AlienAndPassword.txt

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Alien Fred wants to destroy the Earth, but he forgot the password that activates the planet destroyer.




You are given a string S.
Fred remembers that the correct password can be obtained from S by erasing exactly one character.




Return the number of different passwords Fred needs to try.


DEFINITION
Class:AlienAndPassword
Method:getNumber
Parameters:string
Returns:int
Method signature:int getNumber(string S)


CONSTRAINTS
-S will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
-Each character in S will be an uppercase English letter ('A'-'Z').


EXAMPLES

0)
"A"

Returns: 1

In this case, the only password Fred needs to try is an empty string.

1)
"ABA"

Returns: 3

The following three passwords are possible in this case: "BA", "AA", "AB".

2)
"AABACCCCABAA"

Returns: 7



3)
"AGAAGAHHHHFTQLLAPUURQQRRRUFJJSBSZVJZZZ"

Returns: 26



4)
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

Returns: 1

Regardless of which character we erase, we will always obtain the same string. Thus there is only one possible password: the string that consists of 49 'Z's.