First and last letter of the word

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    Given a string, the task is to print the first and last character of each word in a string.
    Examples: 
     

    Input: Geeks for geeks
    Output: Gs fr gs
    
    Input: Computer applications
    Output: Cr as

    Approach 
     

    1. Run a loop from the first letter to the last letter.
    2. Print the first and last letter of the string.
    3. If there is a space in the string then print the character that lies just before space and just after space.

    Below is the implementation of the above approach. 
     

    C++

    #include<bits/stdc++.h>

    using namespace std;

    void FirstAndLast(string str)

    {

        int i;

        for (i = 0; i < str.length(); i++)

        {

            if (i == 0)

                cout<<str[i];

            if (i == str.length() - 1)

                cout<<str[i];

            if (str[i] == ' ')

            {

                cout<<str[i-1]<<" "<<str[i+1];

            }

        }

    }

    int main()

    {

        string str = "Geeks for Geeks";

        FirstAndLast(str);

    }

    Java

    class GFG {

        static void FirstAndLast(String str)

        {

            int i;

            for (i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {

                if (i == 0)

                    System.out.print(str.charAt(i));

                if (i == str.length() - 1)

                    System.out.print(str.charAt(i));

                if (str.charAt(i) == ' ') {

                    System.out.print(str.charAt(i - 1)

                                     + " "

                                     + str.charAt(i + 1));

                }

            }

        }

        public static void main(String args[])

        {

            String str = "Geeks for Geeks";

            FirstAndLast(str);

        }

    }

    Python3

    def FirstAndLast(string):

        for i in range(len(string)):

            if i == 0:

                print(string[i], end = "")

            if i == len(string) - 1:

                print(string[i], end = "")

            if string[i] == " ":

                print(string[i - 1],

                      string[i + 1], end = "")

    if __name__ == "__main__":

        string = "Geeks for Geeks"

        FirstAndLast(string)

    C#

    using System;

    class GFG

    {

        static void FirstAndLast(string str)

        {

            int i;

            for (i = 0; i < str.Length; i++)

            {

                if (i == 0)

                    Console.Write(str[i]);

                if (i == str.Length - 1)

                    Console.Write(str[i]);

                if (str[i] == ' ')

                {

                    Console.Write(str[i - 1]

                                    + " "

                                    + str[i + 1]);

                }

            }

        }

        public static void Main()

        {

            string str = "Geeks for Geeks";

            FirstAndLast(str);

        }

    }

    Javascript

    <script>

          function FirstAndLast(str)

          {

            for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++)

            {

              if (i == 0)

              document.write(str[i]);

              if (i == str.length - 1)

              document.write(str[i]);

              if (str[i] === " ") {

                document.write(str[i - 1] + " " + str[i + 1]);

              }

            }

          }

          var str = "Geeks for Geeks";

          FirstAndLast(str);

     </script>

    Time Complexity: O(n) where n is the length of the string

    Auxiliary Space: O(1)

    Another Approach:
     

    In this approach we can split the string into words and then iterate through the words. For each word, we can print its first and last character.

    we use stringstream to split the string into words. We then iterate through the words and print the first and last character of each word.

    Implementation of the above approach:

    C++

    #include <bits/stdc++.h>

    using namespace std;

    void FirstAndLast(string str)

    {

        stringstream ss(str);

        string word;

        while (ss >> word) {

            cout << word[0] << word[word.length() - 1] << " ";

        }

    }

    int main()

    {

        string str = "Geeks for Geeks";

        FirstAndLast(str);

    }

    Java

    import java.util.*;

    class Main {

        public static void firstAndLast(String str) {

            StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(str);

            while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {

                String word = st.nextToken();

                System.out.print(word.charAt(0) + "" + word.charAt(word.length() - 1) + " ");

            }

        }

        public static void main(String[] args) {

            String str = "Geeks for Geeks";

            firstAndLast(str);

        }

    }

    Python3

    def FirstAndLast(string):

        words = string.split()

        for word in words:

            print(word[0] + word[-1], end=" ")

    if __name__ == '__main__':

        string = "Geeks for Geeks"

        FirstAndLast(string)

    C#

    using System;

    using System.Linq;

    using System.Collections.Generic;

    class Program {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string str = "Geeks for Geeks";

            FirstAndLast(str);

        }

        static void FirstAndLast(string str)

        {

            List<string> words = str.Split(' ').ToList();

            foreach(string word in words)

            {

                Console.Write(word[0]);

                Console.Write(word[word.Length - 1]);

                Console.Write(" ");

            }

        }

    }

    Javascript

    function FirstAndLast(str) {

        let words = str.split(" ");

        let output = "";

        for (let i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {

            output += words[i][0] + words[i][words[i].length - 1] + " ";

        }

        console.log(output);

    }

    let str = "Geeks for Geeks";

    FirstAndLast(str);

    Time Complexity: O(N)

    Space Complexity: O(1)

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    Python program to capitalize the first and last letter of each word of a string

    October 14, 2022

    Capitalize the first and last letter of each word of a string

    In this python program, we will be changing the case for the first and last character of the string. Changing case in the string doesn’t only change the look of the string but also changes its value in many ways like it change the ASCII value of the character and also changes its sensitivity because when we perform operations on string case sensitivity of a character changes many things like when you match a lowercase a with uppercase it will give false result.

    Capitalize the first and last character of each word of a string

    Algorithm

    • Step 1:- Start.
    • Step 2:- Take user input.
    • Step 3:- Slice string from 0 to 1 and convert its case to uppercase.
    • Step 4:- Concatenate the string from 1 to length of string – 1.
    • Step 5:- Concatenate last character after converting it to upper case.
    • Step 6:- Print the string.
    • Step 7:- End.

    Python program to convert first and last letter of string to Upper-Case

    Objective – Write a python program to capitalize the first and last character of each word in a string

    #take user input
    String = input('Enter the String :')
    #start slicing the String
    #take 1st character and convert it to upper case
    #Concatinate the string with remaning-1 length
    #take last character and change it to uppercase and concatinate it to string
    String = String[0:1].upper() + String[1:len(String)-1] + String[len(String)-1:len(String)].upper()
    #print the String
    print(String)

    Output

    Enter the String :Prepinsta
    PrepinstA
    def FirstAndLast(string) :
        # Create an equivalent char array of given string
        ch = list(string);
        i = 0 ;
        while i < len(ch):
            # k stores index of first character and i is going to store index of last character.
            k = i;
            while (i < len(ch) and ch[i] != ' ') :
                i += 1;
            # Check if the character is a small letter If yes, then Capitalise
            if (ord(ch[k]) >= 97 and
                ord(ch[k]) <= 122 ):
                ch[k] = chr(ord(ch[k]) - 32);
            else :
                ch[k] = ch[k]
            if (ord(ch[i - 1]) >= 90 and
                ord(ch[i - 1]) <= 122 ):
                ch[i - 1] = chr(ord(ch[i - 1]) - 32);
            else :
                ch[i - 1] = ch[i - 1]
            i += 1
        return "" . join(ch);
    if __name__ == "__main__" :
        string = "Prep insta";
        print("Input string "+string);
        print("String after Capitalize the first and last character of each word in a string:- "+FirstAndLast(string));
    
    

    Output

    Input string Prep insta
    String after Capitalize the first and last character of each word in a string:- PreP InstA

    Note
    The time complexity of above method is o(n) as we are iterating over the string once in the for loop

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    4 comments on “Python program to capitalize the first and last letter of each word of a string”

    • mahesh

      my_string = input(“>”)

      b = my_string[0].upper() + my_string[1:-1] + my_string[-1].upper()
      print(b)

      0

    • Tejal

      s=input()
      result=”
      for i in s.split():
      result =result + i[0].upper()+ i[1:-1] + i[-1].upper() +” ”
      print(result)

      1

    • BHANU

      a=input()
      print(a[0].upper()+a[1:len(a)-1]+a[len(a)-1].upper())

      2

    • 2

    Last update on January 14 2023 06:22:15 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

    Python String: Exercise-60 with Solution

    Write a Python program to capitalize the first and last letters of each word in a given string.

    Sample Solution-1:

    Python Code:

    def capitalize_first_last_letters(str1):
         str1 = result = str1.title()
         result =  ""
         for word in str1.split():
            result += word[:-1] + word[-1].upper() + " "
         return result[:-1]  
         
    print(capitalize_first_last_letters("python exercises practice solution"))
    print(capitalize_first_last_letters("w3resource"))
    
    

    Sample Output:

    PythoN ExerciseS PracticE SolutioN
    W3ResourcE
    

    Pictorial Presentation:

    Python String: Capitalize first and last letters of each word of a given string.

    Flowchart:

    Flowchart: Capitalize first and last letters of each word of a given string

    Visualize Python code execution:

    The following tool visualize what the computer is doing step-by-step as it executes the said program:

    Sample Solution-2:

    Capitalizes the first letter of a string.

    • Use list slicing and str.upper() to capitalize the first letter of the string.
    • Use str.join() to combine the capitalized first letter with the rest of the characters.
    • Omit the lower_rest parameter to keep the rest of the string intact, or set it to True to convert to lowercase.

    Python Code:

    def capitalize_first_letter(s, lower_rest = False):
      return ''.join([s[:1].upper(), (s[1:].lower() if lower_rest else s[1:])])
     
    print(capitalize_first_letter('javaScript'))
    print(capitalize_first_letter('python', True))
    
    

    Sample Output:

    JavaScript
    Python
    

    Flowchart:

    Flowchart: Capitalize first and last letters of each word of a given string

    Visualize Python code execution:

    The following tool visualize what the computer is doing step-by-step as it executes the said program:

    Python Code Editor:

    Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.

    Previous: Write a Python program to find the maximum occuring character in a given string.
    Next: Write a Python program to remove duplicate characters of a given string.

    What is the difficulty level of this exercise?

    Test your Programming skills with w3resource’s quiz.

    

    Python: Tips of the Day

    Casts the provided value as a list if it’s not one:

    Example:

    def tips_cast(val):
      return list(val) if isinstance(val, (tuple, list, set, dict)) else [val]
    
    print(tips_cast('bar'))
    print(tips_cast([1]))
    print(tips_cast(('foo', 'bar')))
    

    Output:

    ['bar']
    [1]
    ['foo', 'bar']
    


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    Task

    Last letter-first letter
    You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.

    A certain children’s game involves starting with a word in a particular category.   Each participant in turn says a word, but that word must begin with the final letter of the previous word.   Once a word has been given, it cannot be repeated.   If an opponent cannot give a word in the category, they fall out of the game.

    For example, with   «animals»   as the category,

    Child 1: dog 
    Child 2: goldfish
    Child 1: hippopotamus
    Child 2: snake
    ...
    
    Task

    Take the following selection of 70 English Pokemon names   (extracted from   Wikipedia’s list of Pokemon)   and generate the/a sequence with the highest possible number of Pokemon names where the subsequent name starts with the final letter of the preceding name.

    No Pokemon name is to be repeated.

    audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    

    Extra brownie points for dealing with the full list of   646   names.

    11l[edit]

    Translation of: Python

    F order_words(words)
       DefaultDict[Char, Set[String]] byfirst
       L(word) words
          byfirst[word[0]].add(word)
       R byfirst
    
    F linkfirst(&byfirst; sofar)
       assert(!sofar.empty)
       V chmatch = sofar.last.last
       V options = byfirst[chmatch] - Set(sofar)
    
       I options.empty
          R sofar
       E
          V alternatives = options.map(word -> linkfirst(&@byfirst, @sofar [+] [word]))
          R max(alternatives, key' s -> s.len)
    
    F llfl(words)
       V byfirst = order_words(words)
       R max((words.map(word -> linkfirst(&@byfirst, [word]))), key' s -> s.len)
    
    V pokemon_str = ‘audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask’
    V pokemon = pokemon_str.split((‘ ’, "n"))
    V l = llfl(pokemon)
    L(i) (0 .< l.len).step(8)
       print(l[i .< i + 8].join(‘ ’))
    print(l.len)
    machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel
    loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch
    haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
    23
    

    Ada[edit]

    with Ada.Containers.Indefinite_Vectors, Ada.Text_IO;
    
    procedure Lalefile is
    
       package Word_Vec is new Ada.Containers.Indefinite_Vectors
         (Index_Type   => Positive,
          Element_Type => String);
    
       use type Word_Vec.Vector, Ada.Containers.Count_Type;
    
       type Words_Type is array (Character) of Word_Vec.Vector;
    
       procedure Read(Words: out Words_Type) is
          F: Ada.Text_IO.File_Type;
       begin
          Ada.Text_IO.Open(File => F, 
                           Name => "pokemon70.txt",
                           Mode => Ada.Text_IO.In_File);
          loop
             declare
                Word: String := Ada.Text_IO.Get_Line(F);
             begin
                exit when Word = "";
                Words(Word(Word'First)).Append(Word);
             end;
          end loop;
       exception
          when Ada.Text_IO.End_Error => null;
       end Read;
    
       procedure Write (List: Word_Vec.Vector; Prefix: String := "   ") is
          Copy: Word_Vec.Vector := List;
       begin
          loop
             exit when Copy.Is_Empty;
             Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line(Prefix & Copy.First_Element);
             Copy.Delete_First;
          end loop;
       end Write;
    
       function Run(Start: Character; Words: Words_Type) return Word_Vec.Vector is
          Result: Word_Vec.Vector := Word_Vec.Empty_Vector;
       begin
          for I in Words(Start).First_Index .. Words(Start).Last_Index loop
             declare
                Word: String := Words(Start).Element(I);
                Dupl: Words_Type := Words;
                Alternative : Word_Vec.Vector;
             begin
                Dupl(Start).Delete(I);
                Alternative := Word & Run(Word(Word'Last), Dupl);
                if Alternative.Length > Result.Length then
                   Result := Alternative;
                end if;
             end;
          end loop;
          return Result;
       end Run;
    
       W: Words_Type;
       A_Vector: Word_Vec.Vector;
       Best: Word_Vec.Vector := Word_Vec.Empty_Vector;
    
    begin
       Read(W);
       Ada.Text_IO.Put("Processing ");
       for Ch in Character range 'a' .. 'z' loop
          Ada.Text_IO.Put(Ch & ", ");
          A_Vector := Run(Ch, W);
          if A_Vector.Length > Best.Length then
             Best := A_Vector;
          end if;
       end loop;
       Ada.Text_IO.New_Line;
       Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line("Length of longest Path:" &
                              Integer'Image(Integer(Best.Length)));
       Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line("One such path:");
       Write(Best);
    end Lalefile;
    

    Output:

    Processing a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, 
    Length of longest Path: 23
    One such path:
       machamp
       petilil
       landorus
       scrafty
       yamask
       kricketune
       emboar
       registeel
       loudred
       darmanitan
       nosepass
       simisear
       relicanth
       heatmor
       rufflet
       trapinch
       haxorus
       seaking
       girafarig
       gabite
       exeggcute
       emolga
       audino

    BaCon[edit]

    Naive implementation showing the algorithm.

    all$ = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon " 
    "cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite " 
    "girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan " 
    "kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine " 
    "nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 " 
    "porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking " 
    "sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko " 
    "tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
    SUB check(list$, rest$)
    
        LOCAL x
    
        FOR x = 1 TO AMOUNT(rest$)
            IF RIGHT$(list$, 1) = LEFT$(TOKEN$(rest$, x), 1) THEN check(APPEND$(list$, 0, TOKEN$(rest$, x)), DEL$(rest$, x))
        NEXT
    
        IF AMOUNT(list$) > total THEN
            total = AMOUNT(list$)
            result$ = list$
        END IF
    
    END SUB
    
    FOR z = 1 TO AMOUNT(all$)
        CALL check(TOKEN$(all$, z), DEL$(all$,z))
    NEXT
    
    PRINT total, ": ", result$
    
    PRINT NL$, "Speed: ", TIMER, " msecs."
    
    23: machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
    
    Speed: 662734 msecs.
    

    Optimized implementation. The idea is to quantify the equations.

    all$ = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon " 
    "cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite " 
    "girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan " 
    "kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine " 
    "nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 " 
    "porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking " 
    "sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko " 
    "tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
    SPLIT all$ TO name$ SIZE MaxSize
    
    DECLARE start, end, used, result ARRAY MaxSize
    
    FOR y = 0 TO MaxSize-1
        start[y] = ASC(LEFT$(name$[y], 1))
        end[y] = ASC(RIGHT$(name$[y], 1))
        used[y] = -1
    NEXT
    
    FOR i = 0 TO MaxSize-1
        used[i] = 0
        CALL check(used, i, 1)
        used[i] = -1
    NEXT
    
    PRINT maxtotal, ": ";
    FOR a = 0 TO maxtotal-1
        FOR y = 0 TO MaxSize-1
            IF result[y] = a THEN PRINT name$[y]," ";
        NEXT
    NEXT
    
    PRINT NL$, "Speed: ", TIMER, " msecs."
    
    SUB check(ya[], ultim, nr)
    
        LOCAL x
    
        FOR x = 0 TO MaxSize-1
            IF end[ultim] = start[x] AND ya[x] = -1 THEN
                ya[x] = nr
                CALL check(ya, x, nr+1)
                ya[x] = -1
            END IF
    
            IF nr > maxtotal THEN
                maxtotal = nr
                OPTION MEMTYPE long
                COPY ya TO result SIZE MaxSize
            END IF
        NEXT
    
    END SUB
    
    23: machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino 
    
    Speed: 818 msecs.
    

