Gee, after this, how can we NOT do this? :-)

Given an Array of Arrays of letters as $g = \@grid, with 'height' $h and width $w, and a word to look for in that grid as $p. All characters are in uppercase.

Find the perl golf solution that locates that word in the grid. The output should be an array; the first two items are the across and down positions in the grid, given the top-left corner is at 0,0; the remaining parameters may be one of the following (whichever makes the golf easist to solve - you only need to have the return in one of these formats, and assume the rest of the program can handle the format you choose):

• A number 1 through 8, indicating the direction the word can be found in, with 1 being going up the grid, 2 going in the northeast direction, etc.
• A array of the direction the word travels in: 0,-1 would be straight up, 1,-1 would be to the northeast, etc.
• A array indicating the end position of the word in the grid.

. If the word cannot be found, the sub should return undef.

Example usage:

my @grid = (
   [ split( //,     'ABPR' ) ],
   [ split( //,     'CAEL' ) ],
   [ split( //,     'TSRX' ) ],
   [ split( //,     'OILW' ) ]
);
my $h = 4; my $w = 4;

sub find { ... }

my @results = find( \@grid, $w, $h, "PERL" );
# 
# @results can be:
#   ( 2, 0, 4 )  if using 1-8 numbers
#   ( 2, 0, 0, 1 ) if using direction
#   ( 2, 0, 2, 3 ) if using end point
my @results = find( \@grid, $w, $h, "GOLD" );
# @results = ()
[download]

Update - Fixed order of width/height passage, and an error in one of the example.

-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important

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