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You are given an array of strings. Each string can either be a word or a number. The task is to find out the maximum value among these strings. The value of a string is calculated as follows:

• If it contains only digits (0-9), its value is the integer representation of the string.
• Otherwise, its value is the length of the string.

Your goal is to return the maximum value among all the strings in the array.

Clarifying Questions

1. Can the strings contain leading zeros if they are numerical values?
2. Are we guaranteed that the input array is non-empty?
3. Can there be negative numbers or non-digit, non-alphabet characters in the strings?

Strategy

1. Iterate over each string in the array.
2. Check if the string contains only digits using the str.isdigit() method.
3. If the string contains only digits, convert it to an integer and consider it as its value.
4. If the string contains any non-digit characters, calculate its value based on its length.
5. Maintain a variable to keep track of the maximum value encountered during the iteration.
6. Return the maximum value after checking all the strings.

Code

Here is the Python implementation of the described strategy:

def max_value_in_array(arr):
    max_val = float('-inf')
    
    for s in arr:
        if s.isdigit():
            value = int(s)
        else:
            value = len(s)
        
        if value > max_val:
            max_val = value
    
    return max_val

# Example usage:
arr = ["123", "word", "4567", "longestword", "789"]
print(max_value_in_array(arr))  # Output should consider the maximum value based on explained criteria

Explanation

1. Initialization: Start with max_val being negative infinity to handle comparisons correctly while iterating.
2. Iteration and Condition: For each string, determine if it is numeric using isdigit().
3. Value Assignment:
   • If numeric, convert to integer.
   • Otherwise, determine the string length.
4. Max Value Update: Compare and update the max_val accordingly.
5. Return Result: After traversing all strings, return the max_val.

Time Complexity

• O(n) where n is the number of strings in the array. Each string is processed in constant time.

This solution efficiently calculates the desired maximum value while ensuring clarity and correctness through a straightforward algorithm.

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