    BASIC256[edit]

    dim names$(1)
    names$ = { "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask" }
    
    global names$, lnames, index, maxlen, first, last
    maxlen = 0
    
    lnames = names$[?]-1
    dim index(names$[?])
    dim first(names$[?])
    dim last(names$[?])
    for t = 0 to lnames
    	index[t] = t
    	last[t] = asc(right(names$[t],1))
    	first[t] = asc(left(names$[t],1))
    next t
    
    
    # try each name as the first name on the list
    for t = 0 to lnames
       call swapindex(0,t)
       call downlevel(1)
       call swapindex(0,t)
    next t
    
    end
    
    subroutine downlevel(lev)
       #print n$[?] + " " + lev
       if lev <= lnames then
          for t = lev to lnames
             if last[index[lev-1]] = first[index[t]] then
                call swapindex(lev,t)
                if lev >= maxlen then
                   maxlen = lev
                   call showsolution(lev)
                end if
                call downlevel(lev+1)
                call swapindex(lev,t)
             end if
          next t
       end if
    end subroutine
    
    subroutine showsolution(l)
       print l+1;
       for t = 0 to l
          print " " + names$[index[t]];
       next t
       print
    end subroutine
    
    subroutine swapindex(a, b)
       # swap element a and bin in the array index (used to swap names$)
       t = index[a]
       index[a] = index[b]
       index[b] = t
    end subroutine

    Output:

    2 bagon nosepass
    3 bagon nosepass sableye
    4 bagon nosepass sableye emboar
    5 bagon nosepass sableye emboar registeel
    ...
    23 machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune emboar relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
    23 machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel landorus simisear relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
    23 machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino

    BBC BASIC[edit]

          DIM names$(69)
          names$() = "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", 
           "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", 
           "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", 
           "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", 
           "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", 
           "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", 
           "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", 
           "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", 
           "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", 
           "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", 
           "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", 
           "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", 
           "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", 
           "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"
          
          maxPathLength% = 0
          maxPathLengthCount% = 0
          maxPathExample$ = ""
          
          FOR i% = 0 TO DIM(names$(),1)
            SWAP names$(0), names$(i%)
            PROClastfirst(names$(), 1)
            SWAP names$(0), names$(i%)
          NEXT
          PRINT "Maximum length = " ; maxPathLength%
          PRINT "Number of solutions with that length = " ; maxPathLengthCount%
          PRINT "One such solution: " ' maxPathExample$
          END
          
          DEF PROClastfirst(names$(), offset%)
          LOCAL i%, l%
          IF offset% > maxPathLength% THEN
            maxPathLength% = offset%
            maxPathLengthCount% = 1
          ELSE IF offset% = maxPathLength% THEN;
            maxPathLengthCount% += 1
            maxPathExample$ = ""
            FOR i% = 0 TO offset%-1
              maxPathExample$ += names$(i%) + CHR$13 + CHR$10
            NEXT
          ENDIF
          l% = ASCRIGHT$(names$(offset% - 1))
          FOR i% = offset% TO DIM(names$(),1)
            IF ASCnames$(i%) = l% THEN
              SWAP names$(i%), names$(offset%)
              PROClastfirst(names$(), offset%+1)
              SWAP names$(i%), names$(offset%)
            ENDIF
          NEXT
          ENDPROC
    

    Output:

    Maximum length = 23
    Number of solutions with that length = 1248
    One such solution:
    machamp
    pinsir
    rufflet
    trapinch
    heatmor
    remoraid
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    starly
    yamask
    kricketune
    exeggcute
    emboar
    relicanth
    haxorus
    simisear
    registeel
    landorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    emolga
    audino
    

    Bracmat[edit]

    Naive[edit]

    (   audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor
        carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
        emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus
        heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp
        magnezone mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu
        pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel
        relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
        tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord
        wartortle whismur wingull yamask
      : ?names
    & 0:?max
    & :?sequence
    & ( lalefile
      =   done todo A M Z Length first
        .   !arg:(!done.)&!done:?sequence
          |   !arg:(.?todo)
            & (   !todo
                :   ?A
                    %@?M
                    (?Z&lalefile$(!M.!A !Z)&~)
              | 
              )
          |   !arg:(@(%:? @?first) ?:?done.?todo)
            & :?M
            & (   !todo
                :   ?A
                    @(%:!first ?:?M)
                    ( ?Z
                    & lalefile$(!M !done.!A !Z)
                    & ~
                    )
              |   !M:
                & !done:? [?Length
                & !Length:>!max:?max
                & !done:?sequence
              | 
              )
      )
    & lalefile$(.!names)
    & out$("Length:" !max "Sequence:" !sequence)
    );

    Output (read from bottom to top):

      Length:
      23
      Sequence:
      audino
      emolga
      exeggcute
      gabite
      girafarig
      seaking
      haxorus
      trapinch
      rufflet
      heatmor
      relicanth
      simisear
      nosepass
      darmanitan
      loudred
      registeel
      emboar
      kricketune
      yamask
      scrafty
      landorus
      petilil
      machamp

    Optimized[edit]

    Optimizations:

    The whl loop transforms the flat list of names to, conceptually, a search tree with nodes at three levels. The lowest level contains the names. The top level contains the word’s first letter and the second level contains its last letter. Words starting with a specific letter are all children of one single top node, speeding up search for candidates. Under a second level node all words have the same letter at the start and the same letter at the end. When looking for candidates it always suffices to take the first word and ignore the rest. This optimization eliminates all solutions that merely are the result of swapping pairs of words with the same begin and end. Notice that the tree is built using the ‘smart’ binary operators *, ^, + and L (logarithm). Bracmat uses the commutative, distributive and associative laws to transform expressions containing these operators to canonical forms that fit the requiremens of the search tree. For example, the words in the list sableye scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue end up in this tree:

        s
      ^ ( (.e)L(sableye*scolipede)
        + (.g)Lseaking
        + (.k)Lspoink
        + (.n)Lsilcoon
        + (.o)Lsealeo
        + (.r)Lsimisear
        + (.x)Lsnorlax
        + (.y)L(scrafty*snivy*starly)
        )
    *   t
      ^ ( (.a)Ltirtouga
        + (.e)Ltyrogue
        + (.h)Ltrapinch
        + (.o)Ltreecko
        )

    Another, less important, optimization is the way in which the last letter of a name is found, using the position pattern [ rather than the pattern that matches at most one letter, @.

    The optimized version is about 4.5 times faster than the naive version.

    (   audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor
        carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
        emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus
        heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp
        magnezone mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu
        pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel
        relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
        tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord
        wartortle whismur wingull yamask
      : ?names
    & 1:?newnames
    &   whl
      ' ( !names:@(%?name:%@?first ? @?last) ?names
        & !first^(.!last)L!name*!newnames:?newnames
        )
    & !newnames:?names
    & 0:?max
    & :?sequence
    & ( lalefile
      =     done todo A M Z Length first
          , Ms a z last candidates
        .   !arg:(!done.)&!done:?sequence
          |   !arg:(.?todo)
            & (   !todo
                :   ?A
                  * %?first^?candidates
                  * ( ?Z
                    &   !candidates
                      :   ?a
                        + ?lastL(%?M*?Ms)
                        + ( ?z
                          & lalefile$(!M.!A*!first^(!a+!lastL!Ms+!z)*!Z)
                          & ~
                          )
                    )
              | 
              )
          |   !arg:(@(%:? [-2 ?first) ?:?done.?todo)
            & :?M
            & (   !todo:?A*!first^%?candidates*?Z
                &   !candidates
                  :   ?a
                    + ?lastL(%?M*?Ms)
                    + ( ?z
                      &   lalefile
                        $ (!M !done.!A*!first^(!a+!lastL!Ms+!z)*!Z)
                      & ~
                      )
              |   !M:
                & !done:? [?Length
                & !Length:>!max:?max
                & !done:?sequence
              | 
              )
      )
    & lalefile$(.!names)
    & out$("Length:" !max "Sequence:" !sequence)
    );

    Output (read from bottom to top):

      Length:
      23
      Sequence:
      audino
      emolga
      kricketune
      yamask
      scrafty
      haxorus
      trapinch
      rufflet
      simisear
      landorus
      registeel
      heatmor
      relicanth
      emboar
      exeggcute
      gabite
      girafarig
      seaking
      nosepass
      darmanitan
      loudred
      petilil
      machamp

    C[edit]

    From the D version.

    #include <stdlib.h>
    #include <string.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <inttypes.h>
    
    typedef struct {
        uint16_t index;
        char last_char, first_char;
    } Ref;
    
    Ref* longest_path_refs;
    size_t longest_path_refs_len;
    
    Ref* refs;
    size_t refs_len;
    
    size_t n_solutions;
    
    const char** longest_path;
    size_t longest_path_len;
    
    
    /// tally statistics
    void search(size_t curr_len) {
        if (curr_len == longest_path_refs_len) {
            n_solutions++;
        } else if (curr_len > longest_path_refs_len) {
            n_solutions = 1;
            longest_path_refs_len = curr_len;
            memcpy(longest_path_refs, refs, curr_len * sizeof(Ref));
        }
    
        // recursive search
        intptr_t last_char = refs[curr_len - 1].last_char;
        for (size_t i = curr_len; i < refs_len; i++)
            if (refs[i].first_char == last_char) {
                Ref aux = refs[curr_len];
                refs[curr_len] = refs[i];
                refs[i] = aux;
                search(curr_len + 1);
                refs[i] = refs[curr_len];
                refs[curr_len] = aux;
            }
    }
    
    void find_longest_chain(const char* items[],
                            size_t items_len) {
        refs_len = items_len;
        refs = calloc(refs_len, sizeof(Ref));
    
        // enough space for all items
        longest_path_refs_len = 0;
        longest_path_refs = calloc(refs_len, sizeof(Ref));
    
        for (size_t i = 0; i < items_len; i++) {
            size_t itemsi_len = strlen(items[i]);
            if (itemsi_len <= 1)
                exit(1);
            refs[i].index = (uint16_t)i;
            refs[i].last_char = items[i][itemsi_len - 1];
            refs[i].first_char = items[i][0];
        }
    
        // try each item as possible start
        for (size_t i = 0; i < items_len; i++) {
            Ref aux = refs[0];
            refs[0] = refs[i];
            refs[i] = aux;
            search(1);
            refs[i] = refs[0];
            refs[0] = aux;
        }
    
        longest_path_len = longest_path_refs_len;
        longest_path = calloc(longest_path_len, sizeof(const char*));
        for (size_t i = 0; i < longest_path_len; i++)
            longest_path[i] = items[longest_path_refs[i].index];
    
        free(longest_path_refs);
        free(refs);
    }
    
    int main() {
        const char* pokemon[] = {"audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette",
        "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon",
        "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar",
        "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin",
        "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent",
        "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba",
        "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone",
        "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu",
        "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
        "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye",
        "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon",
        "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
        "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
        "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"};
        size_t pokemon_len = sizeof(pokemon) / sizeof(pokemon[0]);
    
        find_longest_chain(pokemon, pokemon_len);
        printf("Maximum path length: %un", longest_path_len);
        printf("Paths of that length: %un", n_solutions);
        printf("Example path of that length:n");
        for (size_t i = 0; i < longest_path_len; i += 7) {
            printf("  ");
            for (size_t j = i; j < (i+7) && j < longest_path_len; j++)
                printf("%s ", longest_path[j]);
            printf("n");
        }
    
        free(longest_path);
    
        return 0;
    }
    

    Output:

    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length:
      machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar
      registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor
      rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute
      emolga audino

    Runtime: about 0.49 seconds, gcc compiler.

    Approximate[edit]

    For dealing with full list (646 names), here’s an approximate method. Names are restricted to begin and end with a lower case letter, so for example in my input file «porygon2» is written as «porygon-two». It finds some chains with 300-odd length for 646 names, and found a chain with 23 for the 70 names (by luck, that is), and since it’s basically a one-pass method, running time is next to none. C99 code.

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>
    #include <string.h>
    #include <ctype.h>
    
    #define forall(i, n) for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
    typedef struct edge { char s, e, *str; struct edge *lnk; } edge;
    typedef struct { edge* e[26]; int nin, nout, in[26], out[26];} node;
    typedef struct { edge *e, *tail; int len, has[26]; } chain;
    
    node nodes[26];
    edge *names, **tmp;
    int n_names;
    
    /* add edge to graph */
    void store_edge(edge *g)
    {
    	if (!g) return;
    	int i = g->e, j = g->s;
    	node *n = nodes + j;
    
    	g->lnk = n->e[i];
    
    	n->e[i] = g, n->out[i]++, n->nout++;
    	n = nodes + i, n->in[j]++, n->nin++;
    }
    
    /* unlink an edge between nodes i and j, and return the edge */
    edge* remove_edge(int i, int j)
    {
    	node *n = nodes + i;
    	edge *g = n->e[j];
    	if (g) {
    		n->e[j] = g->lnk;
    		g->lnk = 0;
    		n->out[j]--, n->nout--;
    
    		n = nodes + j;
    		n->in[i]--;
    		n->nin--;
    	}
    	return g;
    }
    
    void read_names()
    {
    	FILE *fp = fopen("poke646", "rt");
    	int i, len;
    	char *buf;
    	edge *p;
    
    	if (!fp) abort();
    
    	fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);
    	len = ftell(fp);
    	buf = malloc(len + 1);
    	fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_SET);
    	fread(buf, 1, len, fp);
    	fclose(fp);
    
    	buf[len] = 0;
    	for (n_names = i = 0; i < len; i++)
    		if (isspace(buf[i]))
    			buf[i] = 0, n_names++;
    
    	if (buf[len-1]) n_names++;
    
    	memset(nodes, 0, sizeof(node) * 26);
    	tmp = calloc(n_names, sizeof(edge*));
    
    	p = names = malloc(sizeof(edge) * n_names);
    	for (i = 0; i < n_names; i++, p++) {
    		if (i)	p->str = names[i-1].str + len + 1;
    		else	p->str = buf;
    
    		len = strlen(p->str);
    		p->s = p->str[0] - 'a';
    		p->e = p->str[len-1] - 'a';
    		if (p->s < 0 || p->s >= 26 || p->e < 0 || p->e >= 26) {
    			printf("bad name %s: first/last char must be lettern", 
    				p->str);
    			abort();
    		}
    	}
    	printf("read %d namesn", n_names);
    }
    
    void show_chain(chain *c)
    {
    	printf("%d:", c->len);
    	for (edge * e = c->e; e || !putchar('n'); e = e->lnk)
    		printf(" %s", e->str);
    }
    
    /* Which next node has most enter or exit edges. */
    int widest(int n, int out)
    {
    	if (nodes[n].out[n]) return n;
    
    	int mm = -1, mi = -1;
    	forall(i, 26) {
    		if (out) {
    			if (nodes[n].out[i] && nodes[i].nout > mm)
    				mi = i, mm = nodes[i].nout;
    		} else {
    			if (nodes[i].out[n] && nodes[i].nin > mm)
    				mi = i, mm = nodes[i].nin;
    		}
    	}
    
    	return mi;
    }
    
    void insert(chain *c, edge *e)
    {
    	e->lnk = c->e;
    	if (!c->tail) c->tail = e;
    	c->e = e;
    	c->len++;
    }
    
    void append(chain *c, edge *e)
    {
    	if (c->tail) c->tail->lnk = e;
    	else c->e = e;
    	c->tail = e;
    	c->len++;
    }
    
    edge * shift(chain *c)
    {
    	edge *e = c->e;
    	if (e) {
    		c->e = e->lnk;
    		if (!--c->len) c->tail = 0;
    	}
    	return e;
    }
    
    chain* make_chain(int s)
    {
    	chain *c = calloc(1, sizeof(chain));
    	
    	/* extend backwards */
    	for (int i, j = s; (i = widest(j, 0)) >= 0; j = i)
    		insert(c, remove_edge(i, j));
    
    	/* extend forwards */
    	for (int i, j = s; (i = widest(j, 1)) >= 0; j = i)
    		append(c, remove_edge(j, i));
    
    	for (int step = 0;; step++) {
    		edge *e = c->e;
    
    		for (int i = 0; i < step; i++)
    			if (!(e = e->lnk)) break;
    		if (!e) return c;
    
    		int n = 0;
    		for (int i, j = e->s; (i = widest(j, 0)) >= 0; j = i) {
    			if (!(e = remove_edge(i, j))) break;
    			tmp[n++] = e;
    		}
    
    		if (n > step) {
    			forall(i, step) store_edge(shift(c));
    			forall(i, n) insert(c, tmp[i]);
    			step = -1;
    		} else while (--n >= 0)
    			store_edge(tmp[n]);
    	}
    	return c;
    }
    
    int main(void)
    {
    	int best = 0;
    	read_names();
    
    	forall(i, 26) {
    		/* rebuild the graph */
    		memset(nodes, 0, sizeof(nodes));
    		forall(j, n_names) store_edge(names + j);
    
    		/* make a chain from node i */
    		chain *c = make_chain(i);
    		if (c->len > best) {
    			show_chain(c);
    			best = c->len;
    		}
    		free(c);
    	}
    
    	printf("longest found: %dn", best);
    	return 0;
    }
    

    output

    read 646 names
    307: voltorb breloom magikarp palpito...
    308: voltorb bayleef forretress swinub b...
    310: voltorb bayleef forretress sw...
    312: voltorb breloom mandibuzz zek...
    320: voltorb beldum mandibuzz zekrom m...
    322: voltorb beldum mandibuzz zekrom murk...
    323: voltorb breloom mandibuzz zekr...
    longest found: 323
    

    C#[edit]

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Text;
    
    namespace ConsoleApplication1
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                string pokemon_names = @"audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask";
    
                string[] pokemon = pokemon_names.Split(new char[]{' ','n'});
                List<string> chain = new List<string>(pokemon.Length);
    
                for (int i = 0; i < pokemon.Length; i++)
                {
                    swap(ref pokemon[0], ref pokemon[i]);
                    Search( pokemon, chain, 1 );               
                    swap(ref pokemon[0], ref pokemon[i]);
                }
    
                foreach (string s in chain)
                    Console.WriteLine(s);
    
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
    
            static void Search(string[] pokemon, List<string> longest_chain, int len )
            {
                if (len > longest_chain.Count)
                {
                    longest_chain.Clear();
                    for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
                        longest_chain.Add(pokemon[i]);
                }
    
                char lastchar = pokemon[len - 1][pokemon[len-1].Length - 1];
                for (int i = len; i < pokemon.Length; i++)
                {
                    if (pokemon[i][0] == lastchar)
                    {
                        swap(ref pokemon[i], ref pokemon[len]);
                        Search(pokemon, longest_chain, len + 1);
                        swap(ref pokemon[i], ref pokemon[len]);
                    }
                }
            }
    
            static void swap(ref string s1, ref string s2)
            {
                string tmp = s1;
                s1 = s2;
                s2 = tmp;
            }
        }
    }
    
    machamp
    petilil
    landorus
    sableye
    emboar
    registeel
    loudred
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    simisear
    relicanth
    heatmor
    rufflet
    trapinch
    haxorus
    scrafty
    yamask
    kricketune
    exeggcute
    emolga
    audino

    C++[edit]

    #include <iostream>
    #include <string>
    #include <vector>
    
    struct last_letter_first_letter {
        size_t max_path_length = 0;
        size_t max_path_length_count = 0;
        std::vector<std::string> max_path_example;
    
        void search(std::vector<std::string>& names, size_t offset) {
            if (offset > max_path_length) {
                max_path_length = offset;
                max_path_length_count = 1;
                max_path_example.assign(names.begin(), names.begin() + offset);
            } else if (offset == max_path_length) {
                ++max_path_length_count;
            }
            char last_letter = names[offset - 1].back();
            for (size_t i = offset, n = names.size(); i < n; ++i) {
                if (names[i][0] == last_letter) {
                    names[i].swap(names[offset]);
                    search(names, offset + 1);
                    names[i].swap(names[offset]);
                }
            }
        }
    
        void find_longest_chain(std::vector<std::string>& names) {
            max_path_length = 0;
            max_path_length_count = 0;
            max_path_example.clear();
            for (size_t i = 0, n = names.size(); i < n; ++i) {
                names[i].swap(names[0]);
                search(names, 1);
                names[i].swap(names[0]);
            }
        }
    };
    
    int main() {
        std::vector<std::string> names{"audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette",
            "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon",
            "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar",
            "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin",
            "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent",
            "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba",
            "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone",
            "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu",
            "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
            "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye",
            "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon",
            "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
            "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
            "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"};
        last_letter_first_letter solver;
        solver.find_longest_chain(names);
        std::cout << "Maximum path length: " << solver.max_path_length << 'n';
        std::cout << "Paths of that length: " << solver.max_path_length_count << 'n';
        std::cout << "Example path of that length:n  ";
        for (size_t i = 0, n = solver.max_path_example.size(); i < n; ++i) {
            if (i > 0 && i % 7 == 0)
                std::cout << "n  ";
            else if (i > 0)
                std::cout << ' ';
            std::cout << solver.max_path_example[i];
        }
        std::cout << 'n';
    }
    
    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length:
      machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar
      registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor
      rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute
      emolga audino
    

    Clojure[edit]

    (ns rosetta-code.last-letter-first-letter
      (:require clojure.string))
    
    (defn by-first-letter
      "Returns a map from letters to a set of words that start with that letter"
      [words]
      (into {} (map (fn [[k v]]
                      [k (set v)]))
            (group-by first words)))
    
    (defn longest-path-from
      "Find a longest path starting at word, using only words-by-first-letter for successive words.
      Returns a pair of [length list-of-words] to describe the path."
      [word words-by-first-letter]
      (let [words-without-word (update words-by-first-letter (first word)
                                       disj word)
            next-words (words-without-word (last word))]
        (if (empty? next-words)
          [1 [word]]
          (let [sub-paths (map #(longest-path-from % words-without-word) next-words)
                [length words-of-path] (apply max-key first sub-paths)]
            [(inc length) (cons word words-of-path)]))))
    
    (defn longest-word-chain
      "Find a longest path among the words in word-list, by performing a longest path search
      starting at each word in the list."
      [word-list]
      (let [words-by-letter (by-first-letter word-list)]
        (apply max-key first
               (pmap #(longest-path-from % words-by-letter)
                     word-list))))
    
    (defn word-list-from-file [file-name]
      (let [contents (slurp file-name)
            words (clojure.string/split contents #"[ n]")]
        (filter #(not (empty? %)) words)))
    
    (time (longest-word-chain (word-list-from-file "pokemon.txt")))
    

    Evaluating the last line:

    "Elapsed time: 2867.337816 msecs"
    [23
     ("machamp"
      "pinsir"
      "relicanth"
      "heatmor"
      "registeel"
      "landorus"
      "seaking"
      "girafarig"
      "gabite"
      "exeggcute"
      "emboar"
      "rufflet"
      "trapinch"
      "haxorus"
      "simisear"
      "remoraid"
      "darmanitan"
      "nosepass"
      "scrafty"
      "yamask"
      "kricketune"
      "emolga"
      "audino")]
    

    It initially ran in about 5 seconds, then I changed map to pmap (parallel map) in longest-word-chain.
    This gave a nice speedup for a dual core laptop; the speedup for parallel searches was over 3x on a server.

