Given a string, calculate the number of the column it corresponds to

Question

In Excel, the columns range from A-Z, AA,AB,AZ,BA,..,BZ and so on. They actually each stand for numbers, but rather are encoded as alphabet strings.

In this challenge, you will be given a string of alphabets, and you must calculate the column it corresponds to.

Some tests:

'A' returns 1 (meaning that it is the first column)

'B' returns 2

'Z' returns 26

'AA' returns 27

'AB' returns 28

'AZ' returns 52

'ZZ' returns 702

'AAA' returns 703

You can assume that capital letters will be given only.

Shortest bytes win.

Good luck!

@J.Doe Ah, I guess you're right. I didn't notice since my solution automatically treated Z as 10 anyway — Jo King, Oct 20, 2018 at 2:56

Jo King · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 02:51:48Z

9

Perl 6, 17 bytes

{:26[.ords X-64]}

Try it online!

Anonymous code block that subtracts 64 from each byte value and converts from base 26 with Z overflowing to the next column.

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 2:51

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 1:56

Jo King♦

47.2k5 gold badges124 silver badges184 bronze badges

Add a comment |

DELETE_ME · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 06:36:31Z

8

Google Sheets, 21 bytes

(formula evaluates to the result, takes input from cell A1)

=column(indirect(A1&2

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 6:36

DELETE_ME

17.3k2 gold badges36 silver badges70 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ Just about to post a slightly less golfed version of this. \$\endgroup\$
– ATaco
Oct 20, 2018 at 6:38
1

\$\begingroup\$ I also have a solution in Google Sheets that doesn't rely on builtin COLUMN, check it out. (besides, I feel bad that the solution I put more effort on gets less attention... it's a typical problem with voting anyway, especially when the challenge is on HNQ.) \$\endgroup\$
– DELETE_ME
Oct 22, 2018 at 0:13

Add a comment |

J.Doe · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 15:29:49Z

6

R, 48 43 bytes

-5 bytes thanks to @Giuseppe, using the same logic, but as a program that eliminates the nchar call.

for(i in utf8ToInt(scan(,"")))F=F*26+i-64;F

Try it online!

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 15:29

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 2:00

J.Doe

2,55910 silver badges14 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Olivier Grégoire · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 21:30:05Z

5

Java (JDK), 39 bytes

s->s.chars().reduce(0,(a,b)->a*26+b%32)

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 21:30

Olivier Grégoire

14.4k3 gold badges31 silver badges56 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ Which java platform supports this ? \$\endgroup\$
– Syed Hamza Hassan
Oct 21, 2018 at 18:26
\$\begingroup\$ @SyedHamzaHassan Java 8 or more. \$\endgroup\$
– Olivier Grégoire
Oct 21, 2018 at 18:34

Add a comment |

Chas Brown · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 03:08:49Z

3

Python 2, 52 45 bytes

t=0
for c in input():t=26*t+ord(c)%64
print t

Try it online!

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 3:08

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 2:58

Chas Brown

9,7571 gold badge12 silver badges39 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Okx · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 08:06:45Z

3

05AB1E, 6 bytes

Çžx-₂β

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 8:06

Okx

16.4k5 gold badges42 silver badges113 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ Out of curiosity, why use žx instead of just 64? \$\endgroup\$
– Kevin Cruijssen
Oct 21, 2018 at 17:13
\$\begingroup\$ I don't know, it looked nicer I guess? \$\endgroup\$
– Okx
Oct 21, 2018 at 21:44

Add a comment |

ovs · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 16:05:55Z

3

Haskell, 38 34 31 bytes

foldl(\o->(o*26-64+).fromEnum)0

Try it online!

