Problem 92. Find state names that start with the letter N

Created by Cody Team
Appears in Cody Challenge

Difficulty:Rate

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Given a list of US states, remove all the states that start with the letter N, leaving surrouding spaces intact. For example:
If
 s1 = 'Alabama Montana Nebraska Vermont Nevada';
then
 s2 = 'Alabama Montana  Vermont ';
Notice that the spaces before and after "Nebraska" in s1 still remain between "Montana" and "Vermont" in s2. The same applies for the space before "Nevada".
Be mindful of two-word states that also start with the letter N, like "New York" or "North Carolina". For example:
If
 s1 = 'Alabama Montana New York Vermont';
then
 s2 = 'Alabama Montana  Vermont';
Notice that the spaces before and after "New York" in s1 still remain between "Montana" and "Vermont" in s2.

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5719 Solutions
1338 Solvers

Last Solution submitted on May 09, 2025

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

12 Comments

12 Comments

Show 9 older comments

@bmtran (Bryant Tran) on 26 Jan 2012

There's an error in the third test case that's preventing it from ever passing

Ned Gulley on 26 Jan 2012

Sorry about the problem. It's fixed now and you're in the lead.

Vivek on 25 Jan 2014

If I dont know any US city name, then I cant solve. Atleast it should not have space. Eg NewJersy not New Jersey. This is not matlab related. Its US related.

Daniel Pereira on 30 Apr 2014

I do not linke this problem as you must realize that there are two-names states which start with "New" or with "North". This needs to be analyzed before for people who don't know the names of all states, like me (I'm Spanish). I agree with Vivek that these doble name states should appear without space, but knowing that the only strages are "New" and "North", the problem is not that difficult.

li haitao on 18 May 2014

Could you explain how to put the spaces.For example,why the s2 of the second case has seven spaces?

Teemu Pulkkinen on 17 Jun 2014

Problem description says "remove" when it actually means "replace with space character". This might trip some people up because the verification is very unforgiving in this sense.

arsenic 陈 on 20 May 2021

only 3 tests
if length(s1)==45
s2 = ' Tennessee Texas Maine'
elseif length(s1)==88
s2 = ' ';
else
s2 = 'Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming';
end

Pritom Kumar Saha on 27 Nov 2021

It was difficult.

Pranay Verma on 14 Feb 2022

challenging

Timea Nagy on 23 Apr 2022

I think I found a very easy solution.

Peter on 14 Feb 2023

A waste of time, just as useless as Problem 61 :(

Robert Wagner on 15 Apr 2024

I hate regexp and they hate me!

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