WordFindPuzzle | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

WordFind is one of the simplest and funnest puzzles to play by oneself. It is played on a rectangular board where each cell contains a lowercase letter ('a'-'z').

A word can be found horizontally on the board if there is a path of consecutive cells in the same row of the board that spells out the word either left-to-right or right-to-left. Similarly, a word can be found vertically on the board if there is a path of consecutive cells in the same column that spells out the word either top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top. See examples 0 and 1 for clarification.

A word can be perfectly found on the board if it can be found both vertically and horizontally. You are given a String[] board representing the board, and a String[] words containing a list of words. Return the number of words in the given list that can be perfectly found on the board.

Definition

Class:: WordFindPuzzle
Method:: solveWordFindPuzzle
Parameters:: String[], String[]
Returns:: int
Method signature:: int solveWordFindPuzzle(String[] words, String[] board)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

words will contain between 0 and 30 elements, inclusive.
Each element of words will contain between 1 and 30 characters, inclusive.
All elements of words will be distinct.
board will contain between 1 and 30 elements, inclusive.
Each element of board will contain between 1 and 30 characters, inclusive.
All elements of board will be of the same length.
All elements of words will contain only lowercase letters ('a'-'z').
All elements of board will contain only lowercase letters ('a'-'z').

Examples

```
{"ab", "ba"}
```
```
{"ab",
 "ba"}
```
```
Returns: 2
```

{"jay"}

{"yaj",
 "tea",
 "hey"}

Returns: 1

{"aaa", "aab", "aac"}

{"aaa",
 "aba",
 "caa"}

Returns: 2

"aaa" and "aac" can be perfectly found on this board.

```
{"park", "kim", "lee", "choi"}
```
```
{"lxamal",
 "alkime",
 "parkpe",
 "lyaeel",
 "aypepl"}
```
```
Returns: 3
```
Four common Korean last names are given as words. 3 most common last names, namely "kim", "lee", and "park", can be found on the board.

{"ava", "abigail", "cailyn", "madeline", "isabella",
 "emma", "caitlyn", "olivia", "chloe", "brianna"}

{"vase",
 "amme",
 "vmal",
 "aeve"}

Returns: 1

10 female names are given as words. "emma" is the only one perfectly found on the given board.

{"alex", "bob", "chris", "david",
 "edward", "frank", "gabriel"}

{"gabrielxl",
 "hfodavide",
 "arbibobri",
 "daavxelar",
 "enlalexwb",
 "nkedwarda",
 "cbxyzlaeg"}

Returns: 5

7 male names are given this time. You can perfectly find all but "chris" and "frank" on the board.

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