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 16:05

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 15:41

ovs

59.3k3 gold badges47 silver badges158 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

3

PHP, 41 38 bytes

-3 thanks to Jo King.

for($c=A;$c!=$argn;$i++)$c++;echo$i+1;

run as pipe with -nr

unary output, 34 bytes:

1<?for($c=A;$c!=$argn;$c++)echo 1;

requires PHP 7.1. save to file, run as pipe with -nF.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 4:36

Titus

14.7k1 gold badge23 silver badges41 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ @Rogem check codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2424/… \$\endgroup\$
– Titus
Oct 23, 2018 at 10:26
\$\begingroup\$ @Titus Alright then \$\endgroup\$
– user77406
Oct 23, 2018 at 10:38

Add a comment |

Erik the Outgolfer · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 10:12:48Z

2

Jelly, 7 bytes

ØAiⱮḅ26

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 10:12

Erik the Outgolfer

40.6k5 gold badges42 silver badges122 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

2

APL(NARS), 11 chars, 22 bytes

{+/26⊥⎕A⍳⍵}

test

  f←{+/26⊥⎕A⍳⍵} 
  f¨'A' 'AA' 'AAA'
1 27 703 
  f¨'AB' 'ZZ' 'Z'
28 702 26

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 17:23

user58988

Add a comment |

Bubbler · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-24 04:30:35Z

2

J, 11 bytes

26#.64|3&u:

Try it online!

How it works

26#.64|3&u:  Monadic verb. Input: a string.
       3&u:  Convert each character to Unicode codepoint
    64|      Modulo 64; maps A -> 1, ... Z -> 26
26#.         Interpret as base-26 digits and convert to single integer

answered Oct 24, 2018 at 4:30

Bubbler

76k5 gold badges146 silver badges454 bronze badges

Add a comment |

tsh · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 03:42:48Z

1

JavaScript (Node.js), 48 bytes

f=([h,...t],p=0)=>h?f(t,p*26+parseInt(h,36)-9):p

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 3:42

tsh

34.7k2 gold badges33 silver badges126 bronze badges

1

\$\begingroup\$ .map() is 1 byte shorter. Using Buffer() saves another byte. \$\endgroup\$
– Arnauld
Oct 20, 2018 at 12:47
1

\$\begingroup\$ 38 bytes, expanding on @Arnauld's suggestions. \$\endgroup\$
– Shaggy
Oct 20, 2018 at 14:19

Add a comment |

Galen Ivanov · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 08:29:34Z

1

APL (Dyalog Classic), 11 bytes

⎕A∘⍳⊥⍨26⍴⍨≢

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 8:29

Galen Ivanov

21k3 gold badges23 silver badges61 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Galen Ivanov · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 08:33:01Z

1

J, 20 bytes

[:(#.~26$~#)32|a.i.]

Try it online!

Explanation:

 [:(#.~26$~#)32|a.i.] 
                  i.    - indices 
                    ]   - of the characters of the input
                a.      - in the alphabet
             32|        - mod 32
 [:(        )           - apply the following code to the above
         $~             - create a list of (left and right arguments exchanged) 
       26               - the number 26
           #            - repeated the length of the input times
    #.~                 - to base (26)

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 8:33

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 7:11

Galen Ivanov

21k3 gold badges23 silver badges61 bronze badges

Add a comment |

DELETE_ME · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 08:44:35Z

1

Google Sheets, 100 bytes

(formula evaluates to the result, takes input from cell A1)

=sum(arrayformula(
  (
    code(
      mid(A1,row(indirect("1:"&len(A1))),1)
    )-64
  )*26^row(indirect("1:"&len(A1)))/26

All spaces are added for clarity only.

Note.

I don't know if it's possible to remove the duplication of row(indirect("1:"&len(A1)).
Although Google Sheets has a decimal function, the transliteration would takes a lot of bytes.

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 8:44

DELETE_ME

17.3k2 gold badges36 silver badges70 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

APL+WIN, 12 bytes

Index origin 1.

26⊥¯65+⎕av⍳⎕

Try it online! Courtesy of Dyalog Classic

Explanation:

⎕av⍳⎕ Prompts for input and gets Ascii integer value for each character

¯65+ subtracts 65 to give integers 1-26 for A-Z

26⊥ converts resulting vector from base 26 to single integer

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 9:46

Graham

6,10614 silver badges11 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Neil · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 10:08:00Z

1

Charcoal, 10 bytes

Ｉ↨²⁶ＥＳ⊕⌕αι

Try it online! Link is to verbose version of code. Explanation:

     Ｓ      Input string
    Ｅ       Map over characters
         ι  Current character
        α   Uppercase alphabet
       ⌕    Find index
      ⊕     Increment
  ²⁶        Literal 26
 ↨          Base conversion
Ｉ           Cast to string
            Implicitly print

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 10:08

Neil

170k12 gold badges72 silver badges275 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Syed Hamza Hassan · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 14:26:54Z

1

Java (JDK), 92 bytes

static int m(String v){int x=0;for(int i=0;i<v.length();i++)x=x*26+v.charAt(i)-64;return x;}

Try it online!

