TopCoder Statistics - Problem Statement

Problem Statement

At the carnival this year, there is a contest to determine the best surname. One lucky winner will receive a prize. Each surname is assigned a score which is the sum of the ASCII values of all its characters. You will be given a String[] surnames, where each element contains only uppercase letters ('A'-'Z'). Return the 0-based index of the surname in surnames with the highest score. In case of a tie, return the one with the lowest index.

The ASCII values for uppercase letters are 'A' = 65, 'B' = 66, ..., 'Z' = 90 (which are the integer values of the characters).

Definition

Class:: Surname
Method:: bestSurname
Parameters:: String[]
Returns:: int
Method signature:: int bestSurname(String[] surnames)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

surnames will contain between 1 and 10 elements, inclusive.
Each element of surnames will contain between 1 and 20 characters, inclusive.
surnames will contain only uppercase letters ('A'-'Z').

Examples

{"AADSLFKJASDL", "AADSLFJLDJF"}

Returns: 0
{"AAAAAAA", "ABAAAA"}

Returns: 0
{"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", "ZZZZZZZZZZ"}

Returns: 0
{"A", "F", "B", "F", "D", "F", "E", "T", "A", "W"}

Returns: 9
{"AASH", "FZSDGH", "BZADKDT", "FAHTJEA", "DAGADF", "FAHSAD", "EAHAD", "TADHF", "AHADFH", "WAHAFDH"}

Returns: 2
{"RED", "BLUE", "WHITE", "GREEN"}

Returns: 2
{"STATEMENT", "EDITOR", "STATEMENT", "PREVIEW", "TEST", "DATA", "SOLUTION", "ALL", "SOLUTIONS", "CORRESPONDENCE"}

Returns: 9
{"WORK", "OR", "PLAY"}

Returns: 0
{"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"}

Returns: 1
{"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"}

Returns: 0
{"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ", "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"}

Returns: 0
{"JONES", "WILLIAMS", "SMITH", "HARPER"}

Returns: 1

The values assigned to these strings are as follows: JONES = 74 + 79 + 78 + 69 + 83 = 383 WILLIAMS = 87 + 73 + 76 + 76 + 73 + 65 + 77 + 83 = 610 SMITH = 83 + 77 + 73 + 84 + 72 = 389 HARPER = 72 + 65 + 82 + 80 + 69 + 82 = 450 WILLIAMS is assigned the highest score and its index is returned.
{"JOHNSON", "CHU", "LOPEZ", "SCAFFIDI", "PASQUALE", "KRUMME"}

Returns: 4
{"PARKER", "PECK", "PICKETT", "POTTER", "PULLMAN"}

Returns: 4
{"ABA", "BAA", "CAB", "BAC"}

Returns: 2

"CAB" and "BAC" have the same ASCII sum. "CAB" is chosen because it has the lower index.
{"BOHR", "FRANKLIN", "TESLA", "NEWTON", "EDISON", "FARNSWORTH", "GUTENBERG", "HOOVER", "MARCONI", "EINSTEIN"}

Returns: 5
{"BABBAGE", "BOOLE", "BRESENHAM", "TURING", "DIJKSTRA", "BACKUS", "FLOYD", "KERNIGHAN", "BOOCH", "NEUMANN"}

Returns: 7
{"DEHMELT", "FARADAY", "ALFEROV", "ESSEN", "BIRGE", "CHAMBERLAIN"}

Returns: 5
{"BBBB", "AAAA", "ZZZ", "AAFF"}

Returns: 2
{"ZZZZZZ", "KKKKKKZ", "AAAAAAAU"}

Returns: 0
{"AAAAAAAT", "KKKKKKY", "ZZZZZZ"}

Returns: 2
{"GABLE", "GRANT", "STEWART", "BOGART", "COOPER"}

Returns: 2
{"BACALL", "KELLY", "LAKE", "LOCKWOOD", "LANE", "HEPBURN", "NOVAK"}

Returns: 3
{"GARDNER"}

Returns: 0
{"AAAAAAAAAA", "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB"}

Returns: 1
{"ATWILL", "WRAY", "FARRELL", "MCHUGH", "GORDON", "HERBERT", "CURTIZ"}

Returns: 5
{"A", "AAAAA" }

Returns: 1
{"AA", "Z" }

Returns: 0

Statistics

Problem Statement for "Surname"

Problem Statement

Definition

Constraints

Examples