Programming Riddle: How might you translate an Excel column name to a number?

Question

I was recently asked in a job interview to resolve a programming puzzle that I thought it would be interesting to share. It\'s about translating Excel column letters to actu

Answer 1

Delphi:

// convert EXcel column name to column number 1..256
// case-sensitive; returns 0 for illegal column name
function cmColmAlfaToNumb( const qSRC : string ) : integer;
var II : integer;
begin
   result := 0;
   for II := 1 to length(qSRC) do begin
      if (qSRC[II]<'A')or(qSRC[II]>'Z') then begin
         result := 0;
         exit;
      end;
      result := result*26+ord(qSRC[II])-ord('A')+1;
   end;
   if result>256 then result := 0;
end;

-Al.