    Common Lisp[edit]

    Pretty brute force here. Takes a couple of seconds to run.

    ;;; return all the words that start with an initial letter
    
    (defun filter-with-init (words init)
      (remove-if-not (lambda (word) (eql init (aref word 0))) words))
    
    ;;; produce a hash table whose key is the initial letter of a word and whose value is
    ;;; a list of the words that start with that initial letter
    
    (defun group-by-first-letter (words)
      (let ((map_letters (make-hash-table))
            (inits (remove-duplicates (mapcar (lambda (word) (aref word 0)) words))))
        (dolist (init inits map_letters)
          (setf (gethash init map_letters) (filter-with-init words init)))
        ))
    
    ;;; Get the last letter in a word or array
    
    (defun last-element (array) (aref array (- (length array) 1)))
    
    ;;; Produce a hash table whose key is a word and whose value is a list of the
    ;;; words that can follow that word
    
    (defun get-followers (words)
      (let ((map-word-to-followers (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
            (init_hash (group-by-first-letter words)))
        (dolist (word words map-word-to-followers)
          (setf
           (gethash word map-word-to-followers)
           (gethash (last-element word) init_hash)))))
    
    ;;; Retrieve all the keys from a hash table
    
    (defun keys (hashtbl)
      (let ((allkeys ()))
        (maphash #'(lambda (key val) (setf allkeys (cons key allkeys))) hashtbl)
        allkeys))
    
    ;;; Find the words which can follow a word and haven't been used yet.  The parameters are:
    ;;;    word - word being tested
    ;;;    followers - the hash table returned from get-followers
    ;;;    available - hash table with word as key and boolean indicating whether that word
    ;;;                has been used previously as value
    
    (defun get-available-followers (word followers available)
      (if (null word)
          (keys followers)
          (remove-if-not #'(lambda (word) (gethash word available)) (gethash word followers))))
    
    ;;; Find the best in a list using an arbitrary test
    
    (defun best (lst test)
      (let ((top (car lst)))
        (do
            ((rest (cdr lst) (cdr rest)))
            ((null rest) top)
          (if (funcall test (car rest) top) (setf top (car rest))))))
    
    ;;; Find the best path in a list
    
    (defun best-list-path (paths)
      (best paths #'(lambda (path1 path2) (> (length path1) (length path2)))))
    
    ;;; Find the best path given all the supporting information we need
    
    (defun best-path-from-available (word followers available depth path available-followers)
      (let ((results
             (mapcar #'(lambda (new-word)
                       (dfs-recurse new-word followers available (+ 1 depth) (cons word path)))
               available-followers)))
        (best-list-path results)))
    
    ;;; Recurse to find the best available path - the meat of the algorithm
    
    (defun dfs-recurse (word followers available depth path)
      (let ((ret))
        ; Mark the word as unavailable
        (setf (gethash word available) nil)
        
        ; Find the longest path starting with word
        (let ((available-followers (get-available-followers word followers available)))
            (setf ret
             (if (null available-followers)
                 (cons word path)
               (best-path-from-available word followers available depth path available-followers))))
          
        ; Mark the word as available again
        (setf (gethash word available) t)
        
        ; Return our longest path
        ret))
    
    ;;; Create the availability table
    
    (defun make-available-table (words)
      (let
          ((available (make-hash-table)))
        (dolist (word words available) (setf (gethash word available) t))))
    
    ;;; Find the best path for a set of words
    
    (defun best-path (words)
      (let
          ((followers (get-followers words))
           (available (make-available-table words)))
        (cdr (reverse (dfs-recurse nil followers available 0 nil)))))
    
    ;;; set up the words as a set of strings
    (setf *words* (mapcar #'symbol-name
    '(audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask)))
    
    (setf *path* (best-path *words*))
    

    Output:

    ("MACHAMP" "PETILIL" "LANDORUS" "SCRAFTY" "YAMASK" "KRICKETUNE" "EMBOAR" "REGISTEEL"
     "LOUDRED" "DARMANITAN" "NOSEPASS" "SIMISEAR" "RELICANTH" "HEATMOR" "RUFFLET"
     "TRAPINCH" "HAXORUS" "SEAKING" "GIRAFARIG" "GABITE" "EXEGGCUTE" "EMOLGA" "AUDINO")
    

    D[edit]

    Simple Version[edit]

    Modified from the Go version:

    import std.stdio, std.algorithm, std.string;
    
    void trySwap(string[] items, ref string item, in size_t len, ref string[] longest)
    pure nothrow @safe {
        swap(items[len], item);
        search(items, len + 1, longest);
        swap(items[len], item);
    }
    
    void search(string[] items, in size_t len, ref string[] longest)
    pure nothrow @safe {
        if (len > longest.length)
            longest = items[0 .. len].dup;
        immutable lastChar = items[len - 1][$ - 1];
        foreach (ref item; items[len .. $])
            if (item[0] == lastChar)
                trySwap(items, item, len, longest);
    }
    
    void main() @safe {
        auto pokemon = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary
    bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
    emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor
    heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus
    ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass
    petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede
    scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
    tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
    whismur wingull yamask".split;
    
        string[] solution;
        foreach (ref name; pokemon)
            trySwap(pokemon, name, 0, solution);
    
        writefln("%-(%sn%)", solution);
    }
    

    Output:

    machamp
    petilil
    landorus
    scrafty
    yamask
    kricketune
    emboar
    registeel
    loudred
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    simisear
    relicanth
    heatmor
    rufflet
    trapinch
    haxorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    exeggcute
    emolga
    audino

    The run-time is about 0.9 seconds with the dmd compiler and about 0.55 seconds with the ldc2 compiler.

    Improved Version[edit]

    With two small changes the code gets faster. Here the names are represented as in C (so swapping them means just swapping a pointer, instead of swapping a pointer+length as before), and during the computation their last char is swapped with their second char (so there’s no need to keep the string lengths around or use strlen).

    import std.stdio, std.algorithm, std.string, std.array, std.conv;
    
    void search(immutable(char)*[] items, in int len,
                ref immutable(char)*[] longest) pure {
        if (len > longest.length)
            longest = items[0 .. len].dup;
        immutable lastChar = items[len - 1][1];
        foreach (ref item; items[len .. $])
            if (item[0] == lastChar) {
                swap(items[len], item);
                search(items, len + 1, longest);
                swap(items[len], item);
            }
    }
    
    void main() {
        static immutable(char)* prep(in string s) pure {
            assert(s.length > 1);
            auto sd = s.dup;
            swap(sd[1], sd[$ - 1]);
            return sd.toStringz;
        }
    
         static string unprep(immutable(char)* sd) pure {
            auto ms = sd.to!(char[]);
            swap(ms[1], ms[$ - 1]);
            return ms;
        }
    
        auto pokemon = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary
    bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
    emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor
    heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus
    ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass
    petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede
    scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
    tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
    whismur wingull yamask".split.map!prep.array;
    
        immutable(char)*[] solution;
        foreach (ref name; pokemon) {
            swap(pokemon[0], name);
            search(pokemon, 1, solution);
            swap(pokemon[0], name);
        }
    
        writefln("%-(%sn%)", solution.map!unprep);
    }
    

    This leads to tight enough code for the foreach loop in the search function:

    LBB0_4:
        movl (%esi), %eax
        movb 19(%esp), %cl
        cmpb %cl, (%eax)
    jne LBB0_6
        movl (%edi,%ebx,4), %ecx
        movl %eax, (%edi,%ebx,4)
        movl %ecx, (%esi)
        movl %edi, 8(%esp)
        movl 48(%esp), %eax
        movl %eax, 4(%esp)
        movl 12(%esp), %eax
        movl %eax, (%esp)
        movl 20(%esp), %eax
        calll __D25last_letter_first_letter26searchFNaAPyaxiKAPyaZv
        subl $12, %esp
        movl (%edi,%ebx,4), %eax
        movl (%esi), %ecx
        movl %ecx, (%edi,%ebx,4)
        movl %eax, (%esi)
    LBB0_6:
        addl $4, %esi
        decl %ebp
        jne LBB0_4
    

    The run-time is about 0.65 seconds with LDC2 compiler. The output is similar.

    Faster Version[edit]

    import std.stdio, std.algorithm, std.string, std.range, std.typecons;
    
    Tuple!(uint, string[]) findLongestChain(in string[] words)
    pure nothrow {
        static struct Pair { string word; bool unused; }
        uint nSolutions;
    
        void search(Pair[][] sequences, in size_t minHead,
                    in string currWord, string[] currentPath,
                    size_t currentPathLen,
                    ref string[] longestPath) nothrow {
            currentPath[currentPathLen] = currWord;
            currentPathLen++;
    
            if (currentPathLen == longestPath.length) {
                nSolutions++;
            }  else if (currentPathLen > longestPath.length) {
                nSolutions = 1;
                longestPath = currentPath[0 .. currentPathLen].dup;
            }
    
            // Recursive search.
            immutable size_t lastCharIndex = currWord[$ - 1] - minHead;
            if (lastCharIndex < sequences.length)
                foreach (ref pair; sequences[lastCharIndex])
                    if (pair.unused) {
                        pair.unused = false;
                        search(sequences, minHead, pair.word, currentPath,
                               currentPathLen, longestPath);
                        pair.unused = true;
                    }
        }
    
        if (words.empty)
            typeof(return)(0, null);
        immutable heads = words.map!q{ a[0] }.array;
        immutable size_t minHead = reduce!min(heads[0],
                                              heads[1.. $].representation);
        immutable size_t maxHead = reduce!max(heads[0],
                                              heads[1.. $].representation);
    
        auto sequences = new Pair[][](maxHead - minHead + 1, 0);
        foreach (const word; words)
            sequences[word[0] - minHead] ~= Pair(word, true);
    
        auto currentPath = new string[words.length];
        string[] longestPath;
    
        // Try each item as possible start.
        foreach (seq; sequences)
            foreach (ref pair; seq) {
                pair.unused = false;
                search(sequences, minHead, pair.word,
                       currentPath, 0, longestPath);
                pair.unused = true;
           }
    
        return typeof(return)(nSolutions, longestPath);
    }
    
    
    void main() {
        auto pokemon = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary
    bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
    emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor
    heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus
    ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass
    petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede
    scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
    tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
    whismur wingull yamask".toLower.split;
    
        // Remove duplicates.
        pokemon.length -= pokemon.sort().uniq.copy(pokemon).length;
    
        const sol = pokemon.findLongestChain;
        writeln("Maximum path length: ", sol[1].length);
        writeln("Paths of that length: ", sol[0]);
        writeln("Example path of that length:");
        writefln("%(  %-(%s %)n%)", sol[1].chunks(7));
    }
    
    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length:
      machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar
      registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor
      rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute
      emolga audino

    Runtime: about 0.20 seconds with dmd compiler, about 0.15 seconds with ldc2 compiler.

    Alternative Version[edit]

    Translation of: PicoLisp

    import std.stdio, std.algorithm, std.array, std.typecons,
           std.container, std.range;
    
    auto findChain(in string[] seq) pure nothrow /*@safe*/ {
        const adj = seq
                    .map!(item => tuple(item, seq
                                              .filter!(x => x[0] == item[$ - 1])
                                              .array))
                    .assocArray;
        SList!string res;
    
        foreach (immutable item; adj.byKey) {
            void inner(in string it, SList!string lst) nothrow {
                lst.insertFront(it);
                if (lst[].walkLength > res[].walkLength)
                    res = lst;
                foreach (immutable x; adj[it])
                    if (!lst[].canFind(x))
                        inner(x, lst);
            }
    
            inner(item, SList!string());
        }
    
        return res.array.retro;
    }
    
    void main() /*@safe*/ {
        "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary
        bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
        emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor
        heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus
        ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
        nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena
        porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye
        scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax
        spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix
        wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask".split.findChain.writeln;
    }
    
    ["machamp", "petilil", "landorus", "scrafty", "yamask", "kricketune", "emboar", "registeel", "loudred", "darmanitan", "nosepass", "simisear", "relicanth", "heatmor", "rufflet", "trapinch", "haxorus", "seaking", "girafarig", "gabite", "exeggcute", "emolga", "audino"]

    Run-time is about 3.1 seconds with ldc2 compiler.

    Delphi[edit]

    Visual implementation, this unit is a VCL Form with a Memo, a Button, a Checkbox, a DataGrid, a DBMemo, a DataSource and a ClientDataSet with tree fields (length integer,count integer,list memo):

    unit Unit1;
    
    interface
    
    uses
      Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
      Dialogs, StdCtrls, DBCtrls, DB, DBClient, Grids, DBGrids, ExtCtrls;
    
    type
      TLastLFirstL = class(TForm)
        Panel1: TPanel;
        Button1: TButton;
        Memo1: TMemo;
        DataSource1: TDataSource;
        ClientDataSet1: TClientDataSet;
        ClientDataSet1Longitud: TIntegerField;
        ClientDataSet1Cantidad: TIntegerField;
        ClientDataSet1Lista: TMemoField;
        Panel2: TPanel;
        DBMemo1: TDBMemo;
        DBGrid1: TDBGrid;
        Splitter1: TSplitter;
        CheckBox1: TCheckBox;
        procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
        procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
        procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
      private
        { Private declarations }
        FPokemons:TStrings; //internal list of words, taken from memo
        FIndex:TStrings; //index of words, based on starting letter
        FCurrList:TStrings; //current list of words being made
        FMax:integer; //max length of list found so far
        FCount:array of array[boolean]of integer; //counting of lists length ocurrences
      protected
        procedure BuildIndex; //build FIndex based on FPokemons contents
        procedure ClearIndex; //empty FIndex
        procedure PokeChain(starting:Char;mylevel:integer); //recursive procedure that builds words lists
        procedure BuildChains; //starts the lists building, by calling PokeChain for every FPokemons
        procedure AddCurrList; //called each time a list is "finished" (no more words to add to it)
      public
        { Public declarations }
      end;
    
    var
      LastLFirstL: TLastLFirstL;
    
    implementation
    
    {$R *.dfm}
    
    { TForm1 }
    
    { if the actual list is the longest found so far it is added to
    the dataset, otherwise its ocurrence is just counted}
    procedure TLastLFirstL.AddCurrList;
    var
      i,cc: integer;
      foundit:boolean;
    begin
      with ClientDataSet1 do begin
        cc := FCurrList.Count;
        if cc <= FMax then begin //count it
          foundit := false;
          for i := 0 to High(FCount) do begin
            foundit := FCount[i][false] = cc;
            if foundit then begin
              FCount[i][true] := FCount[i][true] + 1;
              break;
            end;
          end;
          if not foundit then begin
            //length that we never add to the dataset
            i := High(FCount);
            SetLength(FCount,i+2);
            Inc(i);
            FCount[i][false] := cc;
            FCount[i][true] := 1;
          end;
          exit;
        end;
        //new longest list is FCurrList, add it to the dataset
        FMax := cc;
        SetLength(FCount,High(Fcount)+2); //make room for ocurrence count
        FCount[High(FCount)][false] := cc;
        FCount[High(FCount)][true] := 1;
        //actual dataset adding
        Append;
        Fields[0].AsInteger := cc;
        Fields[1].AsInteger := 0;
        Fields[2].AsString := FCurrList.Text; //first one is example one
        Post;
      end;
    end;
    
    {}
    procedure TLastLFirstL.BuildChains;
    var
      stSeen:array of array[boolean] of char;
      poke:string;
      i:integer;
      tc:int64;
      filteqs:boolean;
      k: Integer;
    begin
      //do some cleaning before starting
      while not ClientDataSet1.IsEmpty do
        ClientDataSet1.Delete;
      Finalize(FCount);
      FMax := 0;
      filteqs := CheckBox1.Checked;
      //measure time
      tc := gettickcount;
      //each word is given the opportunity of starting a list
      if filteqs then begin
        //ignore words with same start and end as others already seen
        filteqs := False;
        for i := 0 to FPokemons.Count - 1 do begin
          poke := FPokemons[i];
          for k := 0 to High(stSeen) do begin
            filteqs := (stSeen[k][false] = poke[1]) and (stSeen[k][true] = poke[length(poke)]);
            if filteqs then
              break;
          end;
          if filteqs then //already seen equivalent
            continue;
          FPokemons.Objects[i] := Pointer(1);
          FCurrList.Clear; //new list of words
          FCurrList.Add(poke);
          PokeChain(poke[length(poke)],2); //continue the list
          //register as seen, for future equivalents
          k := High(stSeen);
          SetLength(stSeen,k+2);
          Inc(k);
          stSeen[k][false] := poke[1];
          stSeen[k][true] := poke[length(poke)];
          FPokemons.Objects[i] := nil;
        end;
        Finalize(stSeen);
      end else begin
        for i := 0 to FPokemons.Count - 1 do begin
          poke := FPokemons[i];
          FPokemons.Objects[i] := Pointer(1);
          FCurrList.Clear; //new list of words
          FCurrList.Add(poke);
          PokeChain(poke[length(poke)],2); //continue the list
          FPokemons.Objects[i] := nil;
        end;
      end;
      tc := gettickcount - tc; //don't consider dataset counting as part of the process
      //set actual counting of ocurrences on the dataset
      for i := 0 to High(FCount) do with ClientDataSet1 do begin
        if Locate('Longitud',FCount[i][false],[]) then
          Edit
        else begin
          Append;
          Fields[0].AsInteger := FCount[i][false];
          Fields[2].AsString := 'No example preserved';
        end;
        Fields[1].AsInteger := FCount[i][true];
        Post;
      end;
      ClientDataSet1.IndexFieldNames := 'Longitud';
      //show time taken
      Panel1.Caption := IntToStr(tc div 1000) + '.' + IntToStr(tc - (tc div 1000) * 1000) + ' segs.';
    end;
    
    { builds an index based on the first letter of every word in consideration,
    because all we care about is the first and the last letter of every word.
    The index is a TStrings where each element is the starting letter and the
    corresponding object is a TList with all the indices of the words that
    starts with that letter. }
    procedure TLastLFirstL.BuildIndex;
    var
      i,ii: Integer;
      poke:string;
      st,ed:char;
      List:TList;
      k: Integer;
      found:boolean;
    begin
      ClearIndex; //just in case is not the first execution
      if not Assigned(FIndex) then // just in case IS the first execution
        FIndex := TStringList.Create;
      for i := 0 to FPokemons.Count - 1 do begin
        poke := FPokemons[i];
        st := poke[1];
        ed := poke[Length(poke)];
        ii := FIndex.IndexOf(st);
        if ii<0 then //first time we see this starting letter
          ii := FIndex.AddObject(st,TList.Create);
        List := TList(FIndex.Objects[ii]);
        found := false;
        if CheckBox1.Checked then begin //ignore equivalent words (same start, same end)
          //all the List are words with the same start, so lets check the end
          for k := 0 to List.Count - 1 do begin
            poke := FPokemons[integer(List[k])];
            found := poke[Length(poke)] = ed;
            if found then
              break;
          end;
        end;
        if not found then // not checking equivalents, or firts time this end is seen
          List.Add(Pointer(i));
      end;
    end;
    
    { do your thing! }
    procedure TLastLFirstL.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
    begin
      Panel1.Caption := 'Calculating..';
      FPokemons.Assign(Memo1.Lines); //words in the game
      BuildIndex;
      BuildChains;
    end;
    
    { frees all the TList used by the index, clears the index }
    procedure TLastLFirstL.ClearIndex;
    var
      i:integer;
    begin
      if not Assigned(FIndex) then
        exit;
      for i := 0 to FIndex.Count - 1 do begin
        TList(FIndex.Objects[i]).Free;
      end;
      FIndex.Clear;
    end;
    
    procedure TLastLFirstL.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
    begin
      FPokemons := TStringList.Create;
      FCurrList := TStringList.Create;
    end;
    
    procedure TLastLFirstL.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
    begin
      FCurrList.Free;
      FPokemons.Free;
      ClearIndex; //IMPORTANT!
      FIndex.Free;
    end;
    
    {where the magic happens.
    Recursive procedure that adds a word to the current list of words.
    Receives the starting letter of the word to add, and the "position"
    of the word in the chain.
    The position is used to ensure a word is not used twice for the list. }
    procedure TLastLFirstL.PokeChain(starting: Char;mylevel:integer);
    var
      i,ii,plevel:integer;
      List:TList;
      didit:boolean;
    begin
      application.processMessages; //don't let the interface die..
      didit := False; //if we can't add another word, then we have reached the maximun length for the list
      ii := FIndex.IndexOf(starting);
      if ii >= 0 then begin //there are words with this starting letter
        List := TList(FIndex.Objects[ii]);
        for i := 0 to List.Count - 1 do begin
          ii := integer(List[i]);
          plevel := integer(FPokemons.Objects[ii]); // if the integer stored in the Object property is lower than mylevel, then this word is already in the list
          if (plevel > mylevel) or (plevel = 0) then begin // you can use the word
            //a try finally would be a good thing here, but...
            FCurrList.Add(FPokemons[ii]); //add the word to the list
            FPokemons.Objects[ii] := Pointer(mylevel); //signal is already in the list
            PokeChain(FPokemons[ii][length(FPokemons[ii])],mylevel+1); //add more words to the list
            FcurrList.Delete(FCurrList.Count-1); //already did my best, lets try with another word
            FPokemons.Objects[ii] := nil; //unsignal it, so it can be used "later"
            didit := True; //we did add one word to the list
          end;
        end;
      end;
      if not didit then //there is no way of making the list longer, process it
        AddCurrList;
    end;
    
    end.
    

