Anonymize names - sort of

Question

Edit: There will be a bonus of -20 for random masking

Hello fellow Whistleblowers and carriers of secret knowledge.

I am due to an interview by mail and I - of course - cannot say specific names in full length. But as I want to disclose it in a rather not-so-obvious-way I need your help.

I will provide these names in the form of

"evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver"

but surely I do not want to spell it out completely. Your task to help me and the whole world is that you provide a nice program that turns the above into

"ev**************************"

or

"**il************************"

or even

"****_c**********************"

I think you get it. But there is one flaw: I want to disclose the name in total, so I need to pass the number of occurrences and the word itself to the script and it will disclose the letters bit by bit. An example could be

~$ ./whistle NSA 3
> "N**"
> "**A"
> "*S*"

or

~$ ./whistle nuclear 3
> "nu*****"
> "***lea*"
> "**c***r"

or

~$ ./whistle nuclear 2
> "nuc****"
> "***lear"

I hope you can help me and as we know that size matters the shortest code wins. Help make this world a better place!

Answer 1

GolfScript, 26 charaters

Since no specific way of disclosure was specified I decided to go for the shortest:

:f,\`{{\)f%.!@42if}%\;n}+%

You may experiment with this code online.

Example:

> "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" 7
******G******N******U*****
*****F******M******T******
****E******L******S******Z
***D******K******R******Y*
**C******J******Q******X**
*B******I******P******W***
A******H******O******V****

Commented code:

:f           # Save the second input to variable f
,            # Makes the array [0 1 2 .... f-1]
\`{          # \´{}+% builds a code block where
             # first the input string is pushed (done
             # via the + operator and afterwards the whole
             # block is applied to above array, i.e.
             # For each line 0, 1, ...                                                
             #   Here, the stack contains the line number (counter)
             #   and the string
  {          #   {}% -> map to each character of the string
             #     Stack contains counter and current character
    \)f%     #     Increase the counter by one and calculate modulo f
    .        #     Duplicate counter (will be used for the if below)
    !        #     and test for zero 
             #     I.e. if counter==0
    @        #       Then Current character
    42       #       Else 42 (which is '*')
    if       #     
  }%         #   The mapping operation masked most of the characters
  \;         #   Discard the counter
  n          #   Add newline
}+%      

Answer 2

PHP - 80 bytes

<?for(;($c=$argv[1][~-$i+=1])?:$k^++$j;)echo$c?$i%$k=&$argv[2]^$j?'*':$c:$i='
';

Sample usage:

$ php whistle-blower.php ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 7
******G******N******U*****
A******H******O******V****
*B******I******P******W***
**C******J******Q******X**
***D******K******R******Y*
****E******L******S******Z
*****F******M******T******

Answer 3

Python (157 149 139 138-20=118):

def f(a,b):
 from random import*;c=[["*"]*len(a) for i in range(b)]
 for d in range(len(a)):choice(c)[d]=a[d]
 for e in c:print "".join(e)

Cheesy python (55 35):

You didn't tell me the required distribution ;)

g=lambda a,b:["*"*len(a)]*(b-1)+[a]

Uniform python (129 123 122):

def h(a,b):
 c=[["*"]*len(a)for i in range(b)]
 for d in range(len(a)):c=c[1:]+c[:1];c[0][d]=a[d]
 for e in c:print"".join(e)

Output:

a="Synthetica 'Evil' the Second"
b=7
f(a,b)
print
for i in g(a,b): print i
print
h(a,b)

gives

***t***i***'***** *********d
******************t** ******
******t*** ***********Se**n*
S**************l****e*******
*y******c***E************o**
**n*h****a**************c***
*****e*******vi*'**h********

****************************
****************************
****************************
****************************
****************************
****************************
Synthetica 'Evil' the Second

******t******v******e******d
S******i******i****** ******
*y******c******l******S*****
**n******a******'******e****
***t****** ****** ******c***
****h******'******t******o**
*****e******E******h******n*

Answer 4

Bash, 80 bytes

m=${1//?/*}
for((i=1;d=i*${#1}/$2,i++<=$2;c=d)){
echo "${m:0:c}${1:c:d-c}${m:d}"
}

In action:

$ ./anon.sh stackoverflow.com 6
st***************
**ack************
*****ove*********
********rfl******
***********ow.***
**************com
$ 

Answer 5

C#, 226

This can be trimmed down if you replace the random stuff with a more simple distribution (think modulus) but the randomness is what got me interested. =)

Anyway, putting everything on just one line I get 226 characters. In readable code it looks like this:

private void F(string n, int i)
{
    var l = n.Length;
    var r = new Random();
    var a = new string[i];

    for (var p = 0; p < l; p++)
    {
        var x = r.Next(0, i);
        for (var j = 0; j < i; j++)
        {
            a[j] += j == x ? n.Substring(p, 1) : "*";
        }
    }

    for (var j = 0; j < i; j++)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(a[j]);
    }
}

Sample output:

Anonymize.exe ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 7
*****F**I**********T**W***
A*****************S****X**
**CDE**H*JKL**************
*************N************
**************O*****U****Z
*B****G*****M***QR********
***************P*****V**Y*

Answer 6

Perl, 24

$_ x=<>;s/(.|
)./\1*/g

Requires the -p switch, which accounts for two of the bytes. Reads from STDIN.

