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# jamesporter's solution

## to Crypto Square in the Elixir Track

Published at Jul 13 2018 · 0 comments
Instructions
Test suite
Solution

#### Note:

This solution was written on an old version of Exercism. The tests below might not correspond to the solution code, and the exercise may have changed since this code was written.

Implement the classic method for composing secret messages called a square code.

Given an English text, output the encoded version of that text.

First, the input is normalized: the spaces and punctuation are removed from the English text and the message is downcased.

Then, the normalized characters are broken into rows. These rows can be regarded as forming a rectangle when printed with intervening newlines.

For example, the sentence

If man was meant to stay on the ground, god would have given us roots.

is normalized to:

ifmanwasmeanttostayonthegroundgodwouldhavegivenusroots

The plaintext should be organized in to a rectangle. The size of the rectangle (`r x c`) should be decided by the length of the message, such that `c >= r` and `c - r <= 1`, where `c` is the number of columns and `r` is the number of rows.

Our normalized text is 54 characters long, dictating a rectangle with `c = 8` and `r = 7`:

``````ifmanwas
meanttos
tayonthe
groundgo
dwouldha
vegivenu
sroots
``````

The coded message is obtained by reading down the columns going left to right.

The message above is coded as:

``````imtgdvsfearwermayoogoanouuiontnnlvtwttddesaohghnsseoau
``````

Output the encoded text in chunks. Phrases that fill perfect rectangles `(r X c)` should be output `c` chunks of `r` length, separated by spaces. Phrases that do not fill perfect rectangles will have `n` empty spaces. Those spaces should be distributed evenly, added to the end of the last `n` chunks.

``````imtgdvs fearwer mayoogo anouuio ntnnlvt wttddes aohghn  sseoau
``````

Notice that were we to stack these, we could visually decode the cyphertext back in to the original message:

``````imtgdvs
fearwer
mayoogo
anouuio
ntnnlvt
wttddes
aohghn
sseoau
``````

## Running tests

Execute the tests with:

``````\$ elixir crypto_square_test.exs
``````

### Pending tests

In the test suites, all but the first test have been skipped.

Once you get a test passing, you can unskip the next one by commenting out the relevant `@tag :pending` with a `#` symbol.

For example:

``````# @tag :pending
test "shouting" do
assert Bob.hey("WATCH OUT!") == "Whoa, chill out!"
end
``````

Or, you can enable all the tests by commenting out the `ExUnit.configure` line in the test suite.

``````# ExUnit.configure exclude: :pending, trace: true
``````

For more detailed information about the Elixir track, please see the help page.

## Source

J Dalbey's Programming Practice problems http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/103/Projects/ProgrammingPractice.html

## Submitting Incomplete Solutions

It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.

### crypto_square_test.exs

``````if !System.get_env("EXERCISM_TEST_EXAMPLES") do
end

ExUnit.start()
ExUnit.configure(exclude: :pending, trace: true)

defmodule CryptoSquareTest do
use ExUnit.Case

# @tag :pending
test "empty string" do
assert CryptoSquare.encode("") == ""
end

@tag :pending
test "perfect square" do
assert CryptoSquare.encode("abcd") == "ac bd"
end

@tag :pending
test "uppercase string" do
assert CryptoSquare.encode("ABCD") == "ac bd"
end

@tag :pending
test "small imperfect square" do
assert CryptoSquare.encode("This is easy") == "tis hsy ie sa"
end

@tag :pending
test "punctuation and numbers" do
assert CryptoSquare.encode("1, 2, 3, Go! Go, for God's sake!") == "1gga 2ook 3fde gos ors"
end

@tag :pending
test "long string" do
msg = "If man was meant to stay on the ground, god would have given us roots."
cipher = "imtgdvs fearwer mayoogo anouuio ntnnlvt wttddes aohghn sseoau"
assert CryptoSquare.encode(msg) == cipher
end
end``````
``````defmodule CryptoSquare do
@doc """
Encode string square methods
## Examples

iex> CryptoSquare.encode("abcd")
"ac bd"
"""
@spec encode(String.t) :: String.t
def encode(str) do
cleaned = clean(str)
ln = String.length(cleaned)

if ln > 0 do
n_cols = round(Float.ceil(:math.sqrt(ln)))

String.split(cleaned, "", trim: true)
|> Enum.chunk(n_cols, n_cols, [])
|> transpose
|> Enum.map(&Enum.join/1)
|> Enum.join(" ")
else
""
end
end

def clean(str) do
Regex.replace(~r/[^\p{L}0-9]/u, str, "")
|> String.downcase
end

def next_row_and_remaining(list_of_lists) do
list_of_lists
|> Enum.reject(&(&1 == []))
|> Enum.map(fn [h|t] -> {h, t} end)
|> Enum.unzip
end

def transpose(list_of_lists) do
transpose(list_of_lists, [])
end

def transpose([[]|t], acc) do
Enum.reverse acc
end

def transpose(remaining, acc) do
{row, rest} = next_row_and_remaining(remaining)
transpose(rest, [row|acc])
end

end``````
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