Practical Golf - US States

Question

My family has an e-commerce business. On our own site, we force people to choose their state from a dropdown menu when they enter their address, but through some other channels we use, customers can enter anything they want into the box.

My mom loves the invoice templates I made for her, which are automagically generated. But because they're so pretty and balanced, she can't stand it when people WRITE OUT the names of their states, or worse, write something like "new jersey." She says it ruins the look.

My dad likes code to be lightweight. So rather than using a switch-case block, he wants a leaner solution.

So the challenge is to make a short function that takes the possible inputs and returns a two letter abbreviation (capitalized, for Mom). We're going to make a (faulty) assumption that our users can spell and always put a space in the name (where needed) or pass in the correct abbreviation. The scope is the 50 US states.

• New York
• new york
• NY
• ny

are all acceptable inputs for New York, and should output NY.

If something like New Yrok is passed in, the function can return the original value.

You can use any common language. This is a popularity contest, so the one with the most votes at the end of a week wins. I assume that this will favor novelty and utility.

EDIT: The description is story fluff, but I was working a similar project and thought that there must be a more interesting way to do it. I can do the project myself (already did) but I thought this was a good place for a more interesting challenge. By "Any common language" I was excluding custom languages/libraries designed for this challenge - I was trying to look for novel methods, rather than free code help. I figure everyone has done this at some point, but it would be fun to do it in an unusual way. I find that the most interesting projects are the ones where you tackle everyday tasks in new and interesting ways - that's why this is a popularity contest rather than golf.

Answer 1

Ruby

Thought it would be interesting to extract the state abbreviations without writing any of the names or abbrevations explicitly. This one does not take misspelling of the input into consideration, because we don't care about such thing here on codegolf.SE, rihgt?

def f(s)
  [
    /(.).* (.)/,              # two words
    /^([CDGHKLPV]).*(.)$/,    # first and last letter
    /^(.).*([ZVX])/,          # unique letter
    /^([NFOUW])(.)/,          # two first letters
    /^(.)([DNR])/,            # unique second letter
    /^(.).*(L|N)\2/,          # double letters
    /^(.).SS(A|O)/,           # double S before the one used
    /^(.).*?[SNW](.)/,        # identified by the letters before them
    /(.)(.)/                  # two first letters

  ].find { |r| r =~ s.upcase }
  $1+$2
end

It took a conciderable time to figure out clever patterns to match all the states. The order of the patterns is important -- each consecutive pattern applies to the remaining states that were not matched by a previous pattern:

All states with two words in them use the initial letters of the two words:

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia

All states beggining with any letter in {CDGHKLPV} use the first and last letter in the name:

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont

Of the remaining states, the letters {ZVX} are unique:

Arizona, Nevada, Texas

All remaining states beginning with {FNOUW} use the two first letters.

Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Then, {DNR} are unique as second letters:

Arkansas, Indiana, Idaho

It's really getting hard to make general patterns, but...

Only three remaining states use double N or L, and the double letter is used in the state abbreviation:

Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois

A or O after double S is unique to

Massachusetts and Missouri

Whenever {SNW} appear before other letters in the remaining state names, the letters after them are used in the abbreviations:

Alaska, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Iowa

Two left. These use the two first letters:

Alabama, Michigan

---

It can be golfed of course:

Ruby 2 – 191 165 154 characters

Another 26 characters off by uglifying the regexes a bit. Also, one of the original regexes turned out to be redundant!

gets;[/.* (.)/,/^[CDGHKLPV].*(.)$/,/.*([ZVX])/,/^[NFOUW](.)/,/^.([DNR])/,/.*(L|N)\1/,
/.*SS(A|O)/,/.*?[SNW](.)/,/.(.)/].find{|r|$_.upcase=~r}
puts $&[0]+$1

Answer 2

C#

I used characters already in the states for the abbreviations to shorten up the state string.

public string GetAbbr(string state)
            {

                var states =
                    new[] {
                        "AlasKa", "ALabama", "AriZona", "ARkansas", "CAlifornia", "COlorado", "ConnecticuT",
                        "DElaware", "FLorida", "GeorgiA", "HawaiI", "IDaho", "ILlinois", "INdiana", "IowA", "KansaS",
                        "KentuckY", "LouisianA", "MainE", "MarylanD", "MAssachusetts", "MIchigan", "MinNnesota",
                        "MiSsissippi", "MissOuri", "MonTana", "NEbraska", "NeVada", "New Hampshire", "New Jersey",
                        "New Mexico", "New York", "North Carolina", "North Dakota", "OHio", "OKlahoma", "ORegon",
                        "PennsylvaniA", "Rhode Island", "South Carolina", "South Dakota", "TeNnessee", "TeXas", "UTah",
                        "VermonT", "VirginiA", "WAshington", "washington D.C.", "West Virginia", "WIsconsin", "WYoming"
                    };
                var all = states.ToDictionary(st => string.Concat(st.Where(char.IsUpper)));

                var wanted = all.FirstOrDefault(pair => state.ToUpper().Equals(pair.Value.ToUpper()) || state.ToUpper().Equals(pair.Key));

                return wanted.Key ?? state;
            }

Answer 3

JavaScript (E6)

Here the bulk is the list of names, using the camelCase trick to shorten a bit. Golfed, 617 bytes.

