Talk:Multisplit: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Desired output: it could have been clearer but ....)
m (→‎Desired output: missing qts)
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So what is the desired output of the program? Some solutions on this page only print the fields between the delimiters and don't print anything about the delimiters. Some solutions print a list of alternating fields and delimiters. Others alternate the fields with a pair indicating the type and location of the delimiter. It seems fairly inconsistent. --[[Special:Contributions/208.80.119.68|208.80.119.68]] 23:16, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
: (sigh) This task has had a sordid history and was the subject of some vandalism relating to the intended way to parse it. It appears that the current description could have had a better reviewed after that all died down. The description starting "For these inputs the string should be parsed ..." talks about the expected parsing and output. The output description was added later. As it stands an output of "a b c" works, but this was a late addition to the description. Based on the discussions I would have expected the string to (i) include the substrings and separators so something like "a != == b = != c" works , or (ii) to show the substrings including the null substrings so that something like "a,,b,,c" works. Now where does that leave examples that output "a b c"? My preference would have been for (i) as the separators are at least as interesting as the substrings. However, I'm not sure if reopening this is useful. The main point is does the output clearly show the input was parsed correctly. Keep in mind that any change to the task description that invalidates existing solutions would need to be marked with a template that indicates the task description changed and the example needs improvement. (I forget the template name for this). --[[User:Dgamey|Dgamey]] 04:20, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
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