sub a{($_[0]=~/\w+/g)[4]}
[download]

According to the counting rules (rule 1 above) you only count the characters inside the subroutine block (for one liners you count the whole command line). So yours is 18 chars.

Not to spoil anyone's fun, but here's a small tip for shaving characters --- use pop rather than $_[0], that gives us a 16 character solution:

sub S {(pop=~/\w+/g)[4]}
       123456789_123456   # 16
[download]

perl -e; -e; -e; -e; -e "goto TPC";
123456789-123456789-123456789-12345
[download]

perl -e; -e; -e; -e; -e "goto TPC"
123456789-123456789-123456789-1234
[download]

perl -e'#line 5' -egoto+TPC
123456789_123456789_1234567
[download]



japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

Hole 1 - 21 chars

(split/[^\w_]/,pop)[4]
1234567890123456789001
[download]

perl -e'\ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
goto TPC'
[download]

map{chr(hex)}unpack("A2"x11,pop)
1234567890123456789012345678901
[download]

$x=shift;map{$x=$_ if$_<$x}@_;$x
12345678901234567890123456789012
[download]

sort{($a=~/([aeoui])/)[0]cmp($b=~/([aeiou])/)[0]}@_}
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456890123
[download]

I feel so smart... I actually pulled an obscure thing of my own... in perl // redoes the previous re, so

sub hole{sort{($a=~/([aeiou])/)[0]cmp($b=~//)[0]}@_}
         123456789_123456789_123456789_123456789_12
[download]

cuts your hole 6 to 42 chars! my small moment of glory...

Update realized I counted } in sub... actually 42 chars.. not 43...
                - Ant

perl -e'/
/
/
/
goto TPC'
[download]

Please go easy on me, I'm an amateur. Of course, scoring it is vaguely impossible according to the rules, so I don't imagine this is a valid play...

---
-DA
[download]

    sub h2c{split//,pack"H*",pop}
            123456789_123456789_
[download]

Update: I realize now that the answer is incorrect because it returns a string rather than a list. Thanks all. :)

Update again: Fixed the answer by adding the split.

It must be a list of characters.

sub hole{split//,pack"H*",@_}
[download]

is optimal (I believe).

Incorrect in your answer: you need to return a list of characters, not a string.




---

If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have give us the railroads.
    --Michael Flanders

This is really ugly and much too long, but whatever:

    sub hole{$r='([aeiou])';sort{($a=~$r)[0]cmp($b=~$r)[0]}@_}
             123456789_123456789_123456789_123456789_12345678
[download]

Hole 1 (18, or 16 if I can take a free drop on pop)

sub {(pop=~/\w+/g)[4]}

Hole 2 (24 in tcsh)

perl -e'\
\
\
goto\
TPC'
[download]

Which has been said before, to be sure.

Hole 3 (20)

sub {pop=~/^(.+?)\1+$/;$1}
which takes a 1-stroke penalty for the lack of /s, and one for $ instead of \Z. Oh well.

Hole 4 (19)

sub {split//,pack"H*",@_}
or
sub {map{chr hex}pop=~/../g}
for one more stroke and a warmer fuzzier feeling (since I actually got that one done in the time limit).

Hole 5 (30)

sub {$a=pop;for(@_){$a>$_ or$a=$_}$a}
I think this is optimal for Perl 5.004 (tilly can do it better with a more recent revision, I know.)

Hole 6 (44)

sub {sub F{pop=~/[aeiou]/;$&}sort{F($a)cmp F$b}@_}
Which is not as cool as some, but is the best I could do without reading the thread.

-Ben Jacobs (dooberwah)
one thing i can tell you is you got to be free

# 1 -- 16 chars
sub g1 { (pop=~/\w+/g)[4] }


# 2 -- 19 chars (23 with newlines)
perl -e'goto\
\
\
\
TPC'


# 3 -- 23 chars
# note: using $ instead of \z is *wrong*
# note: using . without /s is *wrong*
sub g3 { pop=~/^(.*?)\1+\z/s&&$1 }


# 4 -- 12 chars
sub g4 { pack"H*",pop }


# 5 -- 29 chars
sub g5 { $x=pop;$x<$_&&($x=$_)for@_;$x }


# 6 -- 49 chars
sub g6 { sort{($a=~/[aeiou]/g)[0]cmp($b=~/[aeiou]/g)[0]}@_ }
[download]

Um, that is my code. My cookie expired or something. Anyway, direct any ++'s here, please.

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

Fixes/optimizations:

# 4 -- 19 chars
sub g4 { split//,pack"H*",@_ }

# 6 -- 47 chars
sub g6 { sort{($a=~($_='([aeiou])'))[0]cmp($b=~$_)[0]}@_ }
[download]



japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

I had similar solutions. But I improved on hole 3 to 20:

sub hole{map/^(.*?)\1+\z/s,@_}
[download]

and my solution for hole 5 was also 29 but somewhat different.

sub hole{$,=pop;$,=$,<$_?$_:$,for@_;$,}
[download]

However we can improve hole 5 to 28 taking your solution and applying my trick to it.:

sub hole{$,=pop;$_<$,or$,=$_ for@_;$,}
[download]

UPDATE
Oops. My test code put hole 3 in the wrong context. My bad.

