You are given the following clues, from which you have to determine that order of the nine reindeers:

Comet behind Rudolph, Prancer and Cupid.
Blitzen behind Cupid and in front of Donder, Vixen and Dancer.
Cupid in front of Comet, Blitzen and Vixen.
Donder behind Vixen, Dasher and Prancer.
Rudolph behind Prancer and in front of Donder, Dancer and Dasher.
Vixen in front of Dancer and Comet.
Dancer behind Donder, Rudolph and Blitzen.
Prancer in front of Cupid, Donder and Blitzen.
Dasher behind Prancer and in front of Vixen, Dancer and Blitzen.
Donder behind Comet and Cupid.
Cupid in front of Rudolph and Dancer.
Vixen behind Rudolph, Prancer and Dasher.

Determine the order of the nine reindeers .

Neat seasonal problem Ravi! I guess this shows how long the problem queue is.

From front to back the reindeer are:

Prancer
Cupid
Rudolph
Dasher
Blitzen
Vixen
Comet
Donder
Dancer

To get the solution I wrote down the list and used a kind of 'bubble sort' principle to move names up and down. I needed to run through the clues a few times before I had a run through where there were no changes.

One minor point of pedantry, traditionally 'Donder' is actually 'Donner'. Donner and Blitzen are the German words for thunder and lightning.

Posted by fwaff on 2003-04-07 03:01:03