Cody Fendant has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I was musing over The Name Game, which is a string-processing algorithm as well as a song.

According to the instructions, I have written this script: 

$N = $ARGV[0];
$n = $N =~ /^[AEIOU]/ ? $N : substr( $N, 1 );
@a = qw( b f m ) if $N !~ /^[BFM]/;
$n = lc( $n =~ /^[BFM]/ ? substr( $n, 1 ) : $n );
printf( "%s, %s, bo-%s%s, Banana-fana fo-%s%s, Fee-fi-mo-%s%s, %s!",
    ( $N, $N, $a[0], $n, $a[1], $n, $a[2], $n, $N ) );

[download]

I'm sure other Monks can improve on that?

Edit: based on the input below, this is a revised version:

$N = $ARGV[0];
$n = $N =~ /^[AEIOU]/ ? $N : substr( $N, 1 );
foreach (qw( b f m )) { push( @a, ( $N =~ /^[$_]/i ? '' : $_ ) ) }
$n = lc( $n =~ /^[BFM]/ ? substr( $n, 1 ) : $n );
printf( "%s, %s, bo-%s%s, Banana-fana fo-%s%s, Fee-fi-mo-%s%s, %s!\n",
    ( $N, $N, $a[0], $n, $a[1], $n, $a[2], $n, $N ) );

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The Name Game and Golf
by ambrus (Abbot) on Apr 19, 2010 at 09:02 UTC

    Your implementation gives a different result from the example on the website you linked to for the input Micah. Please debug it.

[reply]
[d/l]
      Actually, you're right.

      But it says "And if the name starts with a b, f, or m, that sound simply is not repeated. (For example: Billy becomes "Billy Billy bo-illy"; Fred becomes "banana fana fo-red"; Marsha becomes "fee fi mo-arsha".)" so, what have I not understood?
[reply]
      Oh wait, I get it now.

      What it means is, if the name starts with a b, f, or m, that consonant is not added if it would be doubled, e.g. Billy becomes "Billy, Billy, bo-illy, Banana-fana fo-filly, Fee-fi-mo-milly, Billy!" -- the b is dropped only at the point where it would be prefaced with another b, but not at the point where it would be prefaced with an f or an m.

      Neither of the two solutions below follows this rule, right?
[reply]
Re: The Name Game and Golf
by youlose (Scribe) on Apr 19, 2010 at 10:55 UTC
    I think this is good variant: 
    use strict;

my $name = 'Micah';

printf <<'SONG',$name,substr $name,1;
%1$s, %1$s, bo-b%2$s
Banana-fana fo-f%2$s
Fee-fi-mo-m%2$s
%1$s! 
SONG

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: The Name Game and Golf
by youlose (Scribe) on Apr 19, 2010 at 13:25 UTC
    sorry, i don't read all instructions first time, now my variant: 
    $_ = $n = $ARGV[0] || 'Micah';
$k = (/^[AEIOUY]/i and $c = substr $n,0,1) || /^[^bfm]/i || '';
$_ = <<SONG;
<X>, <X>, bo-b<X-1>
Banana-fana fo-f<X-1>
Fee-fi-mo-m<X-1>
<X>! 
SONG

s/(\w)<X-1>/($k && $1) . $c . substr $n,1/eg;
s/<X>/$n/g;
print;

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

      No, you have the same bug as the original poster in his first piece of code.

[reply]
Re: The Name Game and Golf
by youlose (Scribe) on Apr 19, 2010 at 11:01 UTC
    or that variant: 
    my $name = $ARGV[0] || 'Micah';

$_ = <<SONG;
<X>, <X>, bo-b<X-1>
Banana-fana fo-f<X-1>
Fee-fi-mo-m<X-1>
<X>! 
SONG

s/<X-1>/substr $name,1/eg;
s/<X>/$name/g;
print;

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom