From 0c63395e32034f8c84ae794800b6c322816734f7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Matthew Neleigh <matthew.neleigh@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2025 17:02:12 -0400
Subject: new file:   challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl new file:  
 challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl

---
 challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl | 96 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl | 79 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 175 insertions(+)
 create mode 100755 challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl
 create mode 100755 challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl

diff --git a/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl b/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..7bdffaab02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-1.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use English;
+
+################################################################################
+# Begin main execution
+################################################################################
+
+my @strings = (
+    "a0b1c2",
+    "abc12",
+    "0a2b1c3",
+    "1a23",
+    "ab123"
+);
+
+print("\n");
+foreach my $string (@strings){
+    printf(
+        "Input: \$str = \"%s\"\nOutput: \"%s\"\n\n",
+        $string,
+        reorder_string($string)
+    );
+}
+
+exit(0);
+################################################################################
+# End main execution; subroutines follow
+################################################################################
+
+
+
+################################################################################
+# Given a string consisting only of digits and letters, reorder the characters
+# therein so that there are not two adjacent numbers or letters, and the
+# resulting string has the smallest lexicographical value possible given the
+# available characters
+# Takes one argument:
+# * The string to examine (e.g. "0a2b1c3")
+# Returns:
+# * A string containing all the letters and numbers from the provided string,
+#   reordered as specified above (e.g. "0a1b2c3")
+#   -- OR --
+# * An empty string if the provided string cannot be reordered as specified
+################################################################################
+sub reorder_string{
+    # Split the incoming string into characters and
+    # sort them; numbers will be at the start of
+    # the list
+    my @letters = sort(split("", shift()));
+
+    my @numbers;
+    my $longer;
+    my $shorter;
+    my $reformatted;
+
+    # Separate numbers from letters
+    while($letters[0] =~ m/\d/){
+        push(@numbers, shift(@letters));
+    }
+
+    # If the difference in the number of numbers
+    # and letters won't permit them to be merged
+    # without adjacent instances of either, return
+    # an empty string
+    return("")
+        if(abs(scalar(@numbers) - scalar(@letters)) > 1);
+
+    # Determine which list is the longer of the two;
+    # if they are equal, assign numbers as the
+    # "longer" one by default as they have a lower
+    # lexicographical sorting value
+    if(scalar(@letters) > scalar(@numbers)){
+        $longer = \@letters;
+        $shorter = \@numbers;
+    } else{
+        $longer = \@numbers;
+        $shorter = \@letters;
+    }
+
+    # Merge the two character lists, longest first
+    while(@{$shorter}){
+        $reformatted .= shift(@{$longer});
+        $reformatted .= shift(@{$shorter});
+    }
+    $reformatted .= shift(@{$longer})
+        if(@{$longer});
+
+    return($reformatted);
+
+}
+
+
+
diff --git a/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl b/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..e542b06d55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/challenge-342/mattneleigh/perl/ch-2.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use English;
+
+################################################################################
+# Begin main execution
+################################################################################
+
+my @strings = (
+    "0011",
+    "0000",
+    "1111",
+    "0101",
+    "011101"
+);
+
+print("\n");
+foreach my $string (@strings){
+    printf(
+        "Input: \$str = \"%s\"\nOutput: %d\n\n",
+        $string,
+        calculate_max_score($string)
+    );
+}
+
+exit(0);
+################################################################################
+# End main execution; subroutines follow
+################################################################################
+
+
+
+################################################################################
+# Given a string consisting only of ones and zeros, calculate the maximum score
+# that can be achieved by splitting the string into two portions of non-zero
+# length, where the zeros (0) in the left portion and the ones (1) in the right
+# portion are each worth one point
+# Takes one argument:
+# * The string to examine (e.g. "011101")
+# Returns:
+# * The maximum score calculated as descibed above (e.g. 5)
+################################################################################
+sub calculate_max_score{
+    my $string = shift();
+
+    my $max_position = length($string) - 1;
+    my $left_score = 0;
+    my $right_score = 0;
+    my $max_score = 0;
+
+    # Count the ones on the right side (which is
+    # the whole string at this point)
+    for my $i (0 .. $rightmost_pos){
+        $right_score++
+            if(substr($string, $i, 1));
+    }
+
+    # Scan the string from left to right, updating
+    # the positional scores as appropriate; if a
+    # new maximum score is seen, it will be stored
+    $rightmost_pos--;
+    for my $i (0 .. $rightmost_pos){
+        if(substr($string, $i, 1)){
+            $right_score--;
+        } else{
+            $left_score++
+        }
+        $max_score = $left_score + $right_score
+            if(($left_score + $right_score) > $max_score);
+    }
+
+    return($max_score);
+
+}
+
+
+
-- 
cgit