PunctuationCleaner | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

Some writers like to super-emphasize certain points by using multiple exclamation points instead of one. For example, "This cheese is really great!!! I like exclamation points!!!!!!!!" Other times, writers express surprise by mixing exclamation points and question marks. For example, "You really like THIS cheese!?!?!?!!!?".

You are editing a document for publication, and you'd like to get rid of some of the extra punctuation. Wherever you see a group of multiple consecutive exclamation points, replace it with a single exclamation point. Wherever you see a group of multiple consecutive punctuation characters containing at least one question mark and zero or more exclamation points (and no other characters), replace that group with a single question mark. See the examples for further clarification. Return the string after these changes have been made.

Definition

Class:: PunctuationCleaner
Method:: clearExcess
Parameters:: String
Returns:: String
Method signature:: String clearExcess(String document)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

document will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
document will contain only letters ('a'-'z', 'A'-'Z'), spaces (' '), question marks ('?'), and exclamation points ('!').

Examples

"This cheese is really great!!!!!"

Returns: "This cheese is really great!"

"You really like THIS cheese!?!?!?!!!?"

Returns: "You really like THIS cheese?"

```
" !!?X! ?? This is delicious!!! ??!a!?!"
```
```
Returns: " ?X! ? This is delicious! ?a?"
```
Sometimes writers get very carried away. Remember to preserve spaces and other characters from the input.

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