Output

A=1

B=2

Z=26

AA=27

AB=28

AZ=52

ZZ=702

AAA=703

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 14:26

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 6:34

Syed Hamza Hassan

1295 bronze badges

\$\begingroup\$ I'm not an expert at golfing Java, but you can golf this down considerably by returning instead of printing, simplifying the for loops, removing whitespace and getting rid of the p and n variables. 92 bytes!. \$\endgroup\$
– Jo King ♦
Oct 20, 2018 at 14:22
\$\begingroup\$ Wonderful....... \$\endgroup\$
– Syed Hamza Hassan
Oct 20, 2018 at 14:26
1

\$\begingroup\$ You can remove static to gain 7 bytes. You could also make this function a lambda to spare more bytes. I also think that the recursive version might save bytes. In any case, here's my 39 bytes solution. \$\endgroup\$
– Olivier Grégoire
Oct 20, 2018 at 21:36
\$\begingroup\$ That's Wonderful. \$\endgroup\$
– Syed Hamza Hassan
Oct 21, 2018 at 14:03

Add a comment |

Giuseppe · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 15:23:22Z

1

MATL, 11 bytes

0w"26*@+64-

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 15:23

Giuseppe

28.5k3 gold badges31 silver badges103 bronze badges

Add a comment |

ovs · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 16:00:03Z

1

Kotlin, 36 bytes

{it.fold(0){o,n->o*26+n.toInt()-64}}

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 16:00

ovs

59.3k3 gold badges47 silver badges158 bronze badges

Add a comment |

G B · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 16:55:37Z

1

Ruby, 18 bytes

->s{[*?A..s].size}

Try it online!

edited Oct 20, 2018 at 16:55

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 16:31

G B

21.9k1 gold badge20 silver badges53 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

C (gcc), 46, 43 bytes

a;f(int*s){for(a=0;*s;)a=*s++%64+a*26;s=a;}

Try it online!

Degolf

a; f(int*s)
{  for(a=0;*s;) // Loop through s, which is a null-terminated string.
       a=*s++%64 + a*26; // Multiply accumulated value by 26, and add current char modulo 64 to it.
   s=a;} // Return the accumulated value.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 13:35

user77406

Add a comment |

snail_ · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-24 02:07:09Z

1

Ahead, 22 bytes

>jvi'@-\26l
^~>O@ ~+*<

Try it online!

answered Oct 24, 2018 at 2:07

snail_

2,66211 silver badges16 bronze badges

Add a comment |

wooshinyobject · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-24 17:40:24Z

1

MBASIC, 84 bytes

1 INPUT S$:L=LEN(S$):FOR I=1 TO L:V=ASC(MID$(S$,I,1))-64:T=T+26^(L-I)*V:NEXT:PRINT T

Output:

? AZ
 52

? ZZ
 702

? AAA
 703

answered Oct 24, 2018 at 17:40

wooshinyobject

1916 bronze badges

Add a comment |

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-25 16:17:49Z

x86 machine code, 19 bytes

00000000: 31c0 8b19 83e3 3f41 b21a f7e2 01d8 3831  1.....?A......81
00000010: 75f0 c3                                  u..

Assembly:

section .text
	global func
func:				;this function uses fastcall conventions
	xor eax, eax		;reset eax to 0
	loop:
		;ebx=*ecx%64
		mov ebx, [ecx]	;ecx is 1st arg to this func (in fastcall conventions)
		and ebx, 63	;because 64 is a pwr of 2,n%64=n&(64-1)

		;ecx++		get next char in str by incrementing ptr
		inc ecx
		
		;eax=eax*26
		mov dl, 26	;using an 8bit reg is less bytes
		mul edx
		
		;eax+=ebx //(eax=(*ecx%64)+(eax*26))
		add eax, ebx

		;if(*ecx!='\0')goto loop
		cmp byte [ecx], dh ;dh==0
		jne loop
	ret			;return value is in eax

Try it online!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

Japt `-h`, 10 bytes

åÈ*26+InYc

Try it

Or without a flag. The first byte can be removed if we can take input as a character array.

