Letter Count

[Clearshot13]

How can I take a user input, for example aaaaddddffttyyzzz and output it like: a4d4f2t2y2z3

I have been scratching my head at this for days now, hoping to seek some answers here.

[cancerinform]

You create a for loop and ask if the string has a, b, c etc. Check out the String class in the AS3 language reference

[Clearshot13]

Heres what I have so far and it doesnt work...

btn_1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, letterCount);
var i = 0;
var j = 0;
var k = 0;
var counter = 0;
var letters:Array = new Array();
letters[0] = "a";
letters[1] = "b";
letters[2] = "c";
letters[3] = "d";
letters[4] = "e";
letters[5] = "f";
letters[6] = "g";
letters[7] = "h";
letters[8] = "i";
letters[9] = "j";
letters[10] = "k";
letters[11] = "l";
letters[12] = "m";
letters[13] = "n";
letters[14] = "o";
letters[15] = "p";
letters[16] = "q";
letters[17] = "r";
letters[18] = "s";
letters[19] = "t";
letters[20] = "u";
letters[21] = "v";
letters[22] = "w";
letters[23] = "x";
letters[24] = "y";
letters[25] = "z";

function letterCount(event:MouseEvent) {
    var myStr:String = input_1.text;
    var letters2:Array = myStr.split("");
    for (i=0; i < myStr.length; i++) {
        myStr.charAt(i);
        trace(myStr.charAt(i));
        trace(letters2[i]);
    }
    if (myStr.charAt(j) == letters[k]) {
        counter++;
        trace(counter);
    } else if (myStr.charAt(j) != letters[k]) {
        j++;
    } else {
        j++;
        k++;
    }
}

maybe im overthinking it?

[5TonsOfFlax]

This letters in the output will be in a pseudorandom order. You could alphabetize them if you feel like it.

private function countLetters(s:String):String {
	var letterCounts:Object = {}; //map from letter to int count
	var letters:Array = s.split("");
	for (var i:int = 0; i < letters.length; i++) {
		var l:String = letters[i];
		if (letterCounts[l]) {
			letterCounts[l] = letterCounts[l]+1;
		}else {
			letterCounts[l] = 1;
		}
	}
	var toreturn:String = "";
	for (var letter:String in letterCounts) {
		toreturn += letter + letterCounts[letter];
	}
	return toreturn;
}

[Clearshot13]

ok, I understand all of the above code except for:

var toreturn:String = "";
    for (var letter:String in letterCounts) {
        toreturn += letter + letterCounts[letter];
    }
    return toreturn;

Could someone explain what it does/works?

Thanks.

[5TonsOfFlax]

//This is an empty string.  We will build our final output into this
var toreturn:String = "";
//Iterate over the dynamic properties of letterCounts
//letterCounts is an object that looks like this {a:3, b:2, e:1}
for (var letter:String in letterCounts) {
//append a string composed of the letter and the count for that letter
    toreturn += letter + letterCounts[letter];
}
//return our final built-up answer
return toreturn;