Euler 17

gistfile1.txt

#!/usr/local/bin/node

// first we need to declare a few arrays to hold the names

ones = ["", "one","two","three","four","five","six","seven","eight","nine", "ten","eleven","twelve","thirteen","fourteen","fifteen","sixteen","seventeen","eighteen","nineteen"]
twenties = ["","ten","twenty","thirty","forty","fifty","sixty","seventy","eighty","ninety"]

sum = 0;

// for loop to extract each number, turn it into a string, slice it into digits 

for (i=1000;i>=1;i--)
	{	
	number = i.toString();
	a = number.substr(number.length-1, 1);	
	if (number.length>=2) {b = Number(number.substr(number.length-2, 1));} else {b = 0;}
	if (number.length>=3) {c = Number(number.substr(number.length-3, 1));} else {c = 0;}
	if (number.length>=4) {d = Number(number.substr(number.length-4, 1));} else {d = 0;}

// now let's turn the digits into words- paying special attention to the AND and numbers 1 to 19

	if (d>0) { thousands = ones[d] + "thousand";} else {thousands = "";}
	if (c>0) { hundreds = ones[c] + "hundred";} else {hundreds = "";}
	if (c>0 && (b>0 || a>0)) { and = "and";} else {and = "";}
	if (b>1) { tens = twenties[b] + ones[a];} 
	else if (b==0 || b==1) { tens = ones[Number(b.toString() + a.toString())];} 
	else {tens="";}

// now let's add up all those letters
	
//	console.log("i is " + i + " which is " + thousands + hundreds + and + tens);
	sum += 	thousands.length + hundreds.length + and.length + tens.length;
	}

console.log("sum is " + sum + " letters"); 	

This was just an annoying process- mostly because of all the switching between numbers and strings, and having to figure out the special cases. I'm sure there's a more efficient way to do it.