How it works

• Because of the -p switch, Perl reads the first input lie and stores its contents in $_.

• The command $_ x=<>; duplicates the first input line the number of times the second input line (<>) specifies.

• The command s/(.|\n)./\1*/g; consumes two characters and replaces the second (which cannot be a newline) with an asterisk. It does this until it has consumed the entire contents of $_.

  Since newlines count as the first character, this will obfuscate all even characters on the first line and all odd characters on the remaining lines.

• Because of the -p switch, Perl prints the contents of $_.

Example input

codegolf
4

Example output

c*d*g*l*
*o*e*o*f
*o*e*o*f
*o*e*o*f

Answer 7

Java - 490

Yeah, not really golfed or anything. Oh well, here it is:

import java.util.ArrayList;public class Anonymise {public static void  main(String[] args){ArrayList[] c=new ArrayList[Integer.parseInt(args[1])];for(int i=0;i<c.length;i++)c[i]=new ArrayList();for(char a:args[0].toCharArray()){int f=new java.util.Random().nextInt(c.length);c[f].add(a);for(int i=0;i<c.length;i++)if(i!=f)c[i].add('*');}ArrayList<String> b = new ArrayList<String>();for(ArrayList a:c){String s = "";for(Object o : a)s += o;b.add(s);}for(String s : b)System.out.println(s);}}

In a nice, legible format:

import java.util.ArrayList;

public class Anonymise {

public static void main(String[] args){
    ArrayList[] c = new ArrayList[Integer.parseInt(args[1])];
    for(int i=0;i<c.length;i++)
        c[i]=new ArrayList();
    for(char a:args[0].toCharArray()){
        int f = new java.util.Random().nextInt(c.length);
        c[f].add(a);
        for(int i=0;i<c.length;i++)
            if(i!=f)c[i].add('*');
    }
    ArrayList<String> b = new ArrayList<String>();
    for(ArrayList a:c){
        String s = "";
        for(Object o : a)
            s += o;b.add(s);
    }
    for(String s : b)
        System.out.println(s);
}
}

Sample usage (When run from the compiled class)

> java Anonymise OnlinePerson 3
*n****P***o*
O*li***e****
****ne**rs*n

Answer 8

Python 3 - 187 (-20 = 167)

Took me a while to write, could probably be golfed more.

import sys,random as a
b=sys.argv
x=[""for i in' '*int(b[2])]
for i in range(len(b[1])):n=a.randrange(len(x));x=[c+["*",b[1][len(c)]][j==n]for j,c in enumerate(x)]
for i in x:print(i)

Sample usage:

$ python tx.py super_anonymous_user 3
s******n**y*ou****e*
**p***a**n*m**s_us*r
*u*er_**o***********

As a function - 161 (-20 = 141)

from random import*
def f(c,n):
    x=[""for i in' '*n]
    for i in range(len(c)):n=randrange(len(x));x=[v+["*",c[len(v)]][j==n]for j,v in enumerate(x)]
    return x

Answer 9

C# 184

namespace System.Linq{class P{static void Main(string[] a){int n=int.Parse(a[1]);for(int i=0;i<n;i++)Console.WriteLine(new String(a[0].Select((c,x)=>(i+x)%n==0?c:'*').ToArray()));}}}

Non-golfed

namespace System.Linq
{
    class P
    {
        static void Main(string[] a)
        {
            int n = int.Parse(a[1]);
            for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
                Console.WriteLine(new String(a[0].Select((c, x) => (i + x) % n == 0 ? c : '*').ToArray()));
        }
    }
}

Sample:

> Anonymize.exe "qwertyuio" 4
q***t***o
***r***i*
**e***u**
*w***y***

Answer 10

Perl 6 (77 bytes)

This may count as cheating, but it solves the problem (it doesn't print the string entirely).

($_,$!)=@*ARGS;.say for .chop~"*","*"x.chars-1~.substr(*-1),"*"x.chars xx$!-2

And the sample output.

> ./script.p6 ultimately_awesome 6
ultimately_awesom*
*****************e
******************
******************
******************
******************

Answer 11

JavaScript - 170

function s(a,e){o="",b=a.length,x=b/e|0,y=b-x*e;for(c=1;c<=e;c++){r="*";o+=Array((c-1)*x+1).join(r)+a.substr(c*x-x,c==e?x+y:x)+Array(c<e?b-c*x+1:0).join(r)+"\n"}return o}

Quick one, breaks if you supply a name and ask for more pieces than characters, but works up to that point and down to 1. Could be golfed more I assume, so may revise or take advice, as it's a bit of a mess.

Edit: Golfed further (from 187) with removal of brackets (@Synthetica) and Math.floor replacement from @toothbrush. For loop change as suggested results in errors in the output.

