Question Explanation

In this question, you are asked to design an algorithm that can abbreviate an array of strings. The "abbreviation" refers to shortening each string in the array in some way. The specific way to abbreviate may depend on the detailed requirement. In general, it means to replace a portion of the string with another, shorter string. There are common approaches to abbreviate a string including replacing a successive sequence of characters with the length of the sequence; removing vowels; turning a word into acronym. You should clarify the requirement before starting to answer the question. It's crucial to discuss and understand the expected output. Then, you can start talking about how you would construct an algorithm to perform such task. In designing your algorithm, you might want to consider if each string needs to be processed in the same way, if there are any exceptions, or if there are edge cases that you should handle carefully.

Answer Example 1

If we're looking at abbreviating strings in the array by replacing each word with the first and last character of the word plus the number of characters in between, here is a python solution: def def abbreviate_strings abbreviate_strings ( ( word_list word_list ) ) : : new_list new_list

= [ [ ] ] for for i i in in word_list word_list : : if if len len ( ( i i ) )

2 2 : : new_word new_word

= i i [ [ 0 0 ] ] + + str str ( ( len len ( ( i i ) )

2 2 ) ) + + i i [ [

1 1 ] ] new_list new_list . . append append ( ( new_word new_word ) ) else else : : new_list new_list . . append append ( ( i i ) ) return return new_list new_list In this function, we go through each string in the provided list. If the string has more than 2 characters, we create a new string that is the first character plus the number of characters between the first and last character, and then the last character. We append this newly created string into the list. If the string has 2 or less characters, we simply add it to the list as is.

Answer Example 2

If the requirement is to replace the vowels in the strings with blank, here is a Python solution: def def abbreviate_strings abbreviate_strings ( ( word_list word_list ) ) : : vowels vowels

= 'aeiou' 'aeiou' 0Share new_list new_list

= [ [ '' '' . . join join ( ( char char for for char char in in word word if if char char . . lower lower ( ( ) ) not not in in vowels vowels ) ) for for word word in in word_li word_li return return new_list new_list This solution utilises list comprehension and string method 'join'. For each word in the list, it checks each character in the word. If the character is not a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), it will be returned. Then all such characters are joined back into a string with 'join' method. The overall result is an array that contains the processed strings.