Word Score Challenge

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges, Solved Challenges

Did you know?

The ASCII code (Pronounced ask-ee) is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with each character assigned a number from 0 to 127. For example, the ASCII code for uppercase M is 77. The extended ASCII contains 256 characters (using numbers from 0 to 255).

To see a list of the most useful ASCII codes you can download our simplified ASCII helpsheet.

Using Python you can easily access ASCII values of a character using the ord() function. For instance ord(“M”) returns 77 and chr(77) returns “M”

Your Challenge

Write a Pyhon script that prompts the end-user to enter a word, e.g. “Hello”
The script should calculate the score of this word using the letter values (A=1, B=2, C=3…)

So if the use inputs the word “Hello” the script should output: 8 + 5 + 12 + 12 + 15 = 52%.

Solution

Hide SolutionView SolutionExtended Solution

This solution uses a for loop to access each letter of the word one letter at a time.
Using the ord() function it returns the ASCII code for the letter.
The ASCII code for A is 65, for B is 66 and so on. So by taking away 64 to the ASCII code we then get A=1, B=2, C=3 etc.

word = input("Type a word").upper()
wordScore=0

for letter in word:
  letterValue=ord(letter) - 64
  wordScore += letterValue
  
print(str(wordScore) + "%")

This solution is exactly the same as the previous one but displays the full formula to calculate the score e.g. “8 + 5 + 12 + 12 + 15 = 52%”. This formula is stored as a string in a variable called addition.

word = input("Type a word").upper()
wordScore=0
addition=""

for letter in word:
  letterValue=ord(letter) - 64
  if (addition==""):
    addition = str(letterValue)
  else:
    addition = addition + " + " + str(letterValue)
  wordScore += letterValue
  
print(addition + " = " + str(wordScore) + "%")

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
Find out how to become a member:
➤ Members' Area

Tagged with: ASCII, Python Challenge, String Manipulation

Name the colour

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges

Computer programmers, web-designers, graphic designers often have to choose specific colours to design eye-catchy user interfaces. To do so they use colour codes which are used to uniquely identify each of the 16 million colours available on the RGB colour palette.

Some of the colours from this palette however have names such as red, white, blue, cyan, magenta, brown, yellow, etc.

For this challenge we are going to write a program that asks the user to type the name of colour and returns its matching colour code.

Let’s look at the code

Let’s test this code

Your task is to complete the following test plan to see if your program works as expected:

Test #	Purpose	Input Value	Expected Output	Actual Output
#1	Test to see if the program finds a colour that exists.	Cyan	#00FFFF
#2	Test to see if the program finds a colour that exists.	Purple	#8E35EF
#3	Test to see if the program displays a meaningful message if it cannot find the colour.	rainbow	“We cannot find your colour”
#4	Test to see if the program displays a meaningful message if the user did not enter any colour name	(leave blank)	“Make sure you type the name of a colour.”
#5	Test to see if the program still works without being affected by the case of the input value.	pUrPLE	#8E35EF

Fixing Bugs

While testing you may have noticed that test #4 did not produce the expected output.

Your task is to tweak the code to make sure it validates the user input. If the user did not type anything when asked to enter the name of the colour you will display a message saying: “Make sure you type the name of a colour.”

Final Testing

Now that you have fixed this issue, you are going to test it to see if you get the expected outcome.

Test #	Purpose	Input Value	Expected Output	Actual Output
#4	Test to see if the program displays a meaningful message if the user did not enter any colour name	(leave blank)	“Make sure you type the name of a colour.”

Extension Task:

Can you tweak this code so that if the user types a colour code (beginning with a “#” tag) the program finds the name of this colour.

Make sure you fully test your program!

Tagged with: File Handling, Python Challenge

My thesaurus

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges

Your English teacher has asked you to write a description of your favourite imaginary pet. They want you to use plenty of adjectives in your description and suggest that you use a thesaurus to find synonyms to use in your description.

As a computer scientist, you have decided to write a computer program that will take a description of a pet as an input, lookup for synonyms in a thesaurus and output an alternative description of the pet.

Let’s look at the code

Let’s test this code

Copy the following description and use them with the code provided above. Copy the improved description in the output column.