    Runtime varies depending if you run the «optimized» version or not. Ranges from 6 to 18 seconds.

    NOTE: «optimized» version is actually a different algorithm, but in most cases returns the same results.

    Elixir[edit]

    Translation of: Ruby

    defmodule LastLetter_FirstLetter do
      def search(names) do
        first = Enum.group_by(names, &String.first/1)
        sequences = Enum.reduce(names, [], fn name,acc -> add_name(first, acc, [name]) end)
        max = Enum.max_by(sequences, &length/1) |> length
        max_seqs = Enum.filter(sequences, fn seq -> length(seq) == max end)
        IO.puts "there are #{length(sequences)} possible sequences"
        IO.puts "the longest is #{max} names long"
        IO.puts "there are #{length(max_seqs)} such sequences. one is:"
        hd(max_seqs) |> Enum.with_index |>
        Enum.each(fn {name, idx} ->
          :io.fwrite "  ~2w ~s~n", [idx+1, name]
        end)
      end
      
      defp add_name(first, sequences, seq) do
        last_letter = String.last(hd(seq))
        potentials = Map.get(first, last_letter, []) -- seq
        if potentials == [] do
          [Enum.reverse(seq) | sequences]
        else
          Enum.reduce(potentials, sequences, fn name, acc -> add_name(first, acc, [name | seq]) end)
        end
      end
    end
    
    names = ~w(
      audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
      cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
      girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
      kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
      nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
      porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
      sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
      tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    )
    
    LastLetter_FirstLetter.search(names)
    
    there are 2076396 possible sequences
    the longest is 23 names long
    there are 1248 such sequences. one is:
       1 machamp
       2 petilil
       3 landorus
       4 scrafty
       5 yamask
       6 kricketune
       7 emboar
       8 registeel
       9 loudred
      10 darmanitan
      11 nosepass
      12 simisear
      13 relicanth
      14 heatmor
      15 rufflet
      16 trapinch
      17 haxorus
      18 seaking
      19 girafarig
      20 gabite
      21 exeggcute
      22 emolga
      23 audino
    

    Erlang[edit]

    This is a parallel version. It takes 2.1 seconds. The (commented out) serial version takes 7.1 seconds. Both times measured on my (low end) Mac Mini. I thought parallel code would help in getting the brownie points. But even a small increase to 100 Pokemons makes the code run for more than the few spare hours I have in the evening.

    -module( last_letter_first_letter ).
    
    -export( [solve/1, task/0] ).
    
    solve( Names ) ->
        Dict = lists:foldl( fun dict_append/2, dict:new(), Names ),
        Chains = construct_chains_in_parallel( Dict ),
    %    Chains = [construct_chain_from_key(Dict, X) || X <- dict:fetch_keys(Dict)],
        lists:foldl( fun construct_chain_longest/2, [], Chains ).
    
    task() -> solve( binary:split(names(), <<" ">>, [global]) ).
    
    
    
    construct_chains_in_parallel( Dict ) ->
        My_pid = erlang:self(),
        Pids = [erlang:spawn( fun() -> My_pid ! {erlang:self(), construct_chain_from_key(Dict, X)} end) || X <- dict:fetch_keys(Dict)],
        [receive {X, Chain} -> Chain end || X <- Pids].
    
    construct_chain_from_key( Dict, First_letter ) ->
    	Names = construct_chain_names( dict:find(First_letter, Dict) ),
    	construct_chain_from_names( Names, Dict, [] ).
    
    construct_chain_from_names( [], _Dict, Best_chain ) -> Best_chain;
    construct_chain_from_names( [{Name, Last_letter} | T], Dict, Best_chain ) ->
            New_dict = dict_delete( Name, Dict ),
            New_chain = [Name | construct_chain_from_key( New_dict, Last_letter )],
    	construct_chain_from_names( T, Dict, construct_chain_longest(Best_chain, New_chain) ).
    
    construct_chain_longest( Chain1, Chain2 ) when length(Chain1) > length(Chain2) -> Chain1;
    construct_chain_longest( _Chain1, Chain2 ) -> Chain2.
    
    construct_chain_names( {ok, {Name, Last_letter}} ) -> [{Name, Last_letter}];
    construct_chain_names(	{ok, Values} ) -> Values;
    construct_chain_names( error ) -> [].
    
    dict_append( Name, Acc ) ->
    	{First_letter, {Name, Last_letter}} = dict_item( Name ),
    	dict:append( First_letter, {Name, Last_letter}, Acc ).
    
    dict_item( <<First_letter, _T/binary>>=Name ) ->
    	Until_last_letter = erlang:byte_size( Name ) - 1, 
    	<<_H:Until_last_letter/binary, Last_letter>> = Name,
    	{First_letter, {Name, Last_letter}}.
    
    dict_delete( <<First_letter, _T/binary>>=Name, Dict ) ->
    	Name_last_letters = dict:fetch(First_letter, Dict),
    	dict:store( First_letter, lists:keydelete(Name, 1, Name_last_letters), Dict ).
    
    names() -> <<"audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask">>.
    
    11> last_letter_first_letter:task().
    [<<"machamp">>,<<"pinsir">>,<<"rufflet">>,<<"trapinch">>,
      <<"heatmor">>,<<"remoraid">>,<<"darmanitan">>,
      <<"nosepass">>,<<"starly">>,<<"yamask">>,<<"kricketune">>,
      <<"exeggcute">>,<<"emboar">>,<<"relicanth">>,<<"haxorus">>,
      <<"simisear">>,<<"registeel">>,<<"landorus">>,<<"seaking">>,
      <<"girafarig">>,<<"gabite">>,<<"emolga">>,<<"audino">>]
    

    Go[edit]

    Depth first, starting with each possible name.

    package main
    
    import (
        "fmt"
        "strings"
    )
    
    var pokemon = `audino bagon baltoy...67 names omitted...`
    
    func main() {
        // split text into slice representing directed graph
        var d []string
        for _, l := range strings.Split(pokemon, "n") {
            d = append(d, strings.Fields(l)...)
        }
        fmt.Println("searching", len(d), "names...")
        // try each name as possible start
        for i := range d {
            d[0], d[i] = d[i], d[0]
            search(d, 1, len(d[0]))
            d[0], d[i] = d[i], d[0]
        }
        fmt.Println("maximum path length:", len(ex))
        fmt.Println("paths of that length:", nMax)
        fmt.Print("example path of that length:")
        for i, n := range ex {
            if i%6 == 0 {
                fmt.Print("n   ")
            }
            fmt.Print(n, " ")
        }
        fmt.Println()
    }
    
    var ex []string
    var nMax int
    
    func search(d []string, i, ncPath int) {
        // tally statistics
        if i == len(ex) {
            nMax++
        } else if i > len(ex) {
            nMax = 1
            ex = append(ex[:0], d[:i]...)
        }
        // recursive search
        lastName := d[i-1]
        lastChar := lastName[len(lastName)-1]
        for j := i; j < len(d); j++ {
            if d[j][0] == lastChar {
                d[i], d[j] = d[j], d[i]
                search(d, i+1, ncPath+1+len(d[i]))
                d[i], d[j] = d[j], d[i]
            }
        }
    }
    

    Output:

    searching 70 names...
    maximum path length: 23
    paths of that length: 1248
    example path of that length:
       machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune 
       emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear 
       relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking 
       girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino 
    

    Haskell[edit]

    Note: This takes ~80 seconds to complete on my machine.

    import Data.List
    import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as B
    
    allPokemon :: [B.ByteString]
    allPokemon = map B.pack $ words 
        "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon 
        cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite 
        girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan 
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine 
        nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 
        porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking 
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko 
        tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
    growChains :: [[B.ByteString]] -> [B.ByteString]
    growChains pcs 
        | nextChainSet == [] = head pcs
        | otherwise = growChains nextChainSet
      where nextChainSet = pcs >>= findLinks
            findLinks pc = map (x -> pc ++ [x]) $ filter (isLink $ last pc) (allPokemon \ pc)
            isLink pl pr = B.last pl == B.head pr
    
    main = mapM_ B.putStrLn $ growChains $ map (x -> [x]) allPokemon
    

    Output:

    machamp
    petilil
    landorus
    scrafty
    yamask
    kricketune
    emboar
    registeel
    loudred
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    simisear
    relicanth
    heatmor
    rufflet
    trapinch
    haxorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    exeggcute
    emolga
    audino

    A simpler version (no ByteString), about 2.4 times slower (GHC -O3), same output:

    import Data.List
    
    allPokemon = words
        "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon 
        cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite 
        girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan 
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine 
        nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 
        porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking 
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko 
        tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
    growChains :: [[String]] -> [String]
    growChains pcs
        | nextChainSet == [] = head pcs
        | otherwise = growChains nextChainSet
      where nextChainSet = pcs >>= findLinks
            findLinks pc = map (x -> pc ++ [x]) $ filter (isLink $ last pc) (allPokemon \ pc)
            isLink pl pr = last pl == head pr
    
    main = mapM_ putStrLn $ growChains $ map (x -> [x]) allPokemon
    

    Icon and Unicon[edit]

    Works in both languages (brute force):

    global words
    
    procedure main()
        words := table()
        every word := genwords(&input) do {
            /words[word[1]] := []
            put(words[word[1]], word)
            }
        bP := []
        every p := getPath(!!words,[]) do if *p > *bP then bP := copy(p)
        write("Longest: ",*bP)
        every writes((!bP||" ")|"n")
    end
    
    procedure getPath(word, p)
        if word == !p then return p
        if /words[word[-1]] then suspend p <- p ||| [word]
        else suspend getPath(!words[word[-1]], p <- p ||| [word])
    end
    
    procedure genwords(f)
        while l := !f do
            l ? while tab(upto(&letters)) do suspend tab(many(&letters))1
    end
    

    Sample run on sample data:

    ->llfl <llfl.in
    Longest: 23
    machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino 
    ->
    

    J[edit]

    Here, we use a brute force breadth-first search. Unless we know ahead of time how long «longest» is, we must try all possibilities to ensure that an unchecked possibility is not longer than a possibility which we have found.

    pokenames=: ;:0 :0-.LF
     audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
     cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
     girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
     kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
     nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
     porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
     sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
     tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    )
    
    seqs=: 3 :0
      links=. <@I. _1 =/&({&>&y) 0  
      next=. ,.i.#links
      while.#next do.
         r=. next
         assert. 1e9>*/8,$r
         next=. (#~ (-: ~.)"1) >;<@(] <@,"1 0 links {::~ {:)"1 r
      end.
      r
    )
    

    The line assert. 1e9>*/8,$r was added to avoid a very bad behavior from microsoft windows which appeared on different arguments, when intermediate results became too large (the machine would have to be rebooted when intermediate results became an order of magnitude larger than the available physical memory). By ensuring that the program would end before consuming that much virtual memory, this behavior from the operating system can be avoided. Note that 9!:21 and/or 9!:33 could also be used to prevent OS instability triggered by requesting too many resources.

    With this procedure we are able to conduct the entire search for this list of names:

    $R=: seqs pokenames
    1248 23
    

    With this data set, we have 1248 sequences of names which have the longest possible length, and those sequences are 23 names long. Here’s one of them:

       >pokenames {~{.R
    machamp   
    petilil   
    landorus  
    scrafty   
    yamask    
    kricketune
    emboar    
    registeel 
    loudred   
    darmanitan
    nosepass  
    simisear  
    relicanth 
    heatmor   
    rufflet   
    trapinch  
    haxorus   
    seaking   
    girafarig 
    gabite    
    exeggcute 
    emolga    
    audino
    

    Java[edit]

    // derived from C
    final class LastLetterFirstLetter {
        static int maxPathLength = 0;
        static int maxPathLengthCount = 0;
        static final StringBuffer maxPathExample = new StringBuffer(500);
    
        static final String[] names = {"audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette",
            "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon",
            "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar",
            "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin",
            "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent",
            "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba",
            "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone",
            "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu",
            "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
            "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye",
            "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon",
            "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
            "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
            "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"};
    
        static void recursive(String[] part, int offset) {
            if (offset > maxPathLength) {
                maxPathLength = offset;
                maxPathLengthCount = 1;
            } else if (offset == maxPathLength) {
                maxPathLengthCount++;
                maxPathExample.setLength(0);
                for (int i = 0; i < offset; i++) {
                    maxPathExample.append((i % 5 == 0 ? "n  " : " "));
                    maxPathExample.append(part[i]);
                }
            }
            final char lastChar = part[offset - 1].charAt(part[offset - 1].length()-1);
            for (int i = offset; i < part.length; i++) {
                if (part[i].charAt(0) == lastChar) {
                    String tmp = names[offset];
                    names[offset] = names[i];
                    names[i] = tmp;
                    recursive(names, offset+1);
                    names[i] = names[offset];
                    names[offset] = tmp;
                }
            }
        }
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            for (int i = 0; i < names.length; i++) {
                String tmp = names[0];
                names[0] = names[i];
                names[i] = tmp;
                recursive(names, 1);
                names[i] = names[0];
                names[0] = tmp;
           }
           System.out.println("maximum path length        : " + maxPathLength);
           System.out.println("paths of that length       : " + maxPathLengthCount);
           System.out.println("example path of that length:" + maxPathExample);
        }
    }
    

    Output:

    maximum path length        : 23
    paths of that length       : 1248
    example path of that length:
      machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor
      remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask
      kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus
      simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig
      gabite emolga audino
    

    JavaScript[edit]

    (Required for the process object)

    /**
     * Find the letter the word ends on
     * @param {string} word
     * @returns {string}
     */
    const endsWith = word => word[word.length - 1];
    
    /**
     * Remove the used elements from the candidate elements
     * @param {Array<string>} words Candidate words
     * @param {Array<string>} used Used words
     * @returns {*}
     */
    const getCandidates = (words, used) => words.filter(e => !used.includes(e));
    
    /**
     * Build a map of letters to words that start with that letter
     * @param {Array<string>} words
     * @returns {Map<string, Array<string>>}
     */
    const buildLookup = words => {
      const lookup = new Map();
      words.forEach(e => {
        const start = e[0];
        lookup.set(start, [...(lookup.get(start) || []), e]);
      });
      return lookup;
    };
    
    
    /**
     * Main function
     * @param {Array<string>} names
     */
    const findPaths = names => {
      const t0 = process.hrtime();
      console.log('Checking:', names.length, 'names');
      const lookup = buildLookup(names);
    
      let maxNum = 0;
      let maxPaths = [];
    
      const parseResult = arr => {
        if (typeof arr[0] === 'object') {
          arr.forEach(el => parseResult(el))
        } else {
          if (arr.length > maxNum) {
            maxNum = arr.length;
            maxPaths = [arr];
          }
          if (arr.length === maxNum) {
            maxPaths.push(arr)
          }
        }
      };
    
      const searchWords = (word, res) => {
        const cs = getCandidates(lookup.get(endsWith(word)) || [], res);
        return cs.length ? cs.map(e => searchWords(e, [...res, e])) : res;
      };
    
      names.forEach(word => {
        const res = searchWords(word, [word]);
        parseResult(res);
      });
    
      const t1 = process.hrtime(t0);
      console.info('Execution time (hr): %ds %dms', t1[0], t1[1] / 1000000);
      console.log('Max Path:', maxNum);
      console.log('Matching Paths:', maxPaths.length);
      console.log('Example Path:', maxPaths[0]);
    
    };
    
    const pokimon = ["audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette",
      "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon",
      "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar",
      "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin",
      "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent",
      "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba",
      "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone",
      "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu",
      "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
      "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye",
      "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon",
      "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
      "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
      "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"];
    
    findPaths(pokimon);
    
    Checking: 70 names
    Execution time (hr): 2s 121.778223ms
    Max Path: 23
    Matching Paths: 1249
    Example Path: [ 
      'machamp',
      'petilil',
      'landorus',
      'scrafty',
      'yamask',
      'kricketune',
      'emboar',
      'registeel',
      'loudred',
      'darmanitan',
      'nosepass',
      'simisear',
      'relicanth',
      'heatmor',
      'rufflet',
      'trapinch',
      'haxorus',
      'seaking',
      'girafarig',
      'gabite',
      'exeggcute',
      'emolga',
      'audino' ]
    

    jq[edit]

    Short and sweet, with a nod to efficiency in the form of a dictionary for lookup of still-available words.

    jq’s «debug» filter is used to illustrate how progress can be monitored.
    It writes to stderr. If your jq does not include «debug», simply remove or comment-out the entire line.

    Utility functions:

    # convert a list of unique words to a dictionary
    def dictionary:
      reduce .[] as $word ({}; .[$word[0:1]] += [$word]) ;
    
    # remove "word" from the input dictionary assuming the key is already there:
    def remove(word):
     .[word[0:1]] -= [word];

    The last-letter/first-letter game:

    # left-right admissibility
    def admissible:
      .[0][-1:] == .[1][0:1];
    
    # input:  [word, dictionary_of_available_words_excluding_word]
    # output: a (possibly empty) stream of admissible values: [next_word, updated_dictionary],
    #         where next_word can follow the given word.
    def next:
      .[0] as $word
       | if $word == null then empty
         else .[1] as $dictionary
         | $word[-1:] as $last
         | (($dictionary[$last] // []) | .[]) as $next
         | [ $next, ($dictionary | remove($next)) ]
         end ;
    
    # Produce an array representing a thread starting at "word":
    # Input: [word, dictionary_of_available_words]
    def thread:
      if .[1] == [] then [ .[0] ]
      else (next // null) as $next
      | [.[0]] + (if $next then ($next | thread) else [] end)
      end ;
    
    # Input: list of words
    # Output: [ maximal_length, maximal_thread]
    def maximal:
      def maximum(start):
        . as $dictionary
        | reduce ( [start, ($dictionary | remove(start))] | thread ) as $thread
            ([0, null];
             ($thread|length) as $l
             | if $l > .[0] then [$l, $thread] else . end );
    
      dictionary as $dictionary
      | reduce .[] as $name
          ( [0,null];
            ($dictionary | maximum($name)) as $ans
    	# If your jq does not include "debug", simply remove or comment-out the following line:
    	| ([$name, $ans[0]] | debug) as $debug
            | if $ans[0] > .[0] then $ans else . end );

    Example:

    def names:
      ["audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", 
           "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", 
           "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", 
           "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", 
           "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", 
           "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", 
           "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", 
           "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", 
           "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", 
           "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", 
           "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", 
           "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", 
           "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", 
           "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask" ] ;
    
    names | maximal

    (scrollable)

    The «DEBUG» lines are included to illustrate how progress can be monitored. They show the maximal length for the indicated initial word.