Hole 1 is wrong. (Words cannot include, for instance, punctuation.)

Hole 5 is wrong. (You are wrong if $t starts larger than any number in the list. Think of a list of negative numbers.)

# hole 1: 16
perl -le 'sub h1 {(pop=~/\w+/g)[4]}'      -e'print h1"abc   ,., de f g
+ hi jk"'

# hole 2: 20
perl -e'


goto
TPC'

# hole 3: 19
perl -le 'sub h3 {pop=~/^(.+?)\1+\z/s}'    -e'print h3 join" ",qw(hihi
+hihi)'

# hole 4: 19
perl -le 'sub h4 {split"",pack"H*",@_}'    -e'$,=$";print h4"68696C6f"
+'

# hole 5: 22  XXX see below:
perl -le 'sub h5 {$_<$x or$x=$_ for@_;$x}' -e'print h5(3,5,2,8,7)'

# hole 6: 38
perl -le 'sub h6 {grep{s/.//}sort map{/[aeiou]/;$&.$_}@_}' \
                            -e'$,=$";print h6 qw(book eel hi huge i pe
+a wrap)'
[download]

perl -le'sub x {$_[-1]<$_[0]?pop:shift;$#_?&x:@_}' -e'print x(-3,-5,-2
+,-8,-7)'
[download]

sub MAX {$t=pop;
(grep{$t<$_?$t=$_:0}@_)[-1]
}
[download]

Update:Changed code--it didn't handle negative numbers before. (thanks for the /msg chemboy)

The 15 year old, freshman programmer,
Stephen Rawls

sub hole_one{(pop=~/\w+/g)[4]}
#16 characters

hole two:
perl -e "print STDERR 'Can\'t find label TPC at -e line 5.'"
#60 characters (using tachyon's method)

sub hole_three{pop=~/^(.*?)\1+$/s}
#18 characters (handles carriage returns in the input)

sub hole_four{map{chr hex}(pop=~/(..)/g)}
#26 characters

sub hole_five{$a=pop;(grep{$a=$_ if $_>$a}@_)[-1]}
#35 characters (updated for negetive numbers)

sub hole_six{sort{($a=~/([aeiou])/)[0]cmp($b=~//)[0]}@_} 
#42 characters
[download]

Round 1, 2 minutes

sub h{pop=~/(?:\w+\W*){4}(\w+)/}
[download]

Round 2, 15 sec

print STDERR"Can't find label TPC at -e line 5."
[download]

Round 3, 5 mins, Should probably use /s and \z but that's 2 extra chars

sub f{pop=~/^(.*?)\1+$/}
[download]

Round 4, 6 mins performance level inversly proportional to level of red in bottle

sub h{$_=pop;s/(..)/chr hex $1/eg;(/../g)}
[download]

Round 5, Back on form, 2 minutes

sub g{$m=pop;map{$m=$_ if $_>$m}@_;$m}
[download]

Round6, Took too damn long!

sub v{sort{eval'$a=~/([aeiou])/;$1'cmp eval'$b=~/([aeiou])/;$1'}@_}
[download]

Please sir can I have some more?

tachyon

Updated with corrections 29052001, and sadly all added length :-(

I'm afraid that your solutions to 1, 3, 4, and 5 must be disqualified.

Hole 1 specifies returning the fifth word; your solution returns some extra whitespace. Additionally, there may be no whitespace after the fifth word, or after any of the words: first-second!third+fourth*fifth.

For Hole 3, the entire string must consist of the repeated substring. This was demonstrated in the examples, where 'ababab' results in 'ab' but 'ababaaa' results in ''.

Hole 4 asks for a list of characters, rather than a string. Looks like that one tripped up a lot of people. :)

Hole 5 features a common gotcha; a correct solution must handle the case where all the values in the list are negative. Another one that a lot of people don't catch. :)

We tried to make things a little easier at the actual tournament by providing a test scaffold for each hole, which the participants could use to test their code on sample input. Solving these holes is much harder without that.

sub f{
(pop=~/w+/g)[4]
}
[download]

sub f{
$p=$_=pop;1while(!/^($p){2,}$/&&$p=~s/.$//);$p
}
[download]

sub f{
$p=$_=pop;1while(!/^(\Q$p\E){2,}$/&&$p=~s/.$//s);$p
}
[download]

sub f{
map{chr hex$_}pop=~/../g
}
[download]

sub f{
$x=pop;map{$_>$x?$x=$_:0}@_;$x
}
[download]

sub f{
grep{s/.//}sort map{/[aeiou]/;"$&$_"}@_
}
[download]

changing "$&$_" to $&.$_ saves you one stroke... 38 chars
                - Ant