Intermediate Exercism • go

Robot Name

Challenge Overview

Manage robot factory settings.

Dig Deeper

Shuffle

Generate sequentially and shuffle

// Package robotname is a small library for generating robot names.
package robotname

import (
	"fmt"
	"math/rand"
)

// Robot is a struct with a string field.
type Robot struct {
	name string
}

const maxRobotNames = 26 * 26 * 10 * 10 * 10

var (
	namePool = generateRobotNames()
	idx      = 0
)

func generateRobotNames() []string {
	pos := 0
	names := make([]string, maxRobotNames)

	for i := 'A'; i <= 'Z'; i++ {
		for j := 'A'; j <= 'Z'; j++ {
			for k := 0; k < 1000; k++ {
				names[pos] = fmt.Sprintf("%s%s%03d", string(i), string(j), k)
				pos++
			}
		}
	}

	rand.Shuffle(len(names), func(i, j int) { names[i], names[j] = names[j], names[i] })
	return names
}

// Name returns the existing name or returns a newly assigned name.
func (r *Robot) Name() (string, error) {
	if r.name != "" {
		return r.name, nil
	}

	if idx >= maxRobotNames {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("uniqueness exhausted")
	}

	r.name = namePool[idx]
	idx++

	return r.name, nil
}

// Reset erases the existing name without returning it to unused names.
func (r *Robot) Reset() {
	r.name = ""
}

The approach imports some packages that will be needed for randomization and formatting the name.

The Robot type is defined as a struct with a name field of type string.

A constant is defined for the maximum number of names. Then the pool of names is defined along with the current index to be used for accessing the name pool.

The function for generating the robot names is where most of the work is done. A variable is defined to keep track of the position in the name pool for each name as it is generated. The make function is used to create the slice for all of the names.

The outer for loop generates the first letter for the name.
The middle for loop generates the second letter for the name.
The inner for loop generates the number for the name.

fmt.Sprintf() is used in the body of the inner for loop for formatting the current values of the letters and number into the name for that position. The format specifier %03d says to pad a base-10 number with zeros for up to three places. If one place is occupied by a digit, then the two extra places are padded with two zeros. More info can be found at a format cheat sheet.

After the loops finish, the rand.Seed() function is called to initialize the random Source of numbers. It is done by passing the current time in nanoseconds. The rand.Shuffle() function is then called to shuffle the name pool, after which the name pool is returned from the generateRobotNames() function.

When the Name() method is called, it first checks if a name has already been assigned and returns it without error if so. If not, it checks if all possible names have been used. If all possible names have been used, then the function returns an error. Otherwise, the currently available name is assigned to the Robot, the index into the name pool is incremented, and the newly assigned name is returned without error.

The Reset() method ensures the Robot name is set to its zero value of an empty string.

Source: Exercism go/robot-name