¬®c aIÃì26

Try it

Explanation

åÈ             :Cumulatively reduce by passing each character at Y through a function, with an initial total of 0
  *26          :  Multiply current total by 26
     -I        :  Subtract 64
       n       :   Subtracted from
        Yc     :    The codepoint of Y
               :Implicitly output the last element of the resulting array

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 15:09

Shaggy

41.9k4 gold badges34 silver badges93 bronze badges

Add a comment |

snail_ · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-26 06:20:14Z

1

Kotlin, 29 bytes

{it.fold(0){a,v->v-'@'+a*26}}

Try it online!

Explained

val column: (String) -> Int = {  // String in, Int out
    it.fold(0) { a, v ->  // acc, value
        v - '@'  // distance of char from @ (A=1 etc.)
                + a * 26
    }
}

edited Nov 26, 2018 at 6:20

answered Oct 24, 2018 at 1:50

snail_

2,66211 silver badges16 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Kirill L. · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-20 08:09:54Z

0

Ruby `-nl`, 39 bytes

p$_.chars.reduce(0){|x,y|26*x+y.ord-64}

Try it online!

answered Oct 20, 2018 at 8:09

Kirill L.

13.9k2 gold badges15 silver badges50 bronze badges

Add a comment |

Stack Exchange Network

Given a string, calculate the number of the column it corresponds to

28 Answers 28

Perl 6, 17 bytes

Google Sheets, 21 bytes

R, 48 43 bytes

Java (JDK), 39 bytes

Python 2, 52 45 bytes

05AB1E, 6 bytes

Haskell, 38 34 31 bytes

PHP, 41 38 bytes

Jelly, 7 bytes

APL(NARS), 11 chars, 22 bytes

J, 11 bytes

How it works

JavaScript (Node.js), 48 bytes

APL (Dyalog Classic), 11 bytes

J, 20 bytes

Explanation:

Google Sheets, 100 bytes

APL+WIN, 12 bytes

Charcoal, 10 bytes

Java (JDK), 92 bytes

MATL, 11 bytes

Kotlin, 36 bytes

Ruby, 18 bytes

C (gcc), 46, 43 bytes

Degolf

Ahead, 22 bytes

MBASIC, 84 bytes

x86 machine code, 19 bytes

Japt `-h`, 10 bytes

Explanation

Kotlin, 29 bytes

Explained

Ruby `-nl`, 39 bytes

Your Answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged
code-golf
math
or ask your own question.

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Given a string, calculate the number of the column it corresponds to

28 Answers 28

Perl 6, 17 bytes

Google Sheets, 21 bytes

R, 48 43 bytes

Java (JDK), 39 bytes

Python 2, 52 45 bytes

05AB1E, 6 bytes

Haskell, 38 34 31 bytes

PHP, 41 38 bytes

Jelly, 7 bytes

APL(NARS), 11 chars, 22 bytes

J, 11 bytes

How it works

JavaScript (Node.js), 48 bytes

APL (Dyalog Classic), 11 bytes

J, 20 bytes

Explanation:

Google Sheets, 100 bytes

APL+WIN, 12 bytes

Charcoal, 10 bytes

Java (JDK), 92 bytes

MATL, 11 bytes

Kotlin, 36 bytes

Ruby, 18 bytes

C (gcc), 46, 43 bytes

Degolf

Ahead, 22 bytes

MBASIC, 84 bytes

x86 machine code, 19 bytes

Japt -h, 10 bytes

Explanation

Kotlin, 29 bytes

Explained

Ruby -nl, 39 bytes

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged code-golfmath or ask your own question.

Linked

Related

Hot Network Questions

Japt `-h`, 10 bytes

Ruby `-nl`, 39 bytes

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged
code-golf
math
or ask your own question.