Imagine, if you will, a number sequence(fibonacci numbers may help you get an understanding of where I'm coming from). This sequence starts with 1. 1 equals 1; 2 equals 9; 3 equals 73; etc. To get the i-th number, you must use this equation --8^i-1 + (the i-th-1 number in the sequence). In perl, you could say: 
       sub calculate { return 1 if $_[0]==1; 
                       return (8**($_[0]-1) + 
                                   calculate($_[0]-1))
       }

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Of course, that's just an example(off the top of my head, as it were). I want to see if anyone can figure out a shorter way to do this. I came up with a regular expression that does it in 27 characters...there aren't any rules I want to set really, except that I'd rather not see recursion(but that would be a longer technique anyway, I imagine). I'll post my solution after a while...

actually, it's probably less than 27 characters, that's just the count on the raw regex; i.e., I haven't tried to shorten it as per 'perl golf'(and to make some humor, i used in the s/// operator the /geese option :)

Golf away.

Edited 2001-05-30 by Ovid

In reply to Intriguing problem; maybe golf? by Anonymous Monk

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