c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "my @vectors = ( [ '--+-+', 122 ], [ '---++', 122 ], [ '?????', 0 ], [ '-????', 1 ], [ '-???-', 101 ], ); ;; my @map = (1, 7, 11, 3, 100); ;; use Test::More 'no_plan'; ;; for my $ar_vector (@vectors) { my ($s, $expected) = @$ar_vector; ;; my $cvt = convert($s); ok $cvt == $expected, qq{'$s' -> $expected (got $cvt)}; } ;; sub convert { my ($s) = @_; ;; my $sum = 0; $sum += substr($s, $_, 1) ne '?' ? $map[$_] : 0 for 0 .. length($s)-1; return $sum; } " ok 1 - '--+-+' -> 122 (got 122) ok 2 - '---++' -> 122 (got 122) ok 3 - '?????' -> 0 (got 0) ok 4 - '-????' -> 1 (got 1) ok 5 - '-???-' -> 101 (got 101) 1..5