Pet	Input	Output
	Tommy is a playful and lively cat with a light grey fur. He is very shy and so cute!	…
	Simba is a big and cuddly cat with long shiny dark hair. He is beautiful but can be grumpy at times.	…
	Meeko is very brave, playful, friendly, and a big troublemaker! He can also be loving and caring and loves cuddles.	…
	Type your description here	…

Tagged with: File Handling, Python Challenge

HTML Chess Challenge

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, HTML, CSS & JavaScript, Solved Challenges

Learning Objectives

In this challenge you are going to learn how to create and format a table using HTML. You will also learn how to insert special characters (using UNICODE characters) on to a webpage.
First you may want to learn about the three HTML tags used to create a table: <TABLE>,<TR> and <TD>

Tables are defined with the <TABLE> tag,
Tables are divided into table rows with the <TR> tag,
Table rows are divided into table cells with the <TD> tag.

Find out more about HTML tables…

HTML Chess Symbols

Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
♔	White King	♔	♕	White Queen	♕
♖	White Rook	♖	♗	White Bishop	♗
♘	White Knight	♘	♙	White Pawn	♙
♚	Black King	♚	♛	Black Queen	♛
♜	Black Rook	♜	♝	Black Bishop	♝
♞	Black Knight	♞	♟	Black Pawn	♟

Challenge

Complete the code below to display a full 8×8 chessboard. (Click “Edit with CodePen” to be able to edit the code)

See the Pen vOOdgg by 101 Computing (@101Computing) on CodePen.

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
Find out how to become a member:
➤ Members' Area

Tagged with: Unicode

Where are you calling from?

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges, Solved Challenges

Have you ever received a phone call from an unrecognised number and wondered who was calling and where is the person calling you located? Did you know that, in the UK, for landline phone numbers (not mobile phones), the first 5 digits of the number are called the area code and gives you in indication of where this phone number originates from.

For instance any phone number starting with 01624 comes from the Isle of Man, whereas a number starting with 01224 comes from Aberdeen.

The aim of this challenge is to write a program that lets the user input a UK based landline phone number. The program will then perform a linear search on a large CSV file containing all of the UK based area codes and their matching locations. This linear search will enable the program to identify the exact location of the given phone number.

Learning Objectives

By completing this challenge you will further improve your file manipulation techniques.

If you cannot remember how to open and read through a text file or CSV check our blog post about “how to access text files using Python”.

Your Challenge

Your challenge consists of writing a program that will:

Here is the CSV file our programs will be based on:

phonecodes.csv

Complete the Code

Video Tutorial

Test Plan

Once your code is done, complete the following tests to check that your code is working as it should:

Test #	Input Values	Expected Output	Pass/Fail?
#1	01424000000	Hastings
#2	01223999999	Cambridge
#3	01736123456	Penzance
#4	01401000000	Not found!

Extension #1

If the area code cannot be found in the CSV file it may be because some locations, such as Manchester, only use the first 4 digits (e.g. 0161) as their area code. Adapt your code, so that if an area code cannot be found, the program performs a second linear search, but this time only looking for the first 4 digits of the phone number.

Extension #2

The CSV file also gives you the longitude and latitude coordinates of each area code. These coordinates can be used to calculate the distance between two sets of coordinates on the earth, using the Haversine formula. You could adapt your script to calculate the distance in miles between two UK phone numbers.

To find out more about the Haversine formula you may want to complete this challenge first: UK Postcodes distance calculator.

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
Find out how to become a member:
➤ Members' Area

Tagged with: File Handling, Linear Search, Python Challenge

String Manipulation – Lesson Code

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges

Learning Objectives

In this post we will focus on string manipulation techniques using five common techniques used in most procedural programming languages:

LEFT: to extract characters at the beginning of a string,

RIGHT: to extract characters at the end of a string,

LENGTH: to find out the number of characters in a string,

MID: to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string,

LOCATE: to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.

LEFTRIGHTLENGTHMIDLOCATE

e.g. LEFT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the first 5 characters of a string.

e.g. RIGHT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the last 5 characters of a string.

e.g. LENGTH(myString)

>>> to retrieve the number of characters in a string.

e.g. MID(myString, 3, 5)

>>> to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string.

e.g. LOCATE(“World”, “Hello World”)

>>> to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.
If the substring is not part of the string, the value -1 is returned.

Your Challenge

A timetabling system used by school stores information about each lesson such as the day and period of the lesson, the subject, the class teacher, and the room number. The system enables us to extract all these details in the following format:
Year Group-Subject-Day of the Week-Week Number (1 or 2):Period of the day (1 to 5)-Title (Mr/Mrs)-Teacher Name-Classroom
For examples we have extracted these 4 lessons from the system:

8-ICT-Mo1:3-Mrs.Johnson-A12
9-PE-Tu2:4-Mr.Smith-B8
11-Art-We2:1-Mr.Taylor-C12
13-Hi-Th1:3-Mrs.Fox-A9

Check the code below which is based on the 5 string manipulation functions we mentioned above: Left, Right, Length, Mid, and Locate.

