo+challenge@dev.to with your suggestions!

Top comments (2)

Andrei McMillan • Jan 21 '20 • Edited

javascript

function cat_mouse(str, max_jump) {
  var has_animals = /(c|m|d)/i.test(str);
  if (!has_animals) {
    console.log('boring without all three');
  } else {
    var str_lower = str.toLowerCase();
    var cat_position = str_lower.indexOf('c');
    var dog_position = str_lower.indexOf('d');
    var mouse_position = str_lower.indexOf('m');
    var min = Math.min(cat_position, mouse_position);
    var max = Math.max(cat_position, mouse_position);

    // is the dog between the cat and mouse
    if (min < dog_position && dog_position < max) {
      console.log('Protected!');
    } else {
      var distance = Math.abs(cat_position - mouse_position);
      if (distance > max_jump) {
        console.log('Escaped!');
      } else {
        console.log('Caught!');
      }
    }

  }
}


// ----- test 

cat_mouse('..j.....h.', 5);
cat_mouse('..c.....m.', 5);
cat_mouse('..c....m.', 5);
cat_mouse('d..m.......c.', 10);
cat_mouse('d..m.......c.', 5);
cat_mouse('..m....d...c.', 5);
cat_mouse('...m.........C...D', 10);

python

import re
import math


def cat_mouse(str_input, max_jump):
    str_lower = str_input.lower()
    has_animal = re.search("c|m|d", str_lower)

    if has_animal is None:
        print('boring without all three')
    else:
        cat_position = str_lower.find("c")
        dog_position = str_lower.find("d")
        mouse_position = str_lower.find("m")
        min_pos = min(cat_position, mouse_position)
        max_pos = max(cat_position, mouse_position)

        # is the dog between the cat and mouse
        if min_pos < dog_position < max_pos:
            print('Protected!')
        else:
            distance = math.fabs(cat_position - mouse_position)
            if distance > max_jump:
                print('Escaped!')
            else:
                print('Caught!')


# // -- test
cat_mouse('..j.....h.', 5)
cat_mouse('..c.....m.', 5)
cat_mouse('..c....m.', 5)
cat_mouse('d..m.......c.', 10)
cat_mouse('d..m.......c.', 5)
cat_mouse('..m....d...c.', 5)
cat_mouse('...m.........C...D', 10)

Mathanagopal Sankarasubramanian • Jan 20 '20 • Edited

JAVA

import java.util.Scanner;

public class CatAndMouse
{
   public static void main (String[]args)
   {
      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter the string x");
      String x = sc.nextLine();
      System.out.println("Enter the jump");
      int j = sc.nextInt();
      x = x.toLowerCase();
      int posofc = x.indexOf('c') + 1, posofm = x.indexOf('m') + 1, posofdog = x.indexOf('d');
      if(posofdog>0){//Check if dog is in between
         int start = posofc > posofm ? posofm : posofc;
         int end = posofc > posofm ? posofc : posofm;   
         if(start<posofdog && end>posofdog){
            System.out.println("Protected");
            System.exit(0);
         }
      }
      int compare = posofc < posofm ? (posofm - posofc - 1) : (posofc - posofm - 1);
      if (compare > j){
         System.out.println ("Escape");
      }
      else{
         System.out.println ("Caught");
      }

   }
}

DEV Community

Daily Challenge #166 - Cat and Mouse

Top comments (2)

Read next

Why Your Form Submission Fails: Hotwire/Turbo 1.x, Cloudflare, and Missing Validation Messages

🚗💰 Car Coin Hunter: My Latest Submission in the Game Challenge! 🎮💪

Navigating the Security Landscape of Docker Containers: A DevSecOps Perspective

Handling Python event loop shutdown without exceptions