    $ jq -n -f Last_letter-first_letter.jq
    ["DEBUG:",["audino",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["bagon",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["baltoy",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["banette",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["bidoof",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["braviary",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["bronzor",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["carracosta",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["charmeleon",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["cresselia",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["croagunk",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["darmanitan",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["deino",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["emboar",19]]
    ["DEBUG:",["emolga",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["exeggcute",19]]
    ["DEBUG:",["gabite",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["girafarig",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["gulpin",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["haxorus",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["heatmor",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["heatran",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["ivysaur",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["jellicent",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["jumpluff",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["kangaskhan",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["kricketune",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["landorus",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["ledyba",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["loudred",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["lumineon",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["lunatone",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["machamp",23]]
    ["DEBUG:",["magnezone",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["mamoswine",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["nosepass",19]]
    ["DEBUG:",["petilil",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["pidgeotto",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["pikachu",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["pinsir",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["poliwrath",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["poochyena",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["porygon2",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["porygonz",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["registeel",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["relicanth",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["remoraid",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["rufflet",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["sableye",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["scolipede",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["scrafty",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["seaking",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["sealeo",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["silcoon",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["simisear",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["snivy",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["snorlax",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["spoink",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["starly",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["tirtouga",2]]
    ["DEBUG:",["trapinch",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["treecko",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["tyrogue",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["vigoroth",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["vulpix",1]]
    ["DEBUG:",["wailord",21]]
    ["DEBUG:",["wartortle",20]]
    ["DEBUG:",["whismur",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["wingull",22]]
    ["DEBUG:",["yamask",20]]
    [
      23,
      [
        "machamp",
        "petilil",
        "landorus",
        "scrafty",
        "yamask",
        "kricketune",
        "emboar",
        "registeel",
        "loudred",
        "darmanitan",
        "nosepass",
        "simisear",
        "relicanth",
        "heatmor",
        "rufflet",
        "trapinch",
        "haxorus",
        "seaking",
        "girafarig",
        "gabite",
        "exeggcute",
        "emolga",
        "audino"
      ]
    ]
    

    Julia[edit]

    Works with: Julia version 0.6

    Translation of: Python

    using IterTools.groupby
    
    orderwords(words::Vector) = Dict(w[1][1] => Set(w) for w in groupby(first, words))
    longest(a, b) = ifelse(length(a) > length(b), a, b)
    function linkfirst(byfirst::Dict, sofar::Vector)
        @assert(!isempty(sofar))
        chmatch = sofar[end][end]
        if ! haskey(byfirst, chmatch) return sofar end
        options = setdiff(byfirst[chmatch], sofar)
        if isempty(options)
            return sofar
        else
            alternatives = ( linkfirst(byfirst, vcat(sofar, word)) for word in options )
            mx = reduce(longest, alternatives)
            return mx
        end
    end
    function llfl(words)
        byfirst = orderwords(words)
        alternatives = ( linkfirst(byfirst, [word]) for word in words )
        return reduce(longest, alternatives)
    end
    
    pokemon = String.(unique(split("""
        audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
        cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
        girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
        nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
        porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
        tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
        """)))
    
    l = llfl(pokemon)
    println("Example of longest seq.:n", join(l, ", "))
    println("Max length: ", length(l)
    
    Example of longest seq.:
    machamp, pinsir, relicanth, heatmor, registeel, landorus, starly, yamask, kricketune, emboar, rufflet, trapinch, haxorus, simisear, remoraid, darmanitan, nosepass, seaking, girafarig, gabite, exeggcute, emolga, audino
    Max length: 23

    Kotlin[edit]

    Translation of: Java

    // version 1.1.2
    
    var maxPathLength = 0
    var maxPathLengthCount = 0
    val maxPathExample = StringBuilder(500)
    
    val names = arrayOf(
        "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", 
        "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", 
        "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", 
        "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", 
        "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", 
        "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", 
        "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", 
        "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", 
        "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", 
        "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", 
        "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", 
        "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
        "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
        "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"
    )
    
    fun search(part: Array<String>, offset: Int) {
        if (offset > maxPathLength) {
            maxPathLength = offset
            maxPathLengthCount = 1
        }
        else if (offset == maxPathLength) {
            maxPathLengthCount++
            maxPathExample.setLength(0)
            for (i in 0 until offset) {
                maxPathExample.append(if (i % 5 == 0) "n  " else " ")
                maxPathExample.append(part[i])
            }    
        }
        val lastChar = part[offset - 1].last()
        for (i in offset until part.size) {
            if (part[i][0] == lastChar) {
                val tmp = names[offset]
                names[offset] = names[i]
                names[i] = tmp
                search(names, offset + 1)
                names[i] = names[offset]
                names[offset] = tmp
            }
        }
    }
    
    fun main(args: Array<String>) {
        for (i in 0 until names.size) {
            val tmp = names[0]
            names[0] = names[i]
            names[i] = tmp
            search(names, 1)
            names[i] = names[0]
            names[0] = tmp
        }
        println("Maximum path length         : $maxPathLength")
        println("Paths of that length        : $maxPathLengthCount")
        println("Example path of that length : $maxPathExample")
    }
    
    Maximum path length         : 23
    Paths of that length        : 1248
    Example path of that length : 
      machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor
      remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask
      kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus
      simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig
      gabite emolga audino
    

    Lua[edit]

    In lieu of the poorly-specified extra-credit portion (e.g. are the two Nidoran’s to be considered same or unique?), I chose to expand on the output portion of the core task.

    -- BUILDING:
    pokemon = [[
    audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask]]
    words, inits, succs = {}, {}, {}
    for word in pokemon:gmatch("%S+") do
      table.insert(words, word)
      local ch = word:sub(1,1)
      inits[ch] = inits[ch] or {}
      table.insert(inits[ch], word)
    end
    for _,word in pairs(words) do
      succs[word] = {}
      local ch = word:sub(-1,-1)
      if inits[ch] then
        for _,succ in pairs(inits[ch]) do
          if succ~=word then
            table.insert(succs[word],succ)
          end
        end
      end
    end
    
    -- SEARCHING:
    function expand(list, used, answer)
      local word = list[#list]
      for _,succ in ipairs(succs[word]) do
        if not used[succ] then
          used[succ] = true
          list[#list+1] = succ
          if #list == answer.len then
            local perm = table.concat(list," ")
            answer.perms[perm] = perm
            answer.num = answer.num + 1
          elseif #list > answer.len then
            answer.len = #list
            local perm = table.concat(list," ")
            answer.perms = {[perm] = perm}
            answer.num = 1
          end
          expand(list, used, answer)
          list[#list] = nil
          used[succ] = nil
        end
      end
    end
    answers = {}
    for _,word in ipairs(words) do
      local answer = { word=word, len=0, num=0, perms={} }
      answers[#answers+1] = answer
      expand({word}, {[word]=true}, answer)
    end
    
    -- REPORTING:
    table.sort(answers, function(a,b) return a.len<b.len or (a.len==b.len and a.word<b.word) end)
    print("first word   length   count   example")
    print("----------   ------   -----   -------...")
    for _,answer in pairs(answers) do
      local perm = next(answer.perms) or ""
      print(string.format("%10s   %6d   %5d   %s", answer.word, answer.len, answer.num, perm))
    end
    
    first word   length   count   example
    ----------   ------   -----   -------...
        audino        0       0
        bidoof        0       0
         deino        0       0
      jumpluff        0       0
     pidgeotto        0       0
       pikachu        0       0
      porygon2        0       0
      porygonz        0       0
        sealeo        0       0
       snorlax        0       0
       treecko        0       0
        vulpix        0       0
    carracosta        2       1   carracosta audino
     cresselia        2       1   cresselia audino
        emolga        2       1   emolga audino
        ledyba        2       1   ledyba audino
     poochyena        2       1   poochyena audino
      tirtouga        2       1   tirtouga audino
        emboar       19      96   emboar relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
     exeggcute       19      96   exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
      nosepass       19     192   nosepass snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus simisear relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
         bagon       20     192   bagon nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
       banette       20     192   banette exeggcute emboar relicanth heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
    charmeleon       20     192   charmeleon nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
    darmanitan       20     192   darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
        gabite       20      96   gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
     girafarig       20     480   girafarig gabite emboar registeel landorus spoink kangaskhan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
        gulpin       20     192   gulpin nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune emboar registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
       haxorus       20     288   haxorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel landorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
       heatmor       20     432   heatmor rufflet trapinch heatran nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       heatran       20     192   heatran nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
    kangaskhan       20     192   kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
    kricketune       20      96   kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear registeel landorus scrafty yamask kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
      lumineon       20     192   lumineon nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
      lunatone       20     192   lunatone emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
     magnezone       20     192   magnezone exeggcute emboar registeel landorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
     mamoswine       20     192   mamoswine exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
       sableye       20     192   sableye emboar relicanth heatmor registeel landorus simisear rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
     scolipede       20     192   scolipede exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
       silcoon       20     192   silcoon nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch haxorus scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth heatmor registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
      trapinch       20     576   trapinch heatmor registeel landorus simisear remoraid darmanitan nosepass scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
       tyrogue       20     192   tyrogue emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus seaking girafarig gulpin nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
     wartortle       20     192   wartortle exeggcute emboar registeel landorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
        yamask       20      96   yamask kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus simisear relicanth haxorus spoink kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
        baltoy       21      96   baltoy yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar registeel landorus spoink kricketune emolga audino
      braviary       21      96   braviary yamask kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus spoink kricketune emolga audino
      croagunk       21     288   croagunk kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus simisear relicanth haxorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
     jellicent       21     768   jellicent trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
      landorus       21     192   landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       loudred       21     192   loudred darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear relicanth heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
     poliwrath       21     912   poliwrath heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch haxorus scrafty yamask kricketune emolga audino
     registeel       21     192   registeel landorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
     relicanth       21     240   relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune emolga audino
      remoraid       21     192   remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor registeel landorus scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
       rufflet       21     240   rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emboar registeel landorus simisear relicanth haxorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       scrafty       21      96   scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus spoink kangaskhan nosepass simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
       seaking       21     192   seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass spoink kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
      simisear       21     384   simisear rufflet trapinch haxorus spoink kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
         snivy       21      96   snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel landorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus spoink kangaskhan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
        spoink       21     288   spoink kangaskhan nosepass snivy yamask kricketune emboar relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
        starly       21      96   starly yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar registeel landorus spoink kricketune emolga audino
      vigoroth       21     912   vigoroth haxorus simisear registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
       wailord       21     192   wailord darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear relicanth heatmor registeel landorus snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
       bronzor       22     864   bronzor registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       ivysaur       22     864   ivysaur registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       petilil       22     384   petilil landorus simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
        pinsir       22     864   pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear remoraid darmanitan nosepass snivy yamask kricketune emolga audino
       whismur       22     864   whismur registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino
       wingull       22     384   wingull landorus snivy yamask kricketune emboar rufflet trapinch haxorus simisear relicanth heatmor registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
       machamp       23    1248   machamp petilil landorus simisear relicanth haxorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino

    Mathematica/Wolfram Language[edit]

    longestChain[list_] := 
      NestWhileList[
        Append @@@ 
          Select[DeleteDuplicatesBy[
            Tuples[{#, list}], {#[[1, 1]], #[[2]]} &], ! MemberQ @@ # && 
             StringTake[#[[1, -1]], -1] == StringTake[#[[2]], 1] &] &, 
        List /@ list, # != {} &][[-2, 1]];
    Print[longestChain[{"audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", 
        "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", 
        "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", 
        "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", 
        "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", 
        "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", 
        "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", 
        "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", 
        "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", 
        "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", 
        "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", 
        "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", 
        "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", 
        "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"}]];
    

    Uses the tactic of only checking chains with the same starting and ending values.

    {baltoy, yamask, kangaskhan, nosepass, sableye, emboar, registeel, landorus, scolipede, emolga, audino}

    Nim[edit]

    Using bit sets of indexes. The program runs in 0.5s.

    import tables
    
    const Names = ["audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor",
                   "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino",
                   "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus",
                   "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan",
                   "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone",
                   "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto",
                   "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
                   "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede",
                   "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax",
                   "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth",
                   "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"]
    
    type
      Index = range[0..Names.len-1]
      IndexSet = set[Index]
      Successors = Table[Index, IndexSet]
    
    const All = {Index.low..Index.high}   # All indexes.
    
    
    func initSuccessors(): Successors {.compileTime.} =
      ## Build the mapping from name indexes to set of possible successor indexes.
    
      var names: Table[char, IndexSet]  # Map first char to IndexSet.
      for idx, name in Names:
        names.mgetOrPut(name[0], {}).incl(idx)
      for idx, name in Names:
        result[idx] = names.getOrDefault(name[^1]) - {idx}
    
    # Mapping name index -> set of successor indexes.
    const Succ = initSuccessors()
    
    
    proc search(starts, available: IndexSet): seq[Index] =
      ## Search one of the longest sequence of indexes for given
      ## starting indexes and given available name indexes.
      var maxLen = -1
      for idx in starts * available:
        let list = search(Succ[idx], available - {idx})
        if list.len > maxLen:
          result = idx & list
          maxLen = list.len
    
    
    let list = search(starts = All, available = All)
    echo "Longest lists have length: ", list.len
    echo "One of these lists is:"
    for idx in list: echo Names[idx]
    
    Longest lists have length: 23
    One of these lists is:
    machamp
    petilil
    landorus
    scrafty
    yamask
    kricketune
    emboar
    registeel
    loudred
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    simisear
    relicanth
    heatmor
    rufflet
    trapinch
    haxorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    exeggcute
    emolga
    audino

    ooRexx[edit]

    -- create the searcher and run it
    searcher = .chainsearcher~new
    
    ::class chainsearcher
    ::method init
      expose max searchsize currentlongest
    
      pokemon_names = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon" -
                      "cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite" -
                      "girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan" -
                      "kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine" -
                      "nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2" -
                      "porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking" -
                      "sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko" -
                      "tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
      pokemon = pokemon_names~makearray(" ")
      searchsize = pokemon~items
      currentlongest = 0
      say "searching" searchsize "names..."
      longestchain = .array~new
      -- run the sequence using each possible starting pokemon
      loop i = 1 to pokemon~items
          -- swap the ith name to the front of our list
          self~swap(pokemon, 1, i)
          -- run the chain from here
          self~searchChain(pokemon, longestchain, 2)
          -- swap the name back so we have the list in original form
          self~swap(pokemon, 1, i)
      end
      say "maximum path length:" longestchain~items
      say "paths of that length:" max
      say "example path of that length:"
    
      loop name over longestchain
          say "    "name
      end
    
    ::method swap
      use arg list, a, b
      tmp = list[a]
      list[a] = list[b]
      list[b] = tmp
    
    -- recursive search routine for adding to the chain
    ::method searchChain
      expose max searchsize currentlongest
      use arg pokemon, longestchain, currentchain
    
      -- get the last character
      lastchar = pokemon[currentchain - 1]~right(1)
      -- now we search through all of the permutations of remaining
      -- matches to see if we can find a longer chain
      loop i = currentchain to searchsize
          -- for every candidate name from here, recursively extend the chain.
          if pokemon[i]~left(1) == lastchar then do
              if currentchain == currentLongest then max += 1
              -- have we now gone deeper than the current longest chain?
              else if currentchain > currentLongest then do
                 -- chuck this result and refill with current set
                 longestchain~empty
                 longestchain~appendall(pokemon~section(1, currentchain - 1))
                 longestchain~append(pokemon[i])
                 max = 1
                 currentLongest = currentchain
              end
              -- perform the swap again
              self~swap(pokemon, currentchain, i)
              -- run the chain from here
              self~searchChain(pokemon, longestchain, currentchain + 1)
              -- swap the name back so we have the list in original form
              self~swap(pokemon, currentchain, i)
          end
      end
    
    searching 70 names...
    maximum path length: 23
    paths of that length: 1248
    example path of that length:
        machamp
        petilil
        landorus
        scrafty
        yamask
        kricketune
        emboar
        registeel
        loudred
        darmanitan
        nosepass
        simisear
        relicanth
        heatmor
        rufflet
        trapinch
        haxorus
        seaking
        girafarig
        gabite
        exeggcute
        emolga
        audino
    

    OpenEdge/Progress[edit]

    The following gets the job done, but the time taken (40 minutes) is somewhat worrying when compared to other language solutions. So I am not going after the brownie points just yet…

    DEFINE VARIABLE cpokemon AS CHARACTER INITIAL "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon ~
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite ~
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan ~
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine ~
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 ~
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking ~
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko ~
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask".
    
    DEFINE TEMP-TABLE tt NO-UNDO
       FIELD cname    AS CHARACTER
       FIELD cfirst   AS CHARACTER
       FIELD clast    AS CHARACTER
       FIELD lused    AS LOGICAL
       FIELD ilength  AS INTEGER
       FIELD imax     AS INTEGER
       FIELD cchain   AS CHARACTER
    INDEX ttname   cname
    INDEX ttfirst  cfirst lused
    INDEX ttlast   clast  lused
    .
    
    DEFINE VARIABLE ii AS INTEGER NO-UNDO.
    
    DO  ii = 1 TO NUM-ENTRIES( cpokemon, " " ):
       CREATE tt.
       ASSIGN
          tt.cname    =  ENTRY( ii, cpokemon, " " )
          tt.cfirst   =  SUBSTRING( tt.cname, 1, 1 )
          tt.clast    =  SUBSTRING( tt.cname, LENGTH( tt.cname ), 1 )
          .
    END.
    
    FUNCTION getChain RETURNS INTEGER (
       i_cname     AS CHARACTER,
       i_clast     AS CHARACTER,
       i_ilength   AS INTEGER,
       i_cchain    AS CHARACTER
    ):
       DEFINE BUFFER tt FOR tt.
    
       DEFINE VARIABLE lend_of_chain AS LOGICAL     NO-UNDO INITIAL TRUE.
    
       FOR EACH tt
          WHERE tt.cfirst   =  i_clast
          AND   tt.lused    =  FALSE
          OR    i_clast     =  ""
       :
          lend_of_chain = FALSE.
          tt.lused = TRUE.
          getChain( tt.cname, tt.clast, i_ilength + 1, i_cchain + tt.cname + " " ).
          tt.lused = FALSE.
       END.
       IF lend_of_chain THEN DO:
          FIND tt WHERE tt.cname = ENTRY( 1, i_cchain, " " ).
          IF i_ilength = tt.ilength THEN
             tt.imax = tt.imax + 1.
          ELSE IF i_ilength > tt.ilength THEN
             ASSIGN
                tt.ilength  =  i_ilength
                tt.cchain   =  i_cchain
                tt.imax     =  1
                .
       END.
    
    END FUNCTION. /* getChain */
    
    DEFINE VARIABLE itime      AS INTEGER     NO-UNDO EXTENT 2.
    DEFINE VARIABLE lcontinue  AS LOGICAL     NO-UNDO.
    
    itime[1] = ETIME.
    getChain( "", "", 0, "" ).
    itime[2] = ETIME.
    
    FOR EACH tt BY tt.ilength DESCENDING:
       MESSAGE
          "Maximum path length:"  tt.ilength SKIP
          "Paths of that length:" tt.imax SKIP(1)
          "Example path of that length:" tt.cchain SKIP(1)
          "Time taken:" STRING( INTEGER( ( itime[2] - itime[1] ) / 1000 ), "HH:MM:SS" )
       VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX BUTTONS YES-NO TITLE tt.cname UPDATE lcontinue.
       IF lcontinue = FALSE THEN
          STOP.
    END.
    

