LargestCountry | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

Given a world map, you must determine the country that has the largest territory. The map is given as a String[] worldMap, where each character represents a square with an area of 1. Unoccupied squares are represented by space characters (' '). Occupied squares are represented by uppercase letters ('A'-'Z') that denote the occupying country. The area of a country's territory is the total area of its occupied squares. Return a String containing exactly one character - the name of the largest country. In case of a tie, return the largest country whose name comes first alphabetically.

Definition

Class:: LargestCountry
Method:: getLargest
Parameters:: String[]
Returns:: String
Method signature:: String getLargest(String[] worldMap)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

worldMap will contain between 1 and 50 elements, inclusive.
Each element of worldMap will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
All elements of worldMap will contain the same number of characters.
Each element of worldMap will contain only uppercase letters ('A'-'Z') and spaces (' ').
At least one element of worldMap will contain a non-space character.

Examples

```
{"AAA","CA "}
```
```
Returns: "A"
```
Country "A" has the largest territory.
```
{"ACA","CAC"}
```
```
Returns: "A"
```
Countries "A" and "C" both occupy 3 squares. "A" is returned because it comes earlier alphabetically.
```
{"ABZ","CXC"}
```
```
Returns: "C"
```
"C" is the largest country.
```
{"AAA","CA "}
```
```
Returns: "A"
```

{" A "," B "," X "," B "," X "," X "}

Returns: "X"

This problem statement is the exclusive and proprietary property of Topcoder, Inc. Any unauthorized use or reproduction of this information without the prior written consent of Topcoder, Inc. is strictly prohibited. (c)2024, Topcoder, Inc. All rights reserved.