AlienAndPassword | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

Alien Fred wants to destroy the Earth, but he forgot the password that activates the planet destroyer.

You are given a String S. Fred remembers that the correct password can be obtained from S by erasing exactly one character.

Return the number of different passwords Fred needs to try.

Definition

Class:: AlienAndPassword
Method:: getNumber
Parameters:: String
Returns:: int
Method signature:: int getNumber(String S)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

S will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
Each character in S will be an uppercase English letter ('A'-'Z').

Examples

```
"A"
```
```
Returns: 1
```
In this case, the only password Fred needs to try is an empty string.
```
"ABA"
```
```
Returns: 3
```
The following three passwords are possible in this case: "BA", "AA", "AB".
```
"AABACCCCABAA"
```
```
Returns: 7
```

"AGAAGAHHHHFTQLLAPUURQQRRRUFJJSBSZVJZZZ"

Returns: 26

```
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
```
```
Returns: 1
```
Regardless of which character we erase, we will always obtain the same string. Thus there is only one possible password: the string that consists of 49 'Z's.

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