F=i=>
  "AkAlAzArCaCoCtDeFlGaHiIdIlInIaKsKyLaMeMdMaMiMnMsMoMtNeNvNhNjNmNyNcNdOhOkOrPaRiScSdTnTxUtVtVaWaWvWiWyAlaskaAlabamaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew hampshireNew jerseyNew mexicoNew yorkNorth carolinaNorth dakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode islandSouth carolinaSouth dakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest virginiaWisconsinWyoming"
  .match(/.[^A-Z]*/g).map((w,q)=>U(w,U(w)==U(i)?p=q%50:p),U=s=>s.toUpperCase(),p=-1)[p]||i

Answer 4

Python

Decided just to do this as a code-golf challenge. Got it down to 906 713 694 chars with the help of daniero and hsl:

s='AK,AL,AZ,AR,CA,CO,CT,DE,FL,GA,HI,ID,IL,IN,IA,KS,KY,LA,ME,MD,MA,MI,MN,MS,MO,MT,NE,NV,NH,NJ,NM,NY,NC,ND,OH,OK,OR,PA,RI,SC,SD,TN,TX,UT,VT,VA,WA,WV,WI,WY,ALASKA,ALABAMA,ARIZONA,ARKANSAS,CALIFORNIA,COLORADO,CONNECTICUT,DELAWARE,FLORIDA,GEORGIA,HAWAII,IDAHO,ILLINOIS,INDIANA,IOWA,KANSAS,KENTUCKY,LOUISIANA,MAINE,MARYLAND,MASSACHUSETTS,MICHIGAN,MINNESOTA,MISSISSIPPI,MISSOURI,MONTANA,NEBRASKA,NEVADA,NEW HAMPSHIRE,NEW JERSEY,NEW MEXICO,NEW YORK,NORTH CAROLINA,NORTH DAKOTA,OHIO,OKLAHOMA,OREGON,PENNSYLVANIA,RHODE ISLAND,SOUTH CAROLINA,SOUTH DAKOTA,TENNESSEE,TEXAS,UTAH,VERMONT,VIRGINIA,WASHINGTON,WEST VIRGINIA,WISCONSIN,WYOMING'.split(",")
x=input().upper()
print(s[s.index(x)%50]if x in s else x)

However, if modules are allowed (like the us module), I can get it down to 130 chars:

import us
i=raw_input()
x=us.states.lookup(i)
print x.abbr if x else i

And if you didn't have to return the original value when the state doesn't exist I could get it down to 50 chars:

import us
print us.states.lookup(raw_input()).abbr

Answer 5

Javascript

I know this isn't code golf, but I want to golf it anyway. :)

var r=new XMLHttpRequest
r.open("GET","https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mshafrir/2646763/raw/f2a89b57193e71010386a73976df92d32221d7ba/states_hash.json",0)
r.send()
var o=r.responseText,m=prompt(),a=m
o=JSON.parse(o)
for(var i in o)if(o[i].toLowerCase()==m.toLowerCase())a=i
alert(a)

Yay for new things! (Stack Snippets)

Answer 6

Golfscript - 750 653

The bulk is in the state names and abbreviations.

{.96>32*-}%.,2>{"ALABAMA,AL,ALASKA,AK,ARIZONA,AZ,ARKANSAS,AR,CALIFORNIA,CA,COLORADO,CO,CONNECTICUT,CT,DELAWARE,DE,FLORIDA,FL,GEORGIA,GA,HAWAII,HI,IDAHO,ID,ILLINOIS,IL,INDIANA,IN,IOWA,IA,KANSAS,KS,KENTUCKY,KY,LOUISIANA,LA,MAINE,ME,MARYLAND,MD,MASSACHUSETTS,MA,MICHIGAN,MI,MINNESOTA,MN,MISSISSIPPI,MS,MISSOURI,MO,MONTANA,MT,NEBRASKA,NE,NEVADA,NV,NEW HAMPSHIRE,NH,NEW JERSEY,NJ,NEW MEXICO,NM,NEW YORK,NY,NORTH CAROLINA,NC,NORTH DAKOTA,ND,OHIO,OH,OKLAHOMA,OK,OREGON,OR,PENNSYLVANIA,PA,RHODE ISLAND,RI,SOUTH CAROLINA,SC,SOUTH DAKOTA,SD,TENNESSEE,TN,TEXAS,TX,UTAH,UT,VERMONT,VT,VIRGINIA,VA,WASHINGTON,WA,WEST VIRGINIA,WV,WISCONSIN,WI,WYOMING,WY"","/.@?)=}{}if

Explanation:

{        }%                         Map this to every character in the input string:
 .96>32*-                             Subtract 32 from the ASCII value if it's from "a" onwards.
                                      This turns every lowercase letter into an uppercase letter.
           .,2>                     Check if the input length is greater than 2.
               {              }     If it is, they inputted the full name.
                "..."                 Our string is in the form "STATE NAME,STATE ABBREVIATION".
                     ","/             We split the string at every comma to turn it into an array.
                         .@?          Then we see where the input string is in the array...
                            )=        ...then we return the value right next to it.
                               {}   If not, they inputted the abbreviation.
                                      ...do nothing.
                                 if EndIf
                                    (implied) Print the abbreviation

