Problem of the Day
A new programming or logic puzzle every Mon-Fri

Text To Braille

Today's problem comes from @eddyluten. Thanks for the submission!

The goal is to create a function that takes in a string of text and converts it to its braille equivalent. You can use the chart below for help. The challenge in this problem is that braille characters can be 3 "."s tall and two columns wide. You'll need to come up with a way to print the text in readable rows with proper spacing.

braille chart

Permalink: http://problemotd.com/problem/text-to-braille/

Comments:

  • Jack Le - 9 years, 8 months ago

    I don't know how to post my code correctly. Please help. This code works and checked with a online converter. It just lack the feature of looking for runs.

    public class ToBraille {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
    String test = "This, is a. TEST but it also contains numbers 40 and another one 56213";
    // For the designs of the letters
    boolean letterDesign[][][] = new boolean[30][3][2]; 
    // A
    letterDesign[0][0][0] = true;
    // B
    letterDesign[1][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[1][1][0] = true;
    // C
    letterDesign[2][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[2][0][1] = true;
    // D
    letterDesign[3][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[3][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[3][1][1] = true;
    // E
    letterDesign[4][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[4][1][1] = true;
    // F
    letterDesign[5][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[5][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[5][1][0] = true;
    // G
    letterDesign[6][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[6][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[6][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[6][1][1] = true;
    // H
    letterDesign[7][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[7][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[7][1][1] = true;
    // I
    letterDesign[8][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[8][1][0] = true;
    // J
    letterDesign[9][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[9][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[9][1][1] = true;
    // K
    letterDesign[10][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[10][2][0] = true;
    // L
    letterDesign[11][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[11][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[11][2][0] = true;
    // M
    letterDesign[12][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[12][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[12][2][0] = true;
    // N
    letterDesign[13][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[13][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[13][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[13][2][0] = true;
    // O
    letterDesign[14][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[14][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[14][2][0] = true;
    // P
    letterDesign[15][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[15][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[15][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[15][2][0] = true;
    // Q
    letterDesign[16][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[16][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[16][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[16][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[16][2][0] = true;
    // R
    letterDesign[17][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[17][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[17][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[17][2][0] = true;
    // S
    letterDesign[18][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[18][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[18][2][0] = true;
    // T
    letterDesign[19][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[19][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[19][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[19][2][0] = true;
    // U
    letterDesign[20][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[20][2][0] = true;
    letterDesign[20][2][1] = true;
    // V
    letterDesign[21][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[21][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[21][2][0] = true;
    letterDesign[21][2][1] = true;
    // W
    letterDesign[22][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[22][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[22][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[22][2][1] = true;
    // X
    letterDesign[23][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[23][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[23][2][0] = true;
    letterDesign[23][2][1] = true;
    // Y
    letterDesign[24][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[24][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[24][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[24][2][0] = true;
    letterDesign[24][2][1] = true;
    // Z
    letterDesign[25][0][0] = true;
    letterDesign[25][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[25][2][0] = true;
    letterDesign[25][2][1] = true;
    // Capital sign
    letterDesign[26][2][1] = true;
    // Number sign
    letterDesign[27][0][1] = true;
    letterDesign[27][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[27][2][1] = true;
    letterDesign[27][2][0] = true;
    // Period
    letterDesign[28][1][0] = true;
    letterDesign[28][1][1] = true;
    letterDesign[28][2][1] = true;
    // Comma
    letterDesign[29][1][1] = true;

    // Check the text for special characters
    for (int i = 0; i < test.length(); i++) {
        if(Character.isUpperCase(test.charAt(i))){ // If it's an uppercase
            // Add an * in front of it so we will print a uppercase sign there
            test = test.substring(0, i) + "*" + test.substring(i);
            i++;
        }
        if(Character.isDigit(test.charAt(i))){ // If it is a digit
            if(test.charAt(i)!='0'){
                // Put a / in front and turn the number into the coresponding letter 1->a 2->b etc.
                test = test.substring(0, i) + "/" + (char)(test.charAt(i)-'1'+'a') + test.substring(i+1);
            }else test = test.substring(0, i) + "/" + "j" + test.substring(i+1); // 0 is a special case because it's supposed to be j
            i++;
        }
    }
    test = test.toLowerCase(); // Turn them all into lower case
    // Calculate the size of the matrix to fit the string
    boolean matrix[][] = new boolean[(test.length()/40+1)*4][80];
    for (int i = 0; i < test.length(); i++) {
        // The location of the letter on the matrix
        int x = (i % 40) * 2;
        int y = (i / 40) * 4;// Times 4 so there will be a space in the middle of each line
        for (int j = 0; j <= 2; j++) {
            for (int k = 0; k <= 1; k++) {
                // If it is a letter then just subtract it by the letter 'a' to get the index of the design
                if(test.charAt(i) - 'a' >= 0 && test.charAt(i) - 'a' <=25)
                    matrix[y+j][x+k] = letterDesign[test.charAt(i) - 'a'][j][k];
                // Individual if statements for special cases
                if(test.charAt(i) == '*')
                    matrix[y+j][x+k] = letterDesign[26][j][k];
                if(test.charAt(i) == '/')
                    matrix[y+j][x+k] = letterDesign[27][j][k];
                if(test.charAt(i) == '.')
                    matrix[y+j][x+k] = letterDesign[28][j][k];
                if(test.charAt(i) == ',')
                    matrix[y+j][x+k] = letterDesign[29][j][k];
            }
        }
    }

    // Print out the matrix
    for (int i = 0; i < matrix.length; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < matrix[0].length; j++) {
            if(matrix[i][j]) System.out.print(". ");
            else System.out.print("  "); // Add a space so that they won't stick together
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
}

    }

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