Your challenge is to tweak this code to extract all the information from a lesson code and display it in the following format:

Subject: ICT
Week Day: Monday
Week Number: 1
Period: 3
Teacher: Mrs Johnson
Classroom: A12

Tagged with: Python, String Manipulation

String Manipulation & ASCII Art

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges, Solved Challenges

Learning Objectives

In this post we will focus on string manipulation techniques using five common techniques used in most procedural programming languages:

LEFT: to extract characters at the beginning of a string,

RIGHT: to extract characters at the end of a string,

LENGTH: to find out the number of characters in a string,

MID: to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string,

LOCATE: to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.

LEFTRIGHTLENGTHMIDLOCATE

e.g. LEFT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the first 5 characters of a string.

e.g. RIGHT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the last 5 characters of a string.

e.g. LENGTH(myString)

>>> to retrieve the number of characters in a string.

e.g. MID(myString, 3, 5)

>>> to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string.

e.g. LOCATE(“World”, “Hello World”)

>>> to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.
If the substring is not part of the string, the value -1 is returned.

Your Challenge

Look at the pixel art below. The user enters their name and the computer generates an ASCII art. However the name of the user does not always fit within this pixel art.

Your challenge is to change this code to make sure that the Ascii Art takes into consideration the number of characters in the user’s name to make sure the Ascii art always looks fine.

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
Find out how to become a member:
➤ Members' Area

String Manipulation

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Intermediate, Python Challenges

Learning Objectives

In this post we will focus on string manipulation techniques using five common techniques used in most procedural programming languages:

LEFT: to extract characters at the beginning of a string,

RIGHT: to extract characters at the end of a string,

LENGTH: to find out the number of characters in a string,

MID: to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string,

LOCATE: to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.

LEFTRIGHTLENGTHMIDLOCATE

e.g. LEFT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the first 5 characters of a string.

e.g. RIGHT(myString, 5)

>>> to extract the last 5 characters of a string.

e.g. LENGTH(myString)

>>> to retrieve the number of characters in a string.

e.g. MID(myString, 3, 5)

>>> to extract a set number of characters at a given position in a string.

e.g. LOCATE(“World”, “Hello World”)

>>> to find if a substring is included in another string and if so return the position of this substring in the string.
If the substring is not part of the string, the value -1 is returned.

Your Challenge

Check the code below which is based on the 5 string manipulation functions we mentioned above: Left, Right, Length, Mid, and Locate.

Your challenge is to tweak this code to ask the user to enter their school username in the following format:

Year Group Using two digits (e.g. “07” for year 7, “11” for year 11, “00” for staff members)
1 character for their initial (first letter of their firstname)
The user’s lastname
A 2-digit code: “_S” for students, “_T” for teachers, “_A” for admin staff.

For instance the following usernames are valid usernames:

07jFox_S
09kJohnson_S
11rTaylor_S
00pJones_T
00jOliver_A

Your program should read the username and decide:

If the username is less than 6 characters long the program should ask the user to enter a valid username.
If the username does not contain the character “_” it should also ask the user to enter a valid username.
If the username is valid, the program should decide if the user is a member of staff or a student.
If they are a student the programme should find out their year group.
The program should also display the initial of the student as well as their lastame.
Finally the program should display whether the user is a Student, a Teacher or an Admin member of staff.

HTML Codes

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Administrator Posted in HTML, CSS & JavaScript

When creating your webpages you may want to use sepcial characters. Using the the following codes in your HTML code:

