Billboard | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

An electronic billboard is supposed to display large letters by using several lightbulbs per letter. Given a message, and how each enlarged letter looks as a 5x5 arrangement of lightbulbs, return the enlarged message.

The enlarged representation of the letters will be in a String[] with each element formatted as follows (quotes added for clarity):

"<letter>:*****-*****-*****-*****-*****"

Where <letter> is a single uppercase letter [A-Z], and each * is either the character '#' (representing a lit lightbulb) or a period ('.') (representing an unlit lightbulb). Each group of 5 (delimited by a dash, '-') represents a row in the 5x5 representation of the letter. So, "T:#####-..#..-..#..-..#..-..#.." means that the 5x5 representation of 'T' is:

"#####"
"..#.."
"..#.."
"..#.."
"..#.."

Return the enlarged message as a 5-element String[], with each element representing one row of lightbulbs (where element 0 is the top row). Leave 1 (one) column of periods ('.') between each adjacent pair of letters in the enlarged message.

Definition

Class:: Billboard
Method:: enlarge
Parameters:: String, String[]
Returns:: String[]
Method signature:: String[] enlarge(String message, String[] letters)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

message will contain between 1 and 10 characters, inclusive.
each character of message will be an uppercase letter [A-Z].
letters will contain between 1 and 10 elements, inclusive.
each element of letters will be exactly 31 characters in length.
each element of letters will be formatted as (quotes added for clarity): "<letter>:*****-*****-*****-*****-*****", where <letter> is a single uppercase letter [A-Z] (inclusive) representing the letter being enlarged, and each * is either the character '#' or a period.
every letter appearing in message will have an enlarged representation in letters.
each letter represented in letters will be unique.

Examples

"TOPCODER"

{"T:#####-..#..-..#..-..#..-..#.."
,"O:#####-#...#-#...#-#...#-#####"
,"P:####.-#...#-####.-#....-#...."
,"C:.####-#....-#....-#....-.####"
,"D:####.-#...#-#...#-#...#-####."
,"E:#####-#....-####.-#....-#####"
,"R:####.-#...#-####.-#.#..-#..##"}

Returns: { "#####.#####.####...####.#####.####..#####.####.",  "..#...#...#.#...#.#.....#...#.#...#.#.....#...#",  "..#...#...#.####..#.....#...#.#...#.####..####.",  "..#...#...#.#.....#.....#...#.#...#.#.....#.#..",  "..#...#####.#......####.#####.####..#####.#..##" }

"DOK"

{"D:####.-#...#-#...#-#...#-####."
,"O:#####-#...#-#...#-#...#-#####"
,"K:#...#-#..#.-###..-#..#.-#...#"}

Returns: { "####..#####.#...#",  "#...#.#...#.#..#.",  "#...#.#...#.###..",  "#...#.#...#.#..#.",  "####..#####.#...#" }

"RANDOMNESS"

{"S:##.##-#####-#.#.#-#.#.#-####."
,"N:#####-#####-#####-#####-#####"
,"R:#####-#####-##.##-#####-#####"
,"A:.....-.....-.....-.....-....."
,"D:#.#.#-.#.#.-#.#.#-.#.#.-#.#.#"
,"O:#####-#...#-#.#.#-#...#-#####"
,"E:#....-.#...-..#..-...#.-....#"
,"M:#....-.....-.....-.....-....."
,"X:#...#-.#.#.-..#..-.#.#.-#...#"}

Returns: { "#####.......#####.#.#.#.#####.#.....#####.#.....##.##.##.##",  "#####.......#####..#.#..#...#.......#####..#....#####.#####",  "##.##.......#####.#.#.#.#.#.#.......#####...#...#.#.#.#.#.#",  "#####.......#####..#.#..#...#.......#####....#..#.#.#.#.#.#",  "#####.......#####.#.#.#.#####.......#####.....#.####..####." }

Note that the letter X is defined but never used.

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