Problem 8

Find the greatest product of five consecutive digits in the 1000-digit number.

73167176531330624919225119674426574742355349194934
96983520312774506326239578318016984801869478851843
85861560789112949495459501737958331952853208805511
12540698747158523863050715693290963295227443043557
66896648950445244523161731856403098711121722383113
62229893423380308135336276614282806444486645238749
30358907296290491560440772390713810515859307960866
70172427121883998797908792274921901699720888093776
65727333001053367881220235421809751254540594752243
52584907711670556013604839586446706324415722155397
53697817977846174064955149290862569321978468622482
83972241375657056057490261407972968652414535100474
82166370484403199890008895243450658541227588666881
16427171479924442928230863465674813919123162824586
17866458359124566529476545682848912883142607690042
24219022671055626321111109370544217506941658960408
07198403850962455444362981230987879927244284909188
84580156166097919133875499200524063689912560717606
05886116467109405077541002256983155200055935729725
71636269561882670428252483600823257530420752963450

Solution

digits = "73167176531330624919225119674426574742355349194934

96983520312774506326239578318016984801869478851843

85861560789112949495459501737958331952853208805511

12540698747158523863050715693290963295227443043557

66896648950445244523161731856403098711121722383113

62229893423380308135336276614282806444486645238749

30358907296290491560440772390713810515859307960866

70172427121883998797908792274921901699720888093776

65727333001053367881220235421809751254540594752243

52584907711670556013604839586446706324415722155397

53697817977846174064955149290862569321978468622482

83972241375657056057490261407972968652414535100474

82166370484403199890008895243450658541227588666881

16427171479924442928230863465674813919123162824586

17866458359124566529476545682848912883142607690042

24219022671055626321111109370544217506941658960408

07198403850962455444362981230987879927244284909188

84580156166097919133875499200524063689912560717606

05886116467109405077541002256983155200055935729725

71636269561882670428252483600823257530420752963450"

 

#remove the line breaks again

digits = digits.delete("\r\n");

 

answer = 0

 

for i in 0..digits.length – 5 do

        product = Integer(digits[i]) * Integer(digits[i+1]) * Integer(digits[i+2]) * Integer(digits[i+3]) * Integer(digits[i+4])

        if answer < product

                answer = product

        end

end

 

puts answer

Discussion

Here I used delete to get rid of the line breaks.  Maybe instead of Integer I should have tried the “-‘0’” method described yesterday.

If you have any questions, leave a comment, find me on Twitter (@azzlsoft) or email (rich@azzlsoft.com).