Talk:Range expansion

Negative ranges

Should the test case contain a negative range, such as -15--10? Stormneedle 18:57, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

It was carefully chosen to have a negative number as I found it complicated the Python solution I was working on. Self flagellationarily yours, --Paddy3118 19:17, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

I think he was asking if the test case should be extended to include a range where the terminating number is negative. For example, perhaps -3--1 instead of -3-1? --Rdm 19:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I was, Rdm. Sorry that I was unclear. Stormneedle 21:35, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Ahh. I understand now. Yes. I'll make the change within the hour, but it will invalidate all current entries. (How do you flag all entries for update due to a change in the task? --Paddy3118 04:59, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Spaces in the list

The examples are all without spaces in the list, e.g. "1, 3-6". I guess this means that solutions which don't allow for spaces are correct, right? What about the converse: Would an example which does allow for spaces be incorrect? In other words: Is accepting spaces mandatory, optional or forbidden?

BTW, my C++ code accepts whitespace between numbers and commas/range dashes as well as at the beginning and end (the latter is especially handy for reading directly from standard input, because with normal usage there's always a line feed at the end) --Ce 09:12, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

For the purposes of examples given to tasks, no spaces should be given to expansion routines or created from extraction routines. There is however, no need to ensure that you can only work within such restrictions however. --Paddy3118 10:11, 17 July 2010 (UTC)