First attempt at 79

problem79.py

+#!/usr/bin/env python
+from itertools import permutations
+
+codes = [319, 680, 180, 690, 129, 620, 762, 689, 762, 318, 368, 710, 720, 710,
+         629, 168, 160, 689, 716, 731, 736, 729, 316, 729, 729, 710, 769, 290,
+         719, 680, 318, 389, 162, 289, 162, 718, 729, 319, 790, 680, 890, 362,
+         319, 760, 316, 729, 380, 319, 728, 716]
+
+def indices(partial):
+    ind = []
+    start = 0
+
+    for c in partial:
+        index = passcode[start:].find(c)
+
+        if index == -1:
+            return []
+
+        ind.append(index + start)
+        start = index + 1
+
+    return ind
+
+def match(code):
+    partials = (code, code[1:], code[:2], code[::2], code[0], code[1], code[2])
+
+    for i, partial in enumerate(partials):
+        ind = indices(partial)
+
+        if ind:
+            return partial, i, ind
+
+    return None, None, None
+
+#codes.sort()
+codes = map(str, set(codes))
+passcode = codes.pop(0)
+print passcode
+
+while len(codes):
+    possibilities = [(0, -1, [])]
+
+    for index, code in enumerate(codes):
+        partial, i, ind = match(code)
+
+        if ind:
+            #print code, partial, ind
+            possibilities.append((index, i, ind, partial))
+
+    possibilities.sort(lambda a, b: cmp(len(a[2]), len(b[2])))
+    #print possibilities
+    index, i, ind, partial = possibilities[-1]
+    code = codes.pop(index)
+
+    if i == 1:
+        passcode = code[0] + passcode
+    elif i == 2:
+        passcode += code[2]
+    elif i == 3:
+        passcode = passcode[:ind[0]] + code[1] + passcode[ind[0]:]
+    elif i == 4:
+        passcode += code[1:]
+    elif i == 5:
+        passcode = code[0] + passcode + code[2]
+    elif i == 6:
+        passcode = code[:2] + passcode
+    elif i == -1:
+        passcode += code
+
+    print code, partial, passcode
+
+    #print len(passcode), len(codes) * 3, passcode
+    #print passcode