    Output:

    ---------------------------
    machamp
    ---------------------------
    Maximum path length: 23 
    Paths of that length: 1248 
    
    Example path of that length: machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino  
    
    Time taken: 00:40:09
    ---------------------------
    Yes   No   
    ---------------------------

    Perl[edit]

    This is rather ‘one liner’ code, not to be used in production.

    The idea is to try all possible variants recursively.

    • First, it creates the map-like structure: first letter → array of (name + last letter).
    • During the cycle it uses @w as stack;
    • @m keeps the longest sequence which is copied from @w;
    • to prevent the words from appearing twice, they are (temporarily) deleted from the structure keeping the value in a stack variable.
    use strict;
    my(%f,@m);
    
    /^(.).*(.)$/,$f{$1}{$_}=$2 for qw(
    audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    );
    
    sub poke {
        our @w;
        my $h = $f{$_[0]};
        for my $word (keys %$h) {
    	my $v = $h->{$word};
    	delete $h->{$word};
    	push @w, $word;
    	@m = @w if @w > @m;
    	poke($v);
    	pop @w;
    	$h->{$word} = $v;
        }
    }
    
    poke($_) for keys %f;
    print @m.": @mn";
    
    23: machamp petilil landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino

    Phix[edit]

    Using simple start-with-same-letter word chains to minimise the number of elements we have to consider:

    with javascript_semantics
    constant words = {"audino","bagon","baltoy","banette","bidoof","braviary","bronzor","carracosta","charmeleon","cresselia","croagunk",
                      "darmanitan","deino","emboar","emolga","exeggcute","gabite","girafarig","gulpin","haxorus","heatmor","heatran",
                      "ivysaur","jellicent","jumpluff","kangaskhan","kricketune","landorus","ledyba","loudred","lumineon","lunatone",
                      "machamp","magnezone","mamoswine","nosepass","petilil","pidgeotto","pikachu","pinsir","poliwrath","poochyena",
                      "porygon2","porygonz","registeel","relicanth","remoraid","rufflet","sableye","scolipede","scrafty","seaking",
                      "sealeo","silcoon","simisear","snivy","snorlax","spoink","starly","tirtouga","trapinch","treecko","tyrogue",
                      "vigoroth","vulpix","wailord","wartortle","whismur","wingull","yamask"}
     
    function word_chains()
        sequence first = repeat(0,256),             -- start of chains for a given letter
                                                    -- first['a']=1, first['b']=2, first['c']=8, etc.
                 snext = repeat(0,length(words))    -- chains of words starting with the same letter
                                                    -- a: snext[1]=0, b: snext[2..7]={3,4,5,6,7,0}, etc.
        for i=1 to length(words) do
            integer ch = words[i][1]
            if first[ch]=0 then
                first[ch] = i
            end if
            for j=i+1 to length(words) do
                if words[j][1]=ch then
                    snext[i] = j
                    exit
                end if
            end for
        end for
        return {first,snext}
    end function
     
    constant {first,snext} = word_chains()
     
    -- maintain words already taken as a linked list:
    integer tstart
    sequence taken = repeat(0,length(words))    -- 0=no, -1=end of chain, +ve=next
     
    -- and keep a copy of the best for later
    integer bstart
    sequence best
    integer maxn = 0, count
     
    procedure find_path(integer ch, last, n)
        integer next = first[ch]
        while next!=0 do
            if taken[next]=0 then
                taken[last] = next
                taken[next] = -1
                find_path(words[next][$],next,n+1)
                taken[last] = -1
                taken[next] = 0
            end if
            next = snext[next]
        end while
        if n>maxn then
            bstart = tstart
            best = deep_copy(taken)
            maxn = n
            count = 1
        elsif n=maxn then
            count += 1
        end if
    end procedure
     
    atom t0=time()
     
    for i=1 to length(words) do
        tstart = i
        taken[i] = -1
        find_path(words[i][$],i,1)
        taken[i] = 0
    end for
     
    printf(1,"Runtime: %2.3f seconds. Max length:%d, found %d of such, one of which is:n",{time()-t0,maxn,count})
    sequence res = {}
    while bstart!=-1 do
        res = append(res,words[bstart])
        bstart = best[bstart]
    end while
    assert(length(res)=maxn)
    printf(1,"%sn",join_by(res,1,10," "))
    
    Runtime: 0.625 seconds. Max length:23, found 1248 of such, one of which is:
    machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan
    nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite
    exeggcute emolga audino
    

    My claim for the extra brownie points, using the list from the Racket entry:

    Runtime: 0.000 seconds. Max length:2, found 9 of such, one of which is:
    Porygon-Z Zubat
    

    Which is quite correct: 9 names begin with ‘Z’, and plenty with ‘T’ but none with ‘t’  ;-)
    Adding a couple of upper(), it found a 302 in a couple of minutes but was still on permutations starting
    with word[1] when I got bored and killed it, quickly calculating at the very least another 4.5 days and
    quite probably not finishing within my lifetime…

    Picat[edit]

    It’s a little faster with the words sorted on decreasing lengths (words2): 9.43s vs 11.742s.

    go =>
      words(Words),
      
      % Words that starts with same letter as <this words>'s last letter.
      Starts = new_map(), 
      foreach(Word in Words)
         S = [ Word2 : Word2 in Words, Word != Word2, Word.last() = Word2.first()],
         Starts.put(Word,S)
      end,
       
      % Sort the words according to lengths in decreasing order.
      Words2 = [W : W=_ in Starts.map_to_list().qsort(sort_len)],
    
      % Start the search
      MaxLen = _,
      Continue := true,
      foreach(Len in 2..Words.len, break(Continue == false))
         if play1(Words2,Starts,Len,_List) then
            MaxLen := Len
         else
            Continue := false
         end
      end,
      println(maxLen=MaxLen),
      
      % And present the result.
      println("nGet some (5) solutions:"),
      get_some_solutions(Words2, Starts, MaxLen,5),  
    
      println("nNnumber of optimal solutions:"),
      NumSols = count_all(play1(Words2,Starts,MaxLen,_List)),
      println(num_sols=NumSols),
      nl.
    
    
    % Check if it's possible to create a list of length Len.
    play1(Words, Starts, Len, LLFL) :-
      LLFL1 = new_list(Len),
      select(LLFL1[1], Words, Rest),
      C = 2,
      while (C <= Len) 
        Among = Starts.get(LLFL1[C-1]),
        Among != [],
        select(Word,Among,Rest2),    
        not membchk(Word,LLFL1[1..C-1]),
        LLFL1[C] := Word,
        Rest := Rest2,
        C := C + 1
      end,
      LLFL = LLFL1.
    
    
    % Print NumSols solutions
    get_some_solutions(Words,Starts,FoundLen,NumSols) =>
      Map = get_global_map(),
      Map.put(count,1),
      play1(Words, Starts, FoundLen, LLFL),
      println(LLFL),
      C = Map.get(count),
      if C < NumSols then Map.put(count,C+1), fail end.  
    
    
    % qsort(List, SortFunction)
    % returns a sorted list according to the sort function SortFunction.
    qsort([],_F)    = [].
    qsort([H|T],F) = qsort([E : E in T, call(F,E,H)], F) 
                     ++ [H] ++
                     qsort([E : E in T, not call(F,E,H)],F).
    
    % Sort according to length
    sort_len((_K1=V1),(_K2=V2)) :-
      V1.len >= V2.len.
    
    words(Words) => 
      Words = 
    [
    "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon",
    "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite",
    "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan",
    "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine",
    "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2",
    "porygonz", "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking",
    "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko",
    "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"
    ].
    maxLen = 23
    
    Get some (5) solutions:
    [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,simisear,relicanth,heatmor,rufflet,trapinch,haxorus,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino]
    [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,simisear,rufflet,trapinch,heatmor,relicanth,haxorus,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino]
    [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,relicanth,haxorus,simisear,rufflet,trapinch,heatmor,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino]
    [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,relicanth,heatmor,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,simisear,rufflet,trapinch,haxorus,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino]
    [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,relicanth,heatmor,rufflet,trapinch,haxorus,simisear,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino]
    
    Nnumber of optimal solutions:
    num_sols = 1248

    PicoLisp[edit]

    (de pokemonChain (File)
       (let Names (make (in File (while (read) (link @))))
          (for Name Names
             (let C (last (chop Name))
                (set Name
                   (filter '((Nm) (pre? C Nm)) Names) ) ) )
          (let Res NIL
             (for Name Names
                (let Lst NIL
                   (recur (Name Lst)
                      (if (or (memq Name Lst) (not (val (push 'Lst Name))))
                         (when (> (length Lst) (length Res))
                            (setq Res Lst) )
                         (mapc recurse (val Name) (circ Lst)) ) ) ) )
             (flip Res) ) ) )

    Test:

    : (pokemonChain "pokemon.list")
    -> (machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred
    darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking
    girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino)
    : (length @)
    -> 23
    

    Prolog[edit]

    Works with SWI-Prolog and module lambda.pl written by Ulrich Neumerkel found there http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/Prolog-inedit/lambda.pl

    :- use_module(library(lambda)).
    
    :- dynamic res/3.
    
    last_first(Len, Nb, L) :-
    	retractall(res(_,_,_)),
    	assert(res(0, 0, [])),
    	% compute all the lists of connected words
    	last_first,
    	res(Len, Nb, L1),
    	% to have only the words
    	maplist(X^Y^(X = [Y, _, _]), L1, L).
    
    % create  the lists of connected words (initiate the first word)
    last_first :-
    	init(L),
    	forall(select(Word, L, L1),
    	       +lance_p([Word | L1])).
    
    % compute all the lists beginning with a word
    % memorize the longest
    lance_p(L) :-
    	p(LF, L),
    	retract(res(Len, Nb, Lst)),
    	length(LF, Len1),
    	(  Len1 > Len
    	->  assert(res(Len1, 1, LF))
    	;   Len1 = Len
    	->  Nb1 is Nb + 1,
    	    assert(res(Len, Nb1, Lst))
    	;   assert(res(Len, Nb, Lst))),
    	fail.
    
    % describe the property of the list of connected words
    p([A | T], [A | L]) :-
    	select(B, L, L1),
    	p0(A,B),
    	T = [B | T1],
    	p([B | T1], [B | L1]).
    
    % a list with one element is valid
    p([_], _).
    
    
    % are words conected ?
    p0([_, _, W], [_, W, _]).
    
    % each word is associated with its first and last letters
    % audino --> [audino, a, o]
    init(L) :-
    
    	L0 = [ audino, bagon, baltoy, banette, bidoof, braviary, bronzor,
    	     carracosta, charmeleon, cresselia, croagunk, darmanitan, deino,
    	     emboar, emolga, exeggcute, gabite, girafarig, gulpin, haxorus,
    	     heatmor, heatran, ivysaur, jellicent, jumpluff, kangaskhan,
    	     kricketune, landorus, ledyba, loudred, lumineon, lunatone,
    	     machamp, magnezone, mamoswine, nosepass, petilil, pidgeotto,
    	     pikachu, pinsir, poliwrath, poochyena, porygon2, porygonz,
    	     registeel, relicanth, remoraid, rufflet, sableye, scolipede,
    	     scrafty, seaking, sealeo, silcoon, simisear, snivy, snorlax,
    	     spoink, starly, tirtouga, trapinch, treecko, tyrogue, vigoroth,
    	     vulpix, wailord, wartortle, whismur, wingull, yamask],
    	maplist(init_, L0, L).
    
    % audino --> [audino, a, o]
    init_(W, [W, F, L]) :-
    	first_letter(W, F),
    	last_letter(W, L).
    
    
    first_letter(A, F) :-
    	atom_chars(A, [F | _]).
    
    last_letter(A, L) :-
    	atom_chars(A, LC),
    	reverse(LC, [L | _]).
    

    Output :

    ?- time(last_first(Len, Nb, L)).
    % 592,161,339 inferences, 125.690 CPU in 128.264 seconds (98% CPU, 4711284 Lips)
    Len = 23,
    Nb = 1248,
    L = [machamp,petilil,landorus,scrafty,yamask,kricketune,emboar,registeel,loudred,darmanitan,nosepass,simisear,relicanth,heatmor,rufflet,trapinch,haxorus,seaking,girafarig,gabite,exeggcute,emolga,audino].
    

    Python[edit]

    from collections import defaultdict
    
    def order_words(words):
        byfirst = defaultdict(set)
        for word in words:
            byfirst[word[0]].add( word )
        #byfirst = dict(byfirst)
        return byfirst
    
    def linkfirst(byfirst, sofar):
        '''
        For all words matching last char of last word in sofar as FIRST char and not in sofar,
        return longest chain as sofar + chain
        '''
    
        assert sofar
        chmatch = sofar[-1][-1]
        options = byfirst[chmatch] - set(sofar)
        #print('  linkfirst options: %r %r' % (chmatch, options))
        if not options:
            return sofar
        else:
            alternatives = ( linkfirst(byfirst, list(sofar) + [word])
                             for word in options )
            mx = max( alternatives, key=len )
            #input('linkfirst: %r' % mx)
            return mx
    
    def llfl(words):
    
        byfirst = order_words(words)
        return max( (linkfirst(byfirst, [word]) for word in words), key=len )
    
    if __name__ == '__main__':
        pokemon = '''audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
    cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
    girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
    kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
    nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
    sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
    tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask'''
        pokemon = pokemon.strip().lower().split()
        pokemon = sorted(set(pokemon))    
        l = llfl(pokemon)
        for i in range(0, len(l), 8): print(' '.join(l[i:i+8]))
        print(len(l))
    
    Sample output
    machamp pinsir relicanth heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass snivy
    yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel landorus simisear rufflet
    trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
    23

    Alternative version[edit]

    Adapted from the D version. This uses Psyco.

    import psyco
    
    nsolutions = 0
    
    def search(sequences, ord_minc, curr_word, current_path,
               current_path_len, longest_path):
        global nsolutions
    
        current_path[current_path_len] = curr_word
        current_path_len += 1
    
        if current_path_len == len(longest_path):
            nsolutions += 1
        elif current_path_len > len(longest_path):
            nsolutions = 1
            longest_path[:] = current_path[:current_path_len]
    
        # recursive search
        last_char_index = ord(curr_word[-1]) - ord_minc
        if last_char_index >= 0 and last_char_index < len(sequences):
            for pair in sequences[last_char_index]:
                if not pair[1]:
                    pair[1] = True
                    search(sequences, ord_minc, pair[0], current_path,
                           current_path_len, longest_path)
                    pair[1] = False
    
    
    def find_longest_chain(words):
        ord_minc = ord(min(word[0] for word in words))
        ord_maxc = ord(max(word[0] for word in words))
        sequences = [[] for _ in xrange(ord_maxc - ord_minc + 1)]
        for word in words:
            sequences[ord(word[0]) - ord_minc].append([word, False])
    
        current_path = [None] * len(words)
        longest_path = []
    
        # try each item as possible start
        for seq in sequences:
            for pair in seq:
                pair[1] = True
                search(sequences, ord_minc, pair[0],
                       current_path, 0, longest_path)
                pair[1] = False
    
        return longest_path
    
    
    def main():
        global nsolutions
    
        pokemon = """audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary
    bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino
    emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor
    heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus
    ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass
    petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
    porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede
    scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly
    tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
    whismur wingull yamask""".lower().split()
    
        # remove duplicates
        pokemon = sorted(set(pokemon))
    
        sol = find_longest_chain(pokemon)
        print "Maximum path length:", len(sol)
        print "Paths of that length:", nsolutions
        print "Example path of that length:"
        for i in xrange(0, len(sol), 7):
            print " ", " ".join(sol[i : i+7])
    
    psyco.full()
    main()
    

    Output:

    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length:
      machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar
      registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor
      rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute
      emolga audino

    Run time: about 0.44 seconds with Psyco and Python 2.6.6.

    Racket[edit]

    This is a naive solution, which works fast enough as is (takes about 5 seconds on an old machine):

    #lang racket
    
    (define names "
      audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
      cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig
      gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
      kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone
      mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena
      porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede
      scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga
      trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull
      yamask")
    
    (struct word (first last string) #:prefab)
    (define words
      (for/list ([str (string-split names)])
        (word (string->symbol (substring str 0 1))
              (string->symbol (substring str (sub1 (string-length str))))
              str)))
    
    (define (find-longest last words)
      (for/fold ([best '()])
                ([w (in-list words)]
                 #:when (or (not last) (eq? last (word-first w))))
        (define long (cons w (find-longest (word-last w) (remq w words))))
        (if (> (length long) (length best)) long best)))
    
    (define longest (find-longest #f words))
    (printf "Longest chain found has ~a words:n  ~an"
            (length longest) (string-join (map word-string longest) " -> "))
    
    Longest chain found has 23 words:
      machamp -> petilil -> landorus -> scrafty -> yamask -> kricketune -> emboar -> registeel -> loudred -> darmanitan -> nosepass -> simisear -> relicanth -> heatmor -> rufflet -> trapinch -> haxorus -> seaking -> girafarig -> gabite -> exeggcute -> emolga -> audino
    

    This is a (probably over-)complex version which tries to construct longest
    chains using three different combination/relinking functions. Not that the
    definiton of `word` is slightly different here.

