March 2014 update

Task/Search-a-list/Maxima/search-a-list-1.maxima

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+haystack: ["Zig","Zag","Wally","Ronald","Bush","Zig","Zag","Krusty","Charlie","Bush","Bozo"];
+needle:  "Zag";
+
+findneedle(needle, haystack, [opt]):=block([idx],
+  idx: sublist_indices(haystack, lambda([w], w=needle)),
+  if emptyp(idx) then throw('notfound),
+  if emptyp(opt) then return(idx),
+  opt: first(opt),
+  if opt='f then first(idx) else if opt='l then last(idx) else throw('unknownmode));

Task/Search-a-list/Maxima/search-a-list-2.maxima

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+(%i32) catch(findneedle("Zag", haystack, 'f));
+(%o32)                                 2
+(%i33) catch(findneedle("Zag", haystack, 'l));
+(%o33)                                 7
+(%i34) catch(findneedle("Washington", haystack));
+(%o34)                             notfound
+(%i35) catch(findneedle("Bush", haystack, 'f));
+(%o35)                                 5
+(%i36) catch(findneedle("Zag", haystack));
+(%o36)                              [2, 7]
+(%i37) catch(findneedle("Zag", haystack, 'l));
+(%o37)                                 7

Task/Search-a-list/Objective-C/search-a-list.m

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+NSArray *haystack = @[@"Zig",@"Zag",@"Wally",@"Ronald",@"Bush",@"Krusty",@"Charlie",@"Bush",@"Bozo"];
+for (id needle in @[@"Washington",@"Bush"]) {
+    int index = [haystack indexOfObject:needle];
+    if (index == NSNotFound)
+        NSLog(@"%@ is not in haystack", needle);
+    else
+        NSLog(@"%i %@", index, needle);
+}