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

def ExcelColumnToNumber(ColumnName):
    ColNum = 0
    for i in range(0, len(ColumnName)):
        # Easier once formula determined: 'PositionValue * Base^Position'
        # i.e. AA=(1*26^1)+(1*26^0)   or  792=(7*10^2)+(9*10^1)+(2*10^0)
        ColNum += (int(ColumnName[i],36) -9) * (pow(26, len(ColumnName)-i-1))
    return ColNum

p.s. My first Python script!