Going to NIWeek 2005? Sign up for the LabVIEW Coding Challenge

[altenbach]

All problems were very simple, few minutes of coding.

Round 1: open a text file and count the number of occurences of two given words.

Round 2: Find the highest an lowest number in a 1D array without using the "array min/max" function.

Round 3: Generate 5(?) integer random numbers in the range 1..50 with no duplicates.

[tst]

Alten, correct me if I'm wrong, but this was only supposed to be about speed, right? Performance matters less?

I say this because I can think of 30 seconds solution for problems 2 & 3 (Use sort array and then search array for the former, generate the numbers and use search array on the previous results until you get -1 for the latter).

[altenbach]

Yes, first one with the correct result on the FP wins.

(Performance counted only indirectly. If your program took 30 seconds to write, but 5 minutes to execute, you probably would loose! ;))

Why would you need "search array" for #2?

Can you find a loop-free version for #1 ? 😮

[tst]

The search was meant to help you find the index of the element. If you only need the value, then it's not needed.

How about using spreadsheet string to array with the chosen word as a delimiter and then looking at the array size?

Another option for number 3 is initializing an array will all the numbers and then using the random number to decide which element to delete from the array.

[Travis_M.]

Hello all,

This isn't in response to the coding challenge, but I just wanted to say it was good to meet and chat with many of you at NI Week this year.  Thanks for coming out!


Travis M
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[LV_Pro]

Meeting everyone was probably the best thing of NIWeek for me. The seminars and vendors/demos were very helpful, but the networking really helped recharge some of my professional batteries, reminded me that it is a community.

The thing about the coding challenge was that it was very public, with 2 large screen LCD monitors on the wall over our (the competitors) heads. It was also a race, with you not knowing how the other person was doing until you say you're ready to run your code, or they do. On top of it, on the second and final day they announced the competition during the keynote speach in the morning (with most of the attendees in the room or watching on the monitors in the hall) and that Jeff Kodosky, "the father of LabVIEW" would be there. The problems, under most any other circumstance, were relatively trivial, the environment was what added the stress! It was a hoot! I even got my Dad an expo pass to watch me in the "Final Four" (not as impressive as the collegiate ones, they start out with more than 8!) As my Dad's name and mine are the same it caused some amusing confusion when he showed up at the "LabVIEW Community" area before I did and his name tag was read by those who had only met me the previous day. I hope that they continue something of this sort in the future, possibly with some way of having more competitors.

P.M.