Star Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
✢	4 Tear-drop asterisk	✢	✣	4 Balloon asterisk	✣
✥	Club asterisk	✥	✤	4 Balloon asterisk heavy	✤
✦	4-pointed star black	✦	✧	4-pointed star white	✧
✩	Stress outlined star	✩	✪	Circled white star	✪
✫	Open center black star	✫	✬	Black center white star	✬
✭	Black star outlined	✭	✮	Black star outlined heavy	✮
✯	Pinwheel star	✯	✰	White star shadowed	✰
✱	Asterisk heavy	✱	✲	Open center asterisk	✲
✳	8-spoked asterisk	✳	✴	8-pointed black star	✴
✵	8-pointed pinwheel star	✵	✶	6-pointed black star	✶
✷	8-p. rectilinear	✷	✸	8-p. rectilinear heavy	✸
✹	12-p. black star	✹	✺	16-p. asterisk	✺
✻	Teardrop-spoked ast.	✻	✼	Open center t-s. ast.	✼
✽	Heavy t-s. ast.	✽	✾	6-p. b&w florette	✾
✿	Black florette	✿	❀	White florette	❀
❁	8-p. outlined bl. florette	❁	❂	8-p. circled o.c. star	❂
❃	Heavy t-s. pinwheel	❃	❄	Snowflake	❄
❅	Tight 3foliate snowflake	❅	❆	Heavy chevron snowfl.	❆
❇	Sparkle	❇	❈	Heavy sparkle	❈
❉	Balloon asterisk	❉	❊	8 t-s. propeller asterisk	❊
❋	Heavy 8 t-s. propeller ast.	❋	❖	Bl. diamond w/ white X	❖
HTML Notes and Music Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
♩	quarter note	♩	♪	eighth note	♪
♫	two eighths	♫	♬	two sixteenths	♬
♭	flat note	♭	♮	natural note	♮
♯	sharp note	♯
Heart Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
❤	Heavy black heart	❤	❥	Heavy bl. heart rotated	❥
❦	Floral heart	❦	❧	Floral heart rotated	❧
❢	Heart exclamation mark	❢	❣	Heavy heart excl. mark	❣
♥	black heart	&hearts;	♡	red heart	♡
Utility Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
☎	telephone	☎	☏	telephone outline	☏
☐	check box empty	☐	☑	ballot box checked	☑
☒	ballot box with X	☒	✍	Sign here	✍
✓	Check mark	✓	✔	Check mark heavy	✔
✕	Multiplication X	✕	✖	Multiplication X heavy	✖
✗	Ballot X	✗	✘	Ballot X heavy	✘
•	Bullet	•	●	Password dot	●
✎	Pencil diagonal down	✎	✏	Pencil	✏
✐	Pencil diagonal up	✐
✁	Cut above	✁	✂	Cut here	✂
✃	Cut below	✃	✄	Scissors	✄
✆	Public pay phone	✆	✇	Film reel	✇
✈	Airport/airplane	✈	✉	Envelope/mail/email	✉
♲	Recycling	♲	♻	Recycling black	♻
@	At sign	@	⛽	Fuel Pump	⛽
Commercial Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
©	copyright	©	℠	Service Mark	&#8480
®	Registered trademark	®	™	Trademark	™
¤	Currency	¤	€	Euro	€
¢	Cent	¢	£	Pound	£
$	Dollar	&36;	¥	Yen	¥
§	Section	§	№	Number sign	№
Hands, Fingers and Faces
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
☚	Left-pointing	☚	☛	Right-pointing	☛
☜	Left-pointing	☜	☝	Upwards pointing	☝
☞	Right pointing	☞	☟	Downwards pointing	☟
✍	Sign here	✍	✌	victory sign	✌
☹	Frowning face	☹	☺	Smiley face	☺
☻	Black smiley face	☻
Science and Medical Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
℃	Celsius	℃	℉	Fahrenheit	℉
Ω	Ohm	Ω	℧	Inverted Ohm	℧
☠	Skull & Crossbones	☠	☡	Caution sign	☡
☢	Radioactive	☢	☣	Biohazard	☣
☤	Caduceus	☤	℞	Prescription	℞
Weather and Celestial Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
☀	Sunshine	☀	☁	Cloudy	☁
☂	Rain	☂	☃	Snow	☃
☄	Comet	☄	★	Star solid	★
☆	Star white	☆	☇	Lightning	☇
☈	Thunder	☈	☉	Sun	☉
☽	Waxing	☽	☾	Waning	☾
☼	Sunshine	☼
Religious and Spiritual Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
☥	Ankh	☥	☦	Eastern Christian Cross	☦
☧	Chi Rho Cross	☧	☨	Patriarchal Cross	☨
☩	Greek Cross	☩	✚	Greek Cross heavy	✚
✙	Greek Cross outline	✙	☓	Saltire, St.Andrew’s Cross	☓
✝	Latin Roman Cross	✝	✞	Latin Cross 3D shadow	✞
✟	Latin Cross outline	✟	☮	Peace sign	☮
✠	Maltese Cross	✠	✡	Star of David	✡
☪	Crescent Moon & Star	☪	☫	Farsi symbol	☫
☬	Adi Shakti	☬	☭	Hammer & Sickle	☭
☯	Yin & Yang	☯	☸	Dharma Wheel	☸
☰	Trigram Heaven	☰	☱	Trigram Lake	☱
☲	Trigram Fire	☲	☳	Trigram Thunder	☳
☴	Trigram Wind	☴	☵	Trigram Water	☵
☶	Trigram Mountain	☶	☷	Trigram Heaven	☷
HTML Zodiac Signs
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
♈	Aries	♈	♉	Taurus	♉
♊	Gemini	♊	♋	Cancer	♋
♌	Leo	♌	♍	Virgo	♍
♎	Libra	♎	♏	Scorpio	♏
♐	Sagitarius	♐	♑	Capricorn	♑
♒	Aquarius	♒	♓	Pisces	♓
HTML Planetary Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
☿	Mercury	☿	♀	Venus	♀
♁	Earth	♁	♂	Mars	♂
♃	Jupiter	♃	♄	Saturn	♄
♅	Uranus	♅	♆	Neptune	♆
♇	Pluto	♇
HTML Chess Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
♔	White King	♔	♕	White Queen	♕
♖	White Rook	♖	♗	White Bishop	♗
♘	White Knight	♘	♙	White Pawn	♙
♚	Black King	♚	♛	Black Queen	♛
♜	Black Rook	♜	♝	Black Bishop	♝
♞	Black Knight	♞	♟	Black Pawn	♟
HTML Card Symbols
Symbol	HTML Code		Symbol	HTML Code
♠	black spade	&spades;	♤	red spade	♤
♥	black heart	&hearts;	♡	red heart	♡
♦	black diamond	&diams;	♢	red diamond	♢
♣	black club	&clubs;	♧	red club	♧