Answer 7

bash + sed, 291 bytes

Shameless conversion of Daniero's Ruby solution to sed:

echo $*|tr a-z A-Z|sed -e\
"/\(.\).* \(.\).*/b1;/^\([CDGHKLPV]\).*\(.\)$/b1;/^\(.\).*\([ZVX]\).*/b1;\
/^\([NFOUW]\)\(.\).*/b1;/^\(.\)\([DNR]\).*/b1;/^\(.\).*\([LN]\)[LN].*/b1;\
/^\(.\).*SS\([AO]\).*/b1;/^\(.\).*\([ED])\)$/b1;/^\(.\).*[SNW]\(.\).*/b1;\
/\(.\)\(.\).*/b1;:1 s//\1\2/"

Answer 8

PHP

My attempt, which was not as successful as I had hoped, uses string length and some specific character placement to extract the abbreviation from the state name. Probably some better sequencing of name elimination is possible.

function findAbb ($state) {
    $first = substr($state, 0, 1);
    $last = substr($state, -2,1);
    $state = strtolower($state);
    if (strlen($state) < 4) {
        return strtoupper($state);
    }
    if (strpos($state, ' ')) { //if it's a space, return the first letter of each word.
        $space_index = strpos($state, ' ');
        $state = explode(' ', $state);
        return strtoupper(substr($state[0], 0, 1) . substr($state[1], 0, 1));
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'io')) { //iowa is annoying, get rid of it.
        return strtoupper($first . $last);
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'w,i')) { //if it starts with a W, return the first 2.
        return strtoupper(substr($state, 0, 2));
    }
    if (strlen($state) < 7 && strpos($state, 'm')===false) { //matches texas, ohio, and utah.
        return strtoupper($first . substr($state, -4,1));
    }
    if (strlen($state) < 7 && substr($state, 0, 1) > 'j' && substr($state, 0, 1) < 'n') { //matches maine, kansas, and hawaii
        return strtoupper($first . $last);
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'c,d,k,l,p,v,g,h')) { //some unique states
        return strtoupper($first . $last);
    }
    if (strpos($state, 'sk')) {
        return strtoupper ('ak');
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'k,l', 1)) {
        return strtoupper(substr($state, 0, 2));
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'n')) {
        return strtoupper($first . substr($state, 2, 1));
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'n', 2) || startsWith($state, 'z', 3)) { //montana, tennessee, minnesota, and arizona
        return strtoupper($first . substr($state, 3, 1));
    }
    if (startsWith($state, 'm') && ($last == 's') || ($last == 'n')) {
        return strtoupper(substr($state, 0, 2));
    }
    if (strpos($state,'o')) {
        return strtoupper($first . 'o');
    }
    if (strpos($state,'y')) {
        return strtoupper($first . 'd');
    }
    if (strpos($state,'r')) {
        return strtoupper($first . 'r');
    }
    if (strpos($state,'ss')) {
        return strtoupper($first . 's');
    }

    return $state; //otherwise return the name of the state (it was mispelled).
}

function startsWith ($state, $letters, $index = 0) { //takes a comma separated array and finds contents.
    $letters = split(',',$letters);
    for ($q = 0; $q<count($letters); $q++) {
        if (strpos($state,$letters[$q]) === $index) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

Of course, it can be golfed. This is my first golfing attempt, so insight appreciated. (911)

function t($s){$s=u($s);$f=b($s,0,1);$l=b($s,-2,1);
if(strlen($s)<4)return $s;if(strpos($s,' '))$s=split(' ',$s);
return b($s[0],0,1).b($s[1],0,1);
if(w($s,'IO'))return $f.$l;
if(w($s,'W,I'))return b($s,0,2);
if(strlen($s)<7 && strpos($s,'M')===false)return $f.b($s,-4,1);
if(strlen($s)<7 && b($s,0,1)>'I' && b($s,0,1)<'N')return $f.$l;
if(w($s,'C,D,K,L,P,V,G,H'))return $f.$l;if(strpos($s, 'SK'))return 'AK';
if(w($s,'K,L',1))return b($s,0,2);if(w($s,'N'))return $f.b($s,2,1);
if(w($s,'N',2) || w($s,'Z',3))return $f.b($s,3,1);
if(w($s,'M') && ($l=='S') || ($l=='N'))return b($s,0,2);
if(strpos($s,'O'))return $f.'O';
if(strpos($s,'Y'))return $f.'D';if(strpos($s,'R'))return $f.'R';
if(strpos($s,'SS'))return $f.'S';return $s;}function w($s,$l,$i=0){$l=split(',',$l);
for($q=0;$q<count($l);$q++)if(strpos($s,$l[$q])===$i)return 1;return 0;}
function u($z){return strtoupper($z);}
function b($v,$x,$y){return substr($v,$x,$y);}