Answer 12

R, (120-20)=100 bytes (2 different solutions of same length)

Beside the conciseness, R for sure features the best random number generator! :) Here the 1st solution of length 120:

function(s,n){
  c=strsplit(s,"")[[1]]
  e=sample(n,nchar(s),T)
  sapply(1:n,function(i)paste(ifelse(e==i,c,"*"),collapse=""))
}

If the function is named as f, the output looks like:

> f("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", 7)
"******GH*****************Z" 
"ABCD*********N************" 
"***********L**O***********"
"*********J**M**P*RS*U**X**" 
"**********K***********W***" 
"*****F**I*******Q*********"
"****E**************T*V**Y*"

And here the 2nd solution, again with random masking, and again 120 bytes long:

function(s,n){
  x=matrix("*",n,(m=nchar(s)))
  x[cbind(sample(n,m,T),1:m)]=strsplit(s,"")[[1]]
  apply(x,1,paste,collapse="")
}

Answer 13

Scala (1) 177 bytes

After the solution in R I also found one in Scala, here it is:

def f(s:String, n:Int)={
  def c=s map (z=>z.toString)
  def r=(1 to s.length) map (v=>v%n+1)
  (for (i<-1 to n) yield s zip r map (t=>if(t._2==i) t._1 else "*") mkString "") map println
}

Scala (2) 129 bytes

After a short research I found the method zipWithIndex. Wonderful :)

def f(s:String, n:Int)={
  (for (i<-0 until n) yield s.zipWithIndex.map (t=>if(t._2 % n==i) t._1 else "*") mkString "") map println
}

Here the solution:

f("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", 4)
***D***H***L***P***T***X**
A***E***I***M***Q***U***Y*
*B***F***J***N***R***V***Z
**C***G***K***O***S***W***

Answer 14

Javascript - 166

function s(b,a){o="";k=Array(a).join("*");t=k+b+k;for(i=a;0<i;i--)o+=t.replace(RegExp(".{"+(a-1)+"}(.)","g"),k+"$1").substr(i-1,b.length)+"\n",t=t.substr(1);return o}

Using regex.

Sample

> s("four",5)                      
f***                            
*o**                             
**u*                             
***r                             
****                             

> s("evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver",3)
e**l**o**a**_**a**m**e**m**s**v**
*v**_**m**n**t**t**a**s**e**h**e*
**i**c**p**y**h**_**k**_**_**i**r

Answer 15

k [50-20=30 chars]

{.{@[y#"*";z;:;x z]}[x;c]'=_d*y%#d:<<(-d)?!d:c:#x}

Explanation

1. Input: x=String which needs to be masked, y=number of lines
2. Count the number of characters c in string and create y buckets.
3. Place c mod y characters in each bucket.
4. For each bucket, print "*" for the remaining numbers not in that bucket.

Example

{.{@[y#"*";z;:;x z]}[x;c]'=_d*y%#d:<<(-d)?!d:c:#x}["abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";4]

Output

"ab*d*f***j**********u*w***"
"**c*e*gh**k*****q*s*******"
"********i***mn*****t*v**y*"
"***********l**op*r*****x*z"

Answer 16

JavaScript - 139-20=119

function e(s,c){r=[];for(i=c;i--;)r[i]='';for(i=0;i<s.length*c;i++)x=i%c,n=(x<1?Math.random()*c|0:n),r[x]+=(n!=x?'*':s[(i/c)|0]);return r}

Usage and sample output:

console.log(e("evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver", 3));

["**i*_**mp*****h**_ma**********v**", 
 "*****co**a***t*a******s*me_*hi*e*", 
 "ev*l******ny_***t***ke*_***s****r"]

As the masking is random, the output may also look like this:

console.log(e("evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver", 2));

["evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver", 
 "*********************************"]

Answer 17

Julia 56-20=36 (works often)

f(s,n)=[join([rand()<1.9/n?c:"*" for c in s]) for r=1:n]

julia> f("evilcompany!!!",4)
4-element Array{Union(UTF8String,ASCIIString),1}:
 "e**l**mp*ny*!*"
 "***lco********"
 "e*il**m*a*y!*!"
 "evil**m*an***!"

Trying to go for a shorter random solution I decided to sacrifice guaranteed functioning for a shorter solution. It's really not a very good solution.

Answer 18

F# - 81 80 75

This is fairly similar to others that have been offered:

let a s n=[for i in 0..n-1->String.mapi(fun j c->[c;'*'].[min((j+i)%n)1])s]

Sample:

a "evil_company_that_makes_me_shiver" 7

e******m******h******e******h**** 
******o******t******k******s***** 
*****c******_******a******_****** 
****_******y******m******e******r 
***l******n******_******m******e* 
**i******a******t******_******v** 
*v******p******a******s******i*** 

As a full, stand-alone application it comes out to 160 155 156 characters:

[<EntryPoint>]let m (a:string array)=
 let n=System.Int32.Parse a.[1]
 for i in 0..n-1 do printfn"%s"(String.mapi(fun j c->[c;'*'].[min((j+i)%n)1])a.[0])
 0