    #lang racket
    (require "pokemon-names.rkt")
    
    ;;; Some fundamentals... finding the first (henceforth referred to as "a") and last ("z")
    ;;; letters of a word can be computationally intensive... look at symbol->word, and you'll
    ;;; see that when we have to deal with a name like: "Mime Jr.", the last alphabetic letter
    ;;; is not the last character. And the first and last characters (at least) have to be
    ;;; case-normalised so they can be compared with char=? (it's not particulary helpful to
    ;;; map them down to integer character codes; we'll want to see them for debugging).
    (define-struct word (sym char-a char-z) #:prefab)
    
    ;;; names are input as symbols both for ease of comparsion, and because it's easier to type
    (define (symbol->word sym) 
      (let* ((str (symbol->string sym))
             (chrs (string->list str))
             (fst (for/first ((c chrs) #:when (char-alphabetic? c)) (char-downcase c)))
             (lst (for/last ((c chrs) #:when (char-alphabetic? c)) (char-downcase c))))
        (make-word sym fst lst)))
    
    ;;; We're sometimes not interested in debugging a chain of; just in knowing how long it is
    ;;; and what its extreme characters are. This does the trick.
    (define (summarise-chain c)
      (format "(~a.~a.~a)" (word-char-a (first c)) (sub1 (length c)) (word-char-z (last c))))
    
    ;; Test the above (run `raco test last_letter-first_letter-common.rkt`)
    (define-syntax-rule (hash-set-or-remove hsh key val remove-pred?)
      (let ((v val))
        (if (remove-pred? v)
            (hash-remove hsh key)
            (hash-set hsh key v))))
    
    (define-syntax-rule (find-a-in-chain-pool chains a dont-match-sym)
      (for/first ((c chains)
                  (i (in-naturals)) ;; usually need an index for regenerating chains pool
                  ;; a word can only exist in one chain, so this compares chains' identities
                  #:unless (eq? (word-sym (first c)) dont-match-sym)
                  #:when (char=? (word-char-a (first c)) a))
        (cons i c)))
    
    (define-syntax-rule (copy-list-ignoring-indices lst i1 i2)
      (for/list ((idx (in-naturals))
                 (e (in-list lst))
                 #:unless (= idx i1)
                 #:unless (= idx i2))
        e))
    
    ;; Simple ... find a chain that can be put on the end of c... append it, and
    ;; reiterate
    (define (append-ab..bz-chains chain chain-idx chains)
      (let* ((a1.chain-a (find-a-in-chain-pool chains (word-char-z (last chain)) (word-sym (first chain)))))
        (and a1.chain-a
             (let ((a1.chain-idx (first a1.chain-a))
                   (a1.chain-chain (rest a1.chain-a)))
               (cons (append chain a1.chain-chain)
                     (copy-list-ignoring-indices chains chain-idx a1.chain-idx))))))
    
    ;; If chain has an a..a loop in it, then we see if we can take that loop, and
    ;; place it in a longer chain at a point where a is used.
    ;;
    ;; `chain` is the shorter chain containing the loop
    (define (merge-chain-into-chain-accepting-a..a-in-chain chain chain-idx chains)
      ;; for a..a loops in chain, returns a hash from the looped char, to the longest
      ;; found loop
      (define (find-a..a-loops chain)
        (let ((chain-length (length chain)))
          (for*/fold
              ((hsh (hash)))
            ((sub-range-start (in-range chain-length))
             (aa (in-value (word-char-a (list-ref chain sub-range-start))))
             (sub-range-end (in-range sub-range-start chain-length))
             #:when (eq? aa (word-char-z (list-ref chain sub-range-end)))
             (range-length (in-value (add1 (- sub-range-end sub-range-start)))))
            (hash-update
             hsh aa
             (lambda (longest-range)
               (if (and longest-range (> (third longest-range) range-length))
                   longest-range
                   (list sub-range-start sub-range-end range-length)))
             #f))))
      
      (let* ((chain-first-name (word-sym (first chain)))
             (chain-length (length chain))         
             (a..a-list (sort (hash->list (find-a..a-loops chain)) > #:key third)))                       
        (for*/first (((chain2 chain2-idx) (in-parallel (in-list chains) (in-naturals)))
                     #:unless (eq? chain-first-name (word-sym (car chain2)))
                     (chain2-length (in-value (length chain2)))
                     #:when (>= chain2-length chain-length) ; only move the largest a..a-subchain into a larger chain
                     (a..a (in-list a..a-list))
                     ((insertion-point-word insertion-point-idx) (in-parallel (in-list chain2) (in-naturals)))
                     #:when (eq? (car a..a) (word-char-a insertion-point-word)))
          (let* ((new-chain (append (take chain (second a..a)) (drop chain (add1 (third a..a)))))
                 (a..a-chain (take (drop chain (second a..a)) (fourth a..a)))
                 (new-chain2 (append (take chain2 insertion-point-idx) a..a-chain (drop chain2 insertion-point-idx))))
            (let ((new-chains (copy-list-ignoring-indices chains chain-idx chain2-idx)))
              (if (null? new-chain) (cons new-chain2 new-chains)
                  (cons new-chain (cons new-chain2 new-chains))))))))
    
    ;; this is a bit more combinatorially intensive... for all c2, substitute a
    ;; subrange in c2 that is longer than an equivalent subrange in c
    (define (merge-subranges-of-chains-into-chain chain chain-idx chains) 
      (let ((chain-first-name (word-sym (first chain)))
            (chain-length (length chain))
            (chain-first-a (word-char-a (first chain)))
            (chain-last-z (word-char-z (last chain))))
        (for*/first ; try to replace a subrange in c2 with c
            (((chain2 chain2-idx) (in-parallel (in-list chains) (in-naturals)))
             (chain2-length (in-value (length chain2)))
             #:unless (eq? chain-first-name (word-sym (car chain2)))
             (c2-sub-range-start (in-range chain2-length))
             (c2-sub-range-end (in-range c2-sub-range-start
                                         (min chain2-length (+ c2-sub-range-start chain-length))))
             #:unless (and (= c2-sub-range-start 0) (= c2-sub-range-end (sub1 chain2-length)))
             #:when (or (zero? c2-sub-range-start)
                        (eq? (word-char-a (list-ref chain2 c2-sub-range-start))
                             chain-first-a))
             #:when (or (= (sub1 chain2-length) c2-sub-range-end)
                        (eq? (word-char-z (list-ref chain2 c2-sub-range-end))
                             chain-last-z))
             (c2-sub-range-len (in-value (add1 (- c2-sub-range-end c2-sub-range-start))))
             #:when (> chain-length c2-sub-range-len)
             (c2-sub-range (in-value (take (drop chain2 c2-sub-range-start) c2-sub-range-len)))
             (new-c2 (in-value (append (take chain2 c2-sub-range-start)
                                       chain
                                       (drop chain2 (add1 c2-sub-range-end))))))      
          (cons c2-sub-range ; put the subrange back into the chains pool
                (cons new-c2 ; put the modified onto the chains pool
                      (copy-list-ignoring-indices chains chain-idx chain2-idx))))))
    
    (define (longest-chain/constructive names #:known-max (known-max +inf.0))
      (define names-list (map symbol->word names))
      
      (define (link-chains chains)
        (let
            ((new-chains
              (for*/first
                  (((chain chain-idx) (in-parallel (in-list chains) (in-naturals)))
                   (new-chains
                    (in-value
                     (or
                      (append-ab..bz-chains chain chain-idx chains)                                         
                      (merge-chain-into-chain-accepting-a..a-in-chain chain chain-idx chains)
                      (merge-subranges-of-chains-into-chain chain chain-idx chains))))
                   #:when new-chains)
                new-chains)))
          (if new-chains (link-chains new-chains) chains)))
      
      (define (keep-trying
               (run-count 0)
               (linked-chains (link-chains (map list (shuffle names-list))))
               (previous-best null)
               (previous-best-length 0)
               (this-run-best-length #f))
        (let* ((longest-chain (argmax length linked-chains))
               (longest-chain-len (length longest-chain))
               (new-best? (< previous-best-length longest-chain-len))
               (best-length (if new-best? longest-chain-len previous-best-length))
               (best (if new-best? longest-chain previous-best)))
          (when new-best? (newline)
            (displayln (list (map word-sym longest-chain) longest-chain-len))
            (flush-output))
          (if (and new-best? (>= best-length known-max))
              (displayln "terminating: known max reached or exceeded")
              (begin
                (when (zero? (modulo (add1 run-count) 250)) (eprintf ".") (flush-output (current-error-port)))
                (if (= run-count 1000)
                    (keep-trying 0 (link-chains (map list (shuffle names-list))) best best-length 0)
                    (let ((sorted-linked-chains (sort linked-chains #:key length >)))
                      (keep-trying (if new-best? 0 (add1 run-count))
                                   (link-chains
                                    (cons (car sorted-linked-chains)
                                          (map list (shuffle (apply append (cdr sorted-linked-chains))))))
                                   best best-length
                                   (and this-run-best-length
                                        (if new-best? #f
                                            (if (< this-run-best-length longest-chain-len)
                                                (begin (eprintf ">~a" longest-chain-len)
                                                       (flush-output (current-error-port))
                                                       longest-chain-len)
                                                this-run-best-length))))))))))
      (keep-trying))
    
    (time (longest-chain/constructive names-70 #:known-max 23))
    (longest-chain/constructive names-646)
    

    Run with racket -t last_letter-first_letter-randomised.rkt 2>&1, to redirect standard error to
    standard out.

    ((machamp petilil landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth heatran nosepass simisear registeel loudred deino) 15)
    
    ((machamp petilil landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear registeel lunatone emolga audino) 19)
    
    ((machamp petilil landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus snivy yamask kangaskhan nosepass simisear registeel lunatone emolga audino) 22)
    ....>10>17>19....>14>17>20>21....>15>18>21>22....>16>17>22....>15>17>18>21....>19>20....>16>18>20>22....>14>21
    ((machamp petilil landorus seaking girafarig gabite emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus simisear registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emolga audino) 23)
    terminating: known max reached or exceeded
    cpu time: 24077 real time: 24070 gc time: 36

    As an aside… I’ve had this take 40 s; and I’ve had it run in 35 ms. It really is the luck of the draw!

    ((Jellicent Tangrowth Hippopotas Slowking Gyarados Spiritomb Breloom Mandibuzz Zweilous Shellos Stoutland Deoxys Swoobat Togekiss Seedot Toxicroak Krokorok Kabutops Seadra Anorith Heracross Slakoth Haxorus Shelmet Tauros Skiploom Manectric Castform Milotic Chingling Golem Mothim Meganium Metapod Ducklett Tornadus Swellow Whismur Rufflet Taillow Wormadam Medicham Mismagius Snubbull Latias Solosis Sandshrew Woobat Teddiursa Abomasnow Wingull Lapras Seel Lillipup Paras Sandslash Hoppip Prinplup Piplup Petilil Lickilicky Yanmega Abra Ariados Solrock Klink Kingler Relicanth Hariyama Altaria Azumarill Luvdisc Charmander Rotom Maractus Skuntank Kirlia Azelf Farfetch’d Delibird Dratini Illumise Exploud Diglett Torkoal Lampent Turtwig Girafarig Golbat Tepig Grumpig Granbull Larvesta Azurill Loudred Dialga Amoonguss Sigilyph Herdier Rampardos Seaking Golett Timburr Raichu Umbreon Noctowl Latios Sawk Kyurem Miltank Klinklang Gorebyss Slaking Gliscor Rhyhorn Nidorina Alakazam Machamp Pidgeot Trubbish Hitmontop Politoed Dewgong Gardevoir Regigigas Swampert Tympole Electrode Exeggcute Eelektrik Kingdra Accelgor Remoraid Dewott Tentacool Litwick Koffing Gigalith Hypno Octillery Yanma Arcanine Elekid Dusknoir Reshiram Mesprit Tropius Swalot Tranquill Luxray Yamask Kyogre Eevee Electivire Emolga Alomomola Ampharos Spinarak Kricketune Exeggutor Roselia Arbok Krookodile Escavalier Rayquaza Aron Ninetales Serperior Registeel Lileep Patrat Throh Hitmonlee Espeon Nidoqueen Ninjask Kakuna Axew Wigglytuff Frillish Houndour Regice Eelektross Swinub Budew Whiscash Hoothoot Torterra Aipom Mareep Poliwag Grimer Roggenrola Armaldo Omastar Rhyperior Ralts Scolipede Excadrill Luxio Oshawott Togetic Crawdaunt Torchic Cofagrigus Shroomish Houndoom Marill Larvitar Raticate Electrike Ekans Starmie Emboar Regirock Karrablast Tangela Aerodactyl Lairon Nidoran Natu Unfezant Trapinch Horsea Archen Nidoran Nosepass Staravia Ambipom Murkrow Weezing Gothita Absol Lotad Darmanitan Nincada Arceus Spheal Lilligant Tynamo Omanyte Elgyem Mew Watchog Golduck Kabuto Oddish Ho-Oh Heatran Nidoking Golurk Klang Garchomp Porygon-Z Zekrom Meowth Hippowdon Nuzleaf Feraligatr Rapidash Haunter Reuniclus Seviper Raikou Ursaring Glalie Entei Igglybuff Froslass Spearow Wailord Duskull Ludicolo Onix Xatu Unown Numel Landorus Seismitoad Deerling Grovyle Empoleon Nidorino) 283)

    ((Voltorb Beartic Croconaw Wynaut Tangrowth Hippopotas Smoochum Moltres Shuppet Thundurus Slowking Gyarados Spiritomb Breloom Mandibuzz Zweilous Shellos Stoutland Deoxys Swoobat Togekiss Seedot Toxicroak Krokorok Kabutops Snorunt Tirtouga Anorith Heracross Slakoth Haxorus Shelmet Tauros Skiploom Manectric Castform Milotic Chingling Golem Mothim Meganium Metapod Ducklett Tornadus Swellow Whismur Rufflet Taillow Wormadam Medicham Mismagius Snubbull Latias Solosis Sandshrew Woobat Teddiursa Abomasnow Wingull Lapras Seel Lillipup Paras Sandslash Hoppip Prinplup Piplup Probopass Stunfisk Krabby Yanmega Abra Ariados Solrock Klink Kingler Relicanth Hariyama Altaria Azumarill Luvdisc Chatot Tyranitar Rotom Maractus Skuntank Kirlia Azelf Farfetch'd Delibird Dratini Ivysaur Riolu Uxie Electabuzz Zapdos Sawsbuck Kyogre Exploud Diglett Torkoal Lampent Turtwig Girafarig Golbat Tepig Grumpig Granbull Larvesta Azurill Loudred Dialga Amoonguss Sigilyph Herdier Rampardos Seaking Golett Timburr Raichu Umbreon Noctowl Latios Sawk Kyurem Miltank Klinklang Gorebyss Slaking Gigalith Huntail Ledyba Aggron Nidorina Alakazam Machamp Pidgeot Trubbish Hitmontop Politoed Dewgong Gardevoir Regigigas Swampert Tentacruel Lickitung Glameow Whirlipede Electrode Exeggcute Eelektrik Kingdra Accelgor Remoraid Dewott Tentacool Litwick Koffing Gloom Marshtomp Psyduck Kadabra Articuno Octillery Yanma Arcanine Elekid Dusknoir Reshiram Mesprit Tropius Swalot Tranquill Luxray Yamask Kricketot Tyrogue Eevee Electivire Emolga Alomomola Ampharos Sentret Togepi Infernape Exeggutor Roselia Arbok Krookodile Escavalier Rayquaza Aron Ninetales Serperior Registeel Lileep Patrat Throh Honchkrow Wobbuffet Totodile Espeon Nidoqueen Ninjask Kakuna Axew Wigglytuff Frillish Houndour Regice Eelektross Swinub Budew Whiscash Hoothoot Torterra Aipom Mareep Poliwag Grimer Roggenrola Armaldo Omastar Rhyperior Ralts Surskit Tympole Excadrill Lugia Audino Oshawott Togetic Crawdaunt Torchic Cofagrigus Shroomish Houndoom Mudkip Ponyta Archeops Spinarak Kricketune Electrike Ekans Simisear Raticate Emboar Regirock Karrablast Tangela Aerodactyl Liepard Dusclops Spoink Kecleon Nidoran Natu Unfezant Trapinch Horsea Archen Nidoran Nosepass Snover Rattata Ambipom Murkrow Weezing Gothita Absol Lotad Durant Terrakion Nincada Arceus Spheal Lilligant Tynamo Omanyte Elgyem Mew Watchog Golduck Kabuto Oddish Ho-Oh Heatran Nidoking Golurk Klang Garchomp Porygon-Z Zekrom Magikarp Pawniard Deerling Gurdurr Rhydon Nuzleaf Foongus Shellder Rapidash Haunter Reuniclus Seviper Raikou Ursaring Garbodor Roserade Entei Igglybuff Froslass Spearow Wailord Duskull Ludicolo Onix Xatu Unown Numel Landorus Seismitoad Drifblim Machop Palpitoad Darkrai Illumise Empoleon Nidorino) 329)

    Never terminates. The longest chain I have found (so far?) is 333 long:

    ((Voltorb Breloom Medicham Machop Piplup Palpitoad Deerling Golett Turtwig
      Glameow Wingull Lilligant Timburr Registeel Lotad Duskull Latias Serperior
      Reuniclus Spinarak Krokorok Klinklang Golem Mew Whiscash Huntail Lugia Accelgor
      Rattata Aerodactyl Luvdisc Chingling Grumpig Garchomp Prinplup Petilil Loudred
      Ducklett Tornadus Spearow Whimsicott Tangrowth Hoothoot Tentacruel Lampent
      Togekiss Skiploom Marshtomp Patrat Thundurus Solosis Sneasel Lillipup Poliwhirl
      Lapras Sandslash Honchkrow Wobbuffet Torkoal Latios Slaking Gligar Rampardos
      Shellos Sentret Tropius Sigilyph Herdier Remoraid Dusclops Stoutland Drilbur
      Reshiram Misdreavus Slowking Golduck Klink Koffing Gyarados Shuppet Tauros
      Swellow Wynaut Torchic Castform Maractus Spiritomb Bayleef Furret Tangela
      Altaria Aipom Murkrow Wigglytuff Forretress Spheal Lickitung Gigalith Heracross
      Snorunt Totodile Exeggcute Electrode Ekans Solrock Klang Girafarig Gorebyss
      Swalot Trapinch Ho-Oh Hitmontop Porygon-Z Zapdos Shroomish Houndour Relicanth
      Hoppip Poliwrath Houndoom Mareep Poliwag Golurk Kirlia Axew Wormadam Mandibuzz
      Zweilous Swinub Beldum Manectric Cherrim Moltres Staraptor Rayquaza Azurill
      Lairon Nidoqueen Noctowl Leavanny Yamask Kricketune Eevee Escavalier Rufflet
      Torterra Archen Ninjask Kakuna Absol Lunatone Excadrill Ludicolo Octillery
      Yanma Archeops Spoink Kabuto Onix Xatu Unown Nidoran Ninetales Sawsbuck Kyurem
      Magikarp Politoed Dewott Trubbish Hippopotas Seel Linoone Empoleon Nincada
      Amoonguss Swoobat Teddiursa Audino Oshawott Tepig Gloom Metagross Shelmet
      Tentacool Larvesta Ariados Skorupi Illumise Exploud Durant Tynamo Omastar
      Roggenrola Arbok Kricketot Taillow Weezing Grimer Rhyperior Rapidash Haxorus
      Skuntank Kingdra Alomomola Azelf Ferroseed Drifblim Marowak Kingler Roselia
      Azumarill Lanturn Natu Ursaring Golbat Toxicroak Kecleon Numel Landorus
      Samurott Togepi Infernape Electrike Electivire Electabuzz Zekrom Metang
      Galvantula Arceus Seedot Tirtouga Aron Nosepass Seismitoad Dialga Articuno
      Oddish Horsea Alakazam Meganium Marill Liepard Deoxys Smoochum Mudkip Probopass
      Stunfisk Krookodile Elekid Delibird Dratini Igglybuff Foongus Swampert
      Tyranitar Raikou Uxie Eelektross Slakoth Hariyama Abra Anorith Haunter Raichu
      Umbreon Nidorina Aggron Nuzleaf Floatzel Litwick Kyogre Exeggutor Raticate
      Emboar Regirock Kabutops Sandshrew Watchog Gurdurr Roserade Entei Ivysaur
      Regice Emolga Abomasnow Wailord Diglett Tyrogue Espeon Nidoran Nidoking
      Granbull Ledyba Arcanine Elgyem Mothim Mismagius Sawk Kadabra Ampharos Snubbull
      Larvitar Riolu Unfezant Togetic Charizard Dewgong Gothita Ambipom Machamp Paras
      Simisear Ralts Seaking Gliscor Rotom Milotic Cyndaquil Lileep Pawniard
      Dragonair Regigigas Surskit Tranquill Ledian Nidorino Omanyte Eelektrik
      Karrablast Throh Happiny Yanmega Armaldo) 333)

