https://www.reddit.com/r/dailyprogrammer/comments/8rcjx0/20180615_challenge_363_hard_anagram_slices/

anagram_slices.py

# https://www.reddit.com/r/dailyprogrammer/comments/8rcjx0/20180615_challenge_363_hard_anagram_slices/

words_length = 4

def get_letter_count(word):
    letters = {chr(letter): 0 for letter in range(ord('a'), ord('z')+1)}
    for letter in word:
        letters[letter] += 1
    out = []
    for letter in range(ord('a'), ord('z')+1):
        out.append(f"{chr(letter)}{letters[chr(letter)]},")
    return "".join(out)[:-1]

def get_letters_from_count(letters):
    inputs = {split[0]: int(split[1:]) for split in letters.split(",")}
    out = []
    for charcode in range(ord('a'), ord('z')+1):
        letter = chr(charcode)
        for i in range(inputs[letter]):
            out.append(letter)
    return out

def swap(list, index):
    tmp = list[index]
    list[index] = list[index+1]
    list[index+1] = tmp

def do_pass(word_list):
    superposed = []
    for i in range(0, len(word_list)-1, 2):
        wordA = "".join(get_letters_from_count(word_list[i]))
        wordB = "".join(get_letters_from_count(word_list[i+1]))
        cnt = 0
        for j in range(words_length):
            if wordA[j] == wordB[j]:
                cnt += 1
            else:
                break
        catword = wordA[cnt:] + wordB
        print(i, cnt, catword)
        superposed.append(catword)
    superposed.append("".join(get_letters_from_count(word_list[-1]))) # append the last word since the "clean" input list is 899 long, the last word wouldn't get handled in the loop above
    return superposed

def anagram_slices(inputs):
    word_set = set() # To not get words that are already anagrams in the inputs list
    for word in inputs:
        count = get_letter_count(word)
        word_set.add(count)
    word_list = list(word_set) # So it's ordered -> output is consistent
    word_list.sort(reverse=True) # Get words starting with A first
    superposed = do_pass(word_list)
    print(len(superposed))
    out = "".join(superposed)
    return out

def verify_result(result, inputs):
    # TODO
    return True

def main():
    with open("anagram_slices_in.txt", "rt") as input_file:
        inputs = [line.strip("\n") for line in input_file]
    result = anagram_slices(inputs)
    if verify_result(result, inputs):
        with open("anagram_slices_out.txt", "wt") as output_file:
            output_file.write(result)

if __name__=="__main__":
    main()