‘The rules for writing Roman numerals allow for many ways of writing each number
‘(see FAQ: Roman Numerals).
‘However, there is always a “best” way of writing a particular number.
‘
‘For example, the following represent all of the legitimate ways of writing the number
‘sixteen:
‘
‘IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
‘VIIIIIIIIIII
‘VVIIIIII
‘XIIIIII
‘VVVI
‘XVI
‘
‘The last example being considered the most efficient, as it uses the least number of numerals.
‘
‘The 11K text file, roman.txt (right click and ‘Save Link/Target As…’), contains one thousand
‘numbers’written in valid, but not necessarily minimal, Roman numerals; that is, they are
‘arranged in descending units and obey the subtractive pair rule (see FAQ for the definitive
‘rules for this problem).
‘
‘Find the number of characters saved by writing each of these in their minimal form.
‘
‘Note: You can assume that all the Roman numerals in the file contain no more than four
‘consecutive identical units.

Option Explicit
Option Base 1
Sub Problem_089C()
   Const I     As Long = 1
   Const V     As Long = 5
   Const X     As Long = 10
   Const L     As Long = 50
   Const C     As Long = 100
   Const D     As Long = 500
   Const M     As Long = 1000
 
   Dim T       As Single
   Dim Value   As Long
   Dim Answer  As Long
   Dim LastAdd As Long
   Dim Delta   As Long
   Dim TESTstr As String
   Dim TEMPstr As String
   Dim TEMPlng As Long
   Dim j       As Long
   Dim k       As Long
   Dim Romans(1000) As String
   Dim L1      As Long
   Dim L2      As Long
   Dim numIs   As Long
   Dim numVs   As Long
   Dim numXs   As Long
   Dim numLs   As Long
   Dim numCs   As Long
   Dim numDs   As Long
   Dim numMs   As Long
   Const text  As String = “C:DownloadsEuler
oman.txt”
 
   T = Timer
   j = 1
   Open text For Input As #1   ‘1000 lines–Task 1
  Do While Not EOF(1)
      Line Input #1, Romans(j)
      j = j + 1
   Loop
   Close #1
 
   For k = 1 To 1000
      Value = 0
      TEMPstr = Romans(k)
      L1 = Len(TEMPstr)
      LastAdd = 0   ‘to capture what was last addition
     For j = Len(TEMPstr) To 1 Step -1   ‘parsing right to left–Task 2
        Delta = 0   ‘what to add
        TESTstr = Mid(TEMPstr, j, 1)
         Select Case TESTstr
            Case “I”
               If LastAdd > I Then
                  Delta = Delta – I
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + I
               End If
            Case “V”
               If LastAdd > V Then
                  Delta = Delta – V
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + V
               End If
            Case “X”
               If LastAdd > X Then
                  Delta = Delta – X
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + X
               End If
            Case “L”
               If LastAdd > L Then
                  Delta = Delta – L
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + L
               End If
            Case “C”
               If LastAdd > C Then
                  Delta = Delta – C
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + C
               End If
            Case “D”
               If LastAdd > D Then
                  Delta = Delta – D
               Else
                  Delta = Delta + D
               End If
            Case “M”
               Delta = Delta + M
         End Select
         Value = Value + Delta   ‘Value will be the decimal equivalent
        LastAdd = Delta   ‘Delta captured
     Next j   ‘numeral is parsed

      TEMPstr = “”
      TEMPlng = Value   ‘taking Value and rebuilding it in simplest Roman form–Task 3
     numMs = Int(TEMPlng / M)   ‘counting 1000’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numMs * M
      numDs = Int(TEMPlng / D)   ‘counting 500’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numDs * D
      numCs = Int(TEMPlng / C)   ‘counting 100’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numCs * C
      numLs = Int(TEMPlng / L)   ‘counting 50’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numLs * L
      numXs = Int(TEMPlng / X)   ‘counting 10’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numXs * X
      numVs = Int(TEMPlng / V)   ‘counting 5’s
     TEMPlng = TEMPlng – numVs * V
      numIs = TEMPlng   ‘1’s are what’s left
     For j = 1 To numMs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “M”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numDs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “D”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numCs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “C”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numLs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “L”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numXs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “X”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numVs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “V”
      Next j
      For j = 1 To numIs
         TEMPstr = TEMPstr & “I”
      Next j
      ‘TEMPstr now in simplest form
     ‘applying subtractive rules–Task 4
     TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “MCCCC”, “MCD”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “DCCCC”, “CM”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “CCCC”, “CD”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “CXXXX”, “CXL”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “LXXXX”, “XC”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “XXXX”, “XL”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “LIIII”, “LIV”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “XIIII”, “XIV”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “VIIII”, “IX”)
      TEMPstr = Replace(TEMPstr, “IIII”, “IV”)
 
      L2 = Len(TEMPstr)
 
      Answer = Answer + L1 – L2   ‘L1 – L2 is keystokes saved per numeral–Task 5
  Next k
 
   Debug.Print Answer; ”  Time:”; Timer – T
 
End Sub