Consider a valid English word without hyphens or spaces, which is not a proper noun. Assign the values a=0, b=1, c=2, d=3, e=4, f=5, g=6, h=7, i=8 and j=9.

A date corresponding to a valid English word in consonance with the above assignment in mm/dd/yy format is called a "spell date". For example,the word "deface" generates 34/50/24 which is not a valid date in the mm/dd/yy format, and consequently not a spell date.

(A) Determine the respective first and last spell dates in the period covering January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2100 inclusively.

(B) What would have been the respective answers to (A) if the definition of a spell date involved a dd/mm/yy format instead?

(In reply to re(2): computer solution by Dej Mar)

Indeed I had a bug in my yyyy format. I wasn't trimming the space from the front of the year when converted from numeric to string and the space had the same value as a zero. The fixed program for yyyy/m/d does find:

2011/4/3      cabbed
2011/8/4      cabbie
2027/4/3      cached
2033/8/4      caddie
2033/8/24     caddice
2036/4/3      cadged

Caddice was the only one not on Dej Mar's list.

Posted by Charlie on 2012-09-04 09:55:56