My Weather Forecast

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Beginner, Python Challenges

Learning Objectives

In this challenge we are going to use selection blocks to display a weather forecast report.

Selection blocks uses if, elif and else statements to decide which block of code to run.

if statements use comparison operators to compare values and make a decision based on the comparison.

The main comparison operators are:

Comparison Operator	Meaning	Example
==	is equal to	4==4
!=	is different from	4!=7
<	is lower than	3<5
>	is greater than	9>2
<=	is lower or equal to	3<=5 5<=5
>=	is greater or equal to	9>=2 5>=5

When using comparison operators the result of a comparison is either true or false. For instance:

3 < 5 returns true,
3 > 5 returns false.

It is also possible to combine comparisons together using boolean operators such as and and or. This enables to check if more than one comparison are true (and operator) or whether at least one of the comparisons is true (or operator). e.g.

(3 < 5) and (3 < 7) returns true,
(3 == 5) or (3 < 9) returns true,
(3 == 5) and (3 < 9) returns false.

Check the code

Check the following code and notice how it is using:

Selection structures (using if statements),
Comparison operators (<, <=, >, >=, !=, ==)
Boolean logic (AND, OR) when using comparison operators within if statements

Task #1: Tweak the code

Your challenge consists of adding more to this weather report.
The same way this report randomly finds out if today will be sunny or rainy, add some code to find out whether it will be icy and whether it will be snowy.

If the weather is icy then display a message saying: “Be careful not to fall over on black ice.”

If the weather is either icy or snowy then display a message saying: “Put your gloves on, it’s going to be cold today.”

Task #2:

Add a criteria to find out whether it will be windy or not.

If the weather is both sunny and windy write a message saying: “It’s a good time to go sailing!”

If the weather is sunny but not windy write a message saying: “A perfect day to go to the beach!”

Task #3:

Add your own criteria and messages to complete this weather forecast report further.

Tagged with: Python Challenge, Selection

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Your Challenge

Solution

Solution...

Let’s look at the code

Let’s test this code

Fixing Bugs

Final Testing

Extension Task:

Let’s look at the code

Let’s test this code

Learning Objectives

HTML Chess Symbols

Challenge

Solution...

Learning Objectives

Your Challenge

Complete the Code

Video Tutorial

Test Plan

Extension #1

Extension #2

Solution...

Learning Objectives

Your Challenge

Learning Objectives

Your Challenge

Solution...

Learning Objectives

Your Challenge

Star Symbols

HTML Notes and Music Symbols

Heart Symbols

Utility Symbols

Commercial Symbols

Hands, Fingers and Faces

Science and Medical Symbols

Weather and Celestial Symbols

Religious and Spiritual Symbols

HTML Zodiac Signs

HTML Planetary Symbols

HTML Chess Symbols

HTML Card Symbols

Learning Objectives

Check the code

Task #1: Tweak the code

Task #2:

Task #3:

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