+------+-------+------+   
                |  0   |   1   |  2   |  
                +------+-------+------+  
                | CULT | SOME  | VEST |   
                |      | HINT  | HOSE |   
                +------+-------+------+

A four-letter word needs to be determined. Several clues are provided in the grid above to help guess what it is.

In the column marked "2," you have words that share exactly two letters in the same position as the hidden word. For example, if the hidden word were REDO, in column 2 we could put DEMO, BEDS, DODO, etc.

Column 1 contains words that share exactly one letter in the same position as the hidden word. In the example above, REDO being the hidden word, column 1 could have NODS, ROAD, etc.

Column 0 has words that do not share any letter in the same position as the hidden word. For our example, column 0 could have GAME, HARD, etc.

Now, find the hidden word.

OPEN "\words\words4.txt" FOR BINARY AS #1
w$ = SPACE$(4)
DO
 GET #1, , w$
 IF EOF(1) THEN EXIT DO
 ct = 0
 FOR i = 1 TO 4
  IF MID$(w$, i, 1) = MID$("vest", i, 1) THEN ct = ct + 1
 NEXT
 IF ct = 2 THEN
   ct = 0
   FOR i = 1 TO 4
    IF MID$(w$, i, 1) = MID$("hose", i, 1) THEN ct = ct + 1
   NEXT
 IF ct = 2 THEN
   ct = 0
   FOR i = 1 TO 4
    IF MID$(w$, i, 1) = MID$("some", i, 1) THEN ct = ct + 1
   NEXT
 IF ct = 1 THEN
   ct = 0
   FOR i = 1 TO 4
    IF MID$(w$, i, 1) = MID$("hint", i, 1) THEN ct = ct + 1
   NEXT
 IF ct = 1 THEN
   ct = 0
   FOR i = 1 TO 4
    IF MID$(w$, i, 1) = MID$("cult", i, 1) THEN ct = ct + 1
   NEXT
 IF ct = 0 THEN
   PRINT w$
 END IF
 END IF
 END IF
 END IF
 END IF
LOOP

finds the word

vise

I don't see what the previous comments have to do with the answer.

Posted by Charlie on 2013-04-26 12:45:40