TopCoder problem "TagalogDictionary" used in SRM 342 (Division I Level One , Division II Level Two)



Problem Statement

    

In the first half of the 20th century, around the time that Tagalog became the national language of the Philippines, a standardized alphabet was introduced to be used in Tagalog school books (since then, the national language has changed to a hybrid "Pilipino" language, as Tagalog is only one of several major languages spoken in the Philippines).

Tagalog's 20-letter alphabet is as follows: 

a b k d e g h i l m n ng o p r s t u w y

Note that not all letters used in English are present, 'k' is the third letter, and 'ng' is a single letter that comes between 'n' and 'o'.

You are compiling a Tagalog dictionary, and for people to be able to find words in it, the words need to be sorted in alphabetical order with reference to the Tagalog alphabet. Given a list of Tagalog words as a String[], return the same list in Tagalog alphabetical order.

 

Definition

    
Class:TagalogDictionary
Method:sortWords
Parameters:String[]
Returns:String[]
Method signature:String[] sortWords(String[] words)
(be sure your method is public)
    
 

Notes

-Any 'n' followed followed by a 'g' should be considered a single 'ng' letter (the one that comes between 'n' and 'o').
 

Constraints

-words will contain between 1 and 50 elements, inclusive.
-Each element of words will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
-Each character of each element of words will be a valid lowercase letter that appears in the Tagalog alphabet.
-Each element of words will be distinct.
 

Examples

0)
    
{"abakada","alpabet","tagalog","ako"}
Returns: {"abakada", "ako", "alpabet", "tagalog" }
The tagalog word for "alphabet", a Tagalogization of the English word "alphabet", the name of the language, and the word for "I".
1)
    
{"ang","ano","anim","alak","alam","alab"}
Returns: {"alab", "alak", "alam", "anim", "ano", "ang" }
A few "A" words that are alphabetically close together.
2)
    
{"siya","niya","kaniya","ikaw","ito","iyon"}
Returns: {"kaniya", "ikaw", "ito", "iyon", "niya", "siya" }
Common Tagalog pronouns.
3)
    
{"kaba","baka","naba","ngipin","nipin"}
Returns: {"baka", "kaba", "naba", "nipin", "ngipin" }
4)
    
{"knilngiggnngginggn","ingkigningg","kingkong","dingdong","dindong","dingdont","ingkblot"}
Returns: 
{"kingkong",
"knilngiggnngginggn",
"dindong",
"dingdont",
"dingdong",
"ingkblot",
"ingkigningg" }
5)
    
{"silangang", "baka", "bada", "silang"}
Returns: {"baka", "bada", "silang", "silangang" }

Problem url:

http://www.topcoder.com/stat?c=problem_statement&pm=7411

Problem stats url:

http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProblemDetail&rd=10666&pm=7411

Writer:

Kawigi

Testers:

PabloGilberto , brett1479 , Cosmin.ro , Olexiy

Problem categories:

Sorting, String Manipulation