    File: pokemon-names.rkt

    #lang racket
    (provide names-646 names-70)
    (define names-70
      '(audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar
        emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune
        landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir
        poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo
        silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
        whismur wingull yamask))
    ; If this were true, then the 2 would be ignored, which seems a bit wrong; so wordigy the "2" -> "two"
    (define Porygon2 (if #f 'Porygon2 'Porygon-two))
    ; note that Porygon2 is used with a comma in the list below
    (define names-646
      `(Bulbasaur Ivysaur Venusaur Charmander Charmeleon Charizard Squirtle Wartortle Blastoise Caterpie Metapod Butterfree
        Weedle Kakuna Beedrill Pidgey Pidgeotto Pidgeot Rattata Raticate Spearow Fearow Ekans Arbok Pikachu Raichu Sandshrew
        Sandslash Nidoran Nidorina Nidoqueen Nidoran Nidorino Nidoking Clefairy Clefable Vulpix Ninetales Jigglypuff
        Wigglytuff Zubat Golbat Oddish Gloom Vileplume Paras Parasect Venonat Venomoth Diglett Dugtrio Meowth Persian
        Psyduck Golduck Mankey Primeape Growlithe Arcanine Poliwag Poliwhirl Poliwrath Abra Kadabra Alakazam Machop Machoke
        Machamp Bellsprout Weepinbell Victreebel Tentacool Tentacruel Geodude Graveler Golem Ponyta Rapidash Slowpoke
        Slowbro Magnemite Magneton |Farfetch'd| Doduo Dodrio Seel Dewgong Grimer Muk Shellder Cloyster Gastly Haunter Gengar
        Onix Drowzee Hypno Krabby Kingler Voltorb Electrode Exeggcute Exeggutor Cubone Marowak Hitmonlee Hitmonchan
        Lickitung Koffing Weezing Rhyhorn Rhydon Chansey Tangela Kangaskhan Horsea Seadra Goldeen Seaking Staryu Starmie
        |Mr. Mime| Scyther Jynx Electabuzz Magmar Pinsir Tauros Magikarp Gyarados Lapras Ditto Eevee Vaporeon Jolteon
        Flareon Porygon Omanyte Omastar Kabuto Kabutops Aerodactyl Snorlax Articuno Zapdos Moltres Dratini Dragonair
        Dragonite Mewtwo Mew Chikorita Bayleef Meganium Cyndaquil Quilava Typhlosion Totodile Croconaw Feraligatr Sentret
        Furret Hoothoot Noctowl Ledyba Ledian Spinarak Ariados Crobat Chinchou Lanturn Pichu Cleffa Igglybuff Togepi Togetic
        Natu Xatu Mareep Flaaffy Ampharos Bellossom Marill Azumarill Sudowoodo Politoed Hoppip Skiploom Jumpluff Aipom
        Sunkern Sunflora Yanma Wooper Quagsire Espeon Umbreon Murkrow Slowking Misdreavus Unown Wobbuffet Girafarig Pineco
        Forretress Dunsparce Gligar Steelix Snubbull Granbull Qwilfish Scizor Shuckle Heracross Sneasel Teddiursa Ursaring
        Slugma Magcargo Swinub Piloswine Corsola Remoraid Octillery Delibird Mantine Skarmory Houndour Houndoom Kingdra
        Phanpy Donphan ,Porygon2 Stantler Smeargle Tyrogue Hitmontop Smoochum Elekid Magby Miltank Blissey Raikou Entei
        Suicune Larvitar Pupitar Tyranitar Lugia Ho-Oh Celebi Treecko Grovyle Sceptile Torchic Combusken Blaziken Mudkip
        Marshtomp Swampert Poochyena Mightyena Zigzagoon Linoone Wurmple Silcoon Beautifly Cascoon Dustox Lotad Lombre
        Ludicolo Seedot Nuzleaf Shiftry Taillow Swellow Wingull Pelipper Ralts Kirlia Gardevoir Surskit Masquerain Shroomish
        Breloom Slakoth Vigoroth Slaking Nincada Ninjask Shedinja Whismur Loudred Exploud Makuhita Hariyama Azurill Nosepass
        Skitty Delcatty Sableye Mawile Aron Lairon Aggron Meditite Medicham Electrike Manectric Plusle Minun Volbeat Illumise
        Roselia Gulpin Swalot Carvanha Sharpedo Wailmer Wailord Numel Camerupt Torkoal Spoink Grumpig Spinda Trapinch Vibrava
        Flygon Cacnea Cacturne Swablu Altaria Zangoose Seviper Lunatone Solrock Barboach Whiscash Corphish Crawdaunt Baltoy
        Claydol Lileep Cradily Anorith Armaldo Feebas Milotic Castform Kecleon Shuppet Banette Duskull Dusclops Tropius
        Chimecho Absol Wynaut Snorunt Glalie Spheal Sealeo Walrein Clamperl Huntail Gorebyss Relicanth Luvdisc Bagon Shelgon
        Salamence Beldum Metang Metagross Regirock Regice Registeel Latias Latios Kyogre Groudon Rayquaza Jirachi Deoxys
        Turtwig Grotle Torterra Chimchar Monferno Infernape Piplup Prinplup Empoleon Starly Staravia Staraptor Bidoof Bibarel
        Kricketot Kricketune Shinx Luxio Luxray Budew Roserade Cranidos Rampardos Shieldon Bastiodon Burmy Wormadam Mothim
        Combee Vespiquen Pachirisu Buizel Floatzel Cherubi Cherrim Shellos Gastrodon Ambipom Drifloon Drifblim Buneary
        Lopunny Mismagius Honchkrow Glameow Purugly Chingling Stunky Skuntank Bronzor Bronzong Bonsly |Mime Jr.| Happiny
        Chatot Spiritomb Gible Gabite Garchomp Munchlax Riolu Lucario Hippopotas Hippowdon Skorupi Drapion Croagunk Toxicroak
        Carnivine Finneon Lumineon Mantyke Snover Abomasnow Weavile Magnezone Lickilicky Rhyperior Tangrowth Electivire
        Magmortar Togekiss Yanmega Leafeon Glaceon Gliscor Mamoswine Porygon-Z Gallade Probopass Dusknoir Froslass Rotom Uxie
        Mesprit Azelf Dialga Palkia Heatran Regigigas Giratina Cresselia Phione Manaphy Darkrai Shaymin Arceus Victini Snivy
        Servine Serperior Tepig Pignite Emboar Oshawott Dewott Samurott Patrat Watchog Lillipup Herdier Stoutland Purrloin
        Liepard Pansage Simisage Pansear Simisear Panpour Simipour Munna Musharna Pidove Tranquill Unfezant Blitzle Zebstrika
        Roggenrola Boldore Gigalith Woobat Swoobat Drilbur Excadrill Audino Timburr Gurdurr Conkeldurr Tympole Palpitoad
        Seismitoad Throh Sawk Sewaddle Swadloon Leavanny Venipede Whirlipede Scolipede Cottonee Whimsicott Petilil Lilligant
        Basculin Sandile Krokorok Krookodile Darumaka Darmanitan Maractus Dwebble Crustle Scraggy Scrafty Sigilyph Yamask
        Cofagrigus Tirtouga Carracosta Archen Archeops Trubbish Garbodor Zorua Zoroark Minccino Cinccino Gothita Gothorita
        Gothitelle Solosis Duosion Reuniclus Ducklett Swanna Vanillite Vanillish Vanilluxe Deerling Sawsbuck Emolga
        Karrablast Escavalier Foongus Amoonguss Frillish Jellicent Alomomola Joltik Galvantula Ferroseed Ferrothorn Klink
        Klang Klinklang Tynamo Eelektrik Eelektross Elgyem Beheeyem Litwick Lampent Chandelure Axew Fraxure Haxorus Cubchoo
        Beartic Cryogonal Shelmet Accelgor Stunfisk Mienfoo Mienshao Druddigon Golett Golurk Pawniard Bisharp Bouffalant
        Rufflet Braviary Vullaby Mandibuzz Heatmor Durant Deino Zweilous Hydreigon Larvesta Volcarona Cobalion Terrakion
        Virizion Tornadus Thundurus Reshiram Zekrom Landorus Kyurem))
    

    Raku[edit]

    (formerly Perl 6)
    A breadth-first search that uses disk files to avoid memory exhaustion. Each candidate sequence is encoded at one character per name, so to avoid reuse of names we merely have to make sure there are no repeat characters in our encoded string. (The encoding starts at ASCII space for the first name, so newline is not among the encoded characters.)

    my @names = <
        audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
        cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
        girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
        kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
        nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
        porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
        sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
        tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    >;
    
    my @last = @names.map: {.substr(*-1,1).ord }
    my @succs = [] xx 128;
    for @names.kv -> $i, $name {
        my $ix = $name.ord; # $name.substr(0,1).ord
        push @succs[$ix], $i;
    }
    
    my $OUT = open "llfl.new", :w orelse .die;
    $OUT.print: chr($_ + 32),"n" for 0 ..^ @names;
    close $OUT;
    my $new = +@names;
    my $len = 1;
    
    while $new {
        say "Length { $len++ }: $new candidates";
        shell 'mv llfl.new llfl.known';
        my $IN = open "llfl.known" orelse .die;
        my $OUT = open "llfl.new", :w orelse .die;
        $new = 0;
    
        loop {
    	my $cand = $IN.get // last;
    	for @succs[@last[$cand.ord - 32]][] -> $i {
    	    my $ic = chr($i + 32);
    	    next if $cand ~~ /$ic/;
    	    $OUT.print: $ic,$cand,"n";
    	    $new++;
    	}
        }
        $IN.close;
        $OUT.close;
    }
    
    my $IN = open "llfl.known" orelse .die;
    my $eg = $IN.lines.pick;
    say "Length of longest: ", $eg.chars;
    say join ' ', $eg.ords.reverse.map: { @names[$_ - 32] }
    
    Length 1: 70 candidates
    Length 2: 172 candidates
    Length 3: 494 candidates
    Length 4: 1288 candidates
    Length 5: 3235 candidates
    Length 6: 7731 candidates
    Length 7: 17628 candidates
    Length 8: 37629 candidates
    Length 9: 75122 candidates
    Length 10: 139091 candidates
    Length 11: 236679 candidates
    Length 12: 367405 candidates
    Length 13: 516210 candidates
    Length 14: 650916 candidates
    Length 15: 733915 candidates
    Length 16: 727566 candidates
    Length 17: 621835 candidates
    Length 18: 446666 candidates
    Length 19: 260862 candidates
    Length 20: 119908 candidates
    Length 21: 40296 candidates
    Length 22: 10112 candidates
    Length 23: 1248 candidates
    Length of longest: 23
    machamp petilil loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor registeel landorus starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino

    REXX[edit]

    Translation of: ooRexx

    brute force version[edit]

    (This program is modeled after the ooRexx version, but with a fixed bug.)

    This REXX version allows a limit on the word scan (very useful for testing and debugging), and

    also has various speed optimizations.

    /*REXX program finds the  longest path of word's   last─letter ───► first─letter.       */
    @='audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan',
      'deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent',
      'jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine',
      'nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth',
      'remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink',
      'starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask'
    #= words(@);        ig= 0;   !.= 0;    @.=       /*nullify array and the longest path.  */
    parse arg limit .;  if limit==''  then #=limit  /*allow user to specify a scan limit.  */
    call build@                                      /*build a stemmed array from the @ list*/
                    do v=#  by -1  for #             /*scrub the @ list for unusable words. */
                    parse var @.v  F  2  ''  -1  L   /*obtain first and last letter of word.*/
                    if !.1.F>1  |  !.9.L>1  then iterate              /*is this a dead word?*/
                    say 'ignoring dead word:'   @.v;      ig= ig + 1;      @= delword(@, v, 1)
                    end   /*v*/                      /*delete dead word from  @ ──┘         */
    $$$=                                             /*nullify the possible longest path.   */
    if ig==0  then do;   call build@;   say;   say 'ignoring'   ig   "dead word"s(ig).;   say
                    end
    MP= 0;  MPL= 0                                   /*the initial   Maximum Path Length.   */
                    do j=1  for #                    /*              ─       ─    ─         */
                    parse  value  @.1 @.j   with   @.j @.1;          call scan $$$, 2
                    parse  value  @.1 @.j   with   @.j @.1
                    end   /*j*/
    g= words($$$)
    say 'Of'    #    "words,"    MP    'path's(MP)    "have the maximum path length of"   g'.'
    say;     say 'One example path of that length is: '     word($$$, 1)
                    do m=2  to g;      say left('', 36)     word($$$, m)
                    end   /**/
    exit 0                                            /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    s:    if arg(1)==1  then return arg(3);    return word( arg(2) 's', 1)   /*a pluralizer.*/
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    build@:     do i=1  for #;     @.i=word(@, i)    /*build a stemmed array from the list. */
                F= left(@.i, 1);   !.1.F= !.1.F + 1  /*F:  1st char; !.1.F=count of 1st char*/
                L=right(@.i, 1);   !.9.L= !.9.L + 1  /*L: last   "   !.9.L=  "    " last  " */
                end   /*i*/;       return
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    scan: procedure expose @. # !. $$$ MP MPL;    parse arg $$$,!;                  p=! - 1
          parse var  @.p  ''  -1  LC                 /*obtain last character of previous @. */
          if !.1.LC==0  then return                  /*is this a  dead─end  word?           */
                                                     /* [↓]  PARSE obtains first char of @.i*/
             do i=!  to #;  parse var  @.i  p  2     /*scan for the longest word path.      */
             if p==LC  then do                       /*is the  first─character ≡ last─char? */
                            if !==MPL  then MP= MP+1 /*bump the  Maximum Paths  Counter.    */
                                       else if !>MPL  then do; $$$=@.1           /*rebuild. */
                                                                 do n=2  for !-2;  $$$=$$$ @.n
                                                                 end   /*n*/
                                                               $$$=$$$   @.i     /*add last.*/
                                                               MP=1;   MPL=!     /*new path.*/
                                                           end
                            parse value  @.! @.i   with   @.i @.!;          call scan $$$, !+1
                            parse value  @.! @.i   with   @.i @.!
                            end
             end    /*i*/;             return        /*exhausted this particular scan.      */
    
    output   when using the default input:
    Of 70 words, 1248 paths have the maximum path length of 23.
    
    One example path of that length is:  machamp
                                         petilil
                                         landorus
                                         scrafty
                                         yamask
                                         kricketune
                                         emboar
                                         registeel
                                         loudred
                                         darmanitan
                                         nosepass
                                         simisear
                                         relicanth
                                         heatmor
                                         rufflet
                                         trapinch
                                         haxorus
                                         seaking
                                         girafarig
                                         gabite
                                         exeggcute
                                         emolga
                                         audino
    

    optimized version[edit]

    This optimized version has two major improvements:

    •   removes dead words (words that cannot be used in a path)
    •   stops scanning when a dead-end word is encountered.

    With the full list of words being used, there are no dead words   (but there are when a limit is used to shorten the list).

    In the   scan   subroutine, a check is made to see if the word being used is a dead-end word, and if so, the rest of

    the recursive scan is aborted and the the next word is scanned.

    The optimized version is around   25%   faster than the brute-force version.

    /*REXX program finds the  longest path of word's   last─letter ───► first─letter.       */
    @='audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan',
      'deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent',
      'jumpluff kangaskhan kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine',
      'nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth',
      'remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink',
      'starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask'
    #= words(@);  @.=;  @s=@.;  ig=0;   og=0;   !.=0 /*nullify array and the longest path.  */
    parse arg limit .;  if limit==''  then #= limit /*allow user to specify a scan limit.  */
    call build@                                      /*build a stemmed array from the @ list*/
                    do v=#  by -1  for #             /*scrub the @ list for unusable words. */
                    parse var @.v  F  2  ''  -1  L   /*obtain first and last letter of word.*/
                    if !.1.F>1  |  !.9.L>1  then iterate             /*is this a dead word? */
                    say 'ignoring dead word:'   @.v;      ig= ig + 1;      @= delword(@, v, 1)
                    end   /*v*/                      /*delete dead word from  @ ──┘         */
    #= words(@)                                      /*recalculate the number of words in @.*/
                    do v=#  by -1  for #             /*scrub the @ list for stoppable words.*/
                    parse var @.v  F  2  ''  -1  L   /*obtain first and last letter of word.*/
                    if !.1.L>0   then iterate        /*is this a stop word?                 */
                    if @.v==''  then  say 'removing stop word:'   @.v
                    og= og + 1;   @= delword(@, v, 1);      @s= @s @.v
                    end   /*v*/                      /*delete dead word from  @ ──┘         */
    
    if og==0  then do;   call build@;   say;   say 'ignoring'   og   "stop word"s(og).
                          say 'stop words: '    @s;             say
                    end
    $$$=                                             /*nullify the possible longest path.   */
    MP= 0;  MPL= 0                                   /*the initial   Maximum Path Length.   */
                    do j=1  for #                    /*              ─       ─    ─         */
                    parse  value  @.1 @.j   with   @.j @.1;          call scan $$$, 2
                    parse  value  @.1 @.j   with   @.j @.1
                    end   /*j*/
    g= words($$$)
    say 'Of'    #    "words,"    MP    'path's(MP)    "have the maximum path length of"   g'.'
    say;   say 'One example path of that length is: '      word($$$, 1)
                    do m=2  to g;      say left('', 36)    word($$$, m)
                    end   /*m*/
    exit                                             /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    s:    if arg(1)==1  then return arg(3);    return word( arg(2) 's', 1)   /*a pluralizer.*/
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    build@:    do i=1  for #;      @.i= word(@, i)   /*build a stemmed array from the list. */
               F=  left(@.i, 1);   !.1.F= !.1.F + 1  /*F:  1st char; !.1.F=count of 1st char*/
               L= right(@.i, 1);   !.9.L= !.9.L + 1  /*L: last   "   !.9.L=  "    " last  " */
               end   /*i*/;        return
    /*──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────*/
    scan: procedure expose @. # !. $$$ MP MPL;   parse arg $$$,!;                    p= ! - 1
          parse var  @.p  ''  -1  LC                 /*obtain last character of previous @. */
          if !.1.LC==0  then return                  /*is this a  dead─end  word?           */
                                                     /* [↓]  PARSE obtains first char of @.i*/
             do i=!  to #;  parse var  @.i  p  2     /*scan for the longest word path.      */
             if p==LC  then do                       /*is the  first─character ≡ last─char? */
                            if !==MPL  then MP= MP+1 /*bump the  Maximum Paths  Counter.    */
                                       else if !>MPL  then do; $$$= @.1          /*rebuild. */
                                                                 do n=2  for !-2;  $$$=$$$ @.n
                                                                 end   /*n*/
                                                               $$$= $$$  @.i     /*add last.*/
                                                               MP=1;   MPL=!     /*new path.*/
                                                           end
                            parse value  @.! @.i   with   @.i @.!;          call scan $$$, !+1
                            parse value  @.! @.i   with   @.i @.!
                            end
             end    /*i*/;             return        /*exhausted this particular scan.      */
    
    output   is the same as the brute force version.

    Ring[edit]

    # Project : Last letter-first letter
    
    ready = []
    names = ["audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", 
                   "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", 
                   "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", 
                   "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", 
                   "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", 
                   "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", 
                   "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", 
                   "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", 
                   "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", 
                   "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", 
                   "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", 
                   "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", 
                   "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", 
                   "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"]
    strbegin = "gabite"
    strdir = "first"
    nr = 1
    add(ready,strbegin)
    see strbegin + nl
    while true
              if strdir = "first"
                 strc = right(strbegin, 1)
                 flag = 1
                 nr = nr + 1
                 if nr <= len(names) 
                    if left(names[nr],1) = strc
                       for n = 1 to len(ready)
                             if names[nr] = ready[n]
                                flag = 0
                             ok
                       next
                       if flag = 1
                          add(ready,names[nr])
                          see names[nr] + nl
                          strbegin = names[nr]
                          nr = 0
                          strdir = "last"
                          loop
                       ok
                    ok
                  ok
              else
                 strc = right(strbegin, 1)
                 flag = 1
                 nr = nr + 1
                 if nr <= len(names)
                    if left(names[nr],1) = strc
                       for n = 1 to len(ready)
                             if names[nr] = ready[n]
                                flag = 0
                             ok
                       next
                       if flag = 1
                          add(ready,names[nr])
                          see names[nr] + nl
                          strbegin = names[nr]
                          nr = 0
                          strdir = "first"
                          loop
                       ok
                    ok
                 ok
              ok
    end

    Output:

    gabite
    emboar
    registeel
    landorus
    sableye
    emolga
    audino
    

    Ruby[edit]

    class LastL_FirstL
      def initialize(names)
        @names = names.dup
        @first = names.group_by {|name| name[0]}
        @sequences = []
      end
      
      def add_name(seq)
        last_letter = seq[-1][-1]
        potentials = @first.include?(last_letter) ? (@first[last_letter] - seq) : []
        if potentials.empty?
          @sequences << seq
        else
          potentials.each {|name| add_name(seq + [name])}
        end
      end
      
      def search
        @names.each {|name| add_name [name]}
        max = @sequences.max_by {|seq| seq.length}.length
        max_seqs = @sequences.select {|seq| seq.length == max}
        puts "there are #{@sequences.length} possible sequences"
        puts "the longest is #{max} names long"
        puts "there are #{max_seqs.length} such sequences. one is:"
        max_seqs.last.each_with_index {|name, idx| puts "  %2d %s" % [idx+1, name]}
      end
    end
    
    names = %w{
      audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
      cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
      girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
      kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
      nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
      porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
      sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
      tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    }
    
    lf = LastL_FirstL.new(names)
    lf.search
    

    outputs

    there are 2076396 possible sequences
    the longest is 23 names long
    there are 1248 such sequences. one is:
       1 machamp
       2 pinsir
       3 rufflet
       4 trapinch
       5 heatmor
       6 remoraid
       7 darmanitan
       8 nosepass
       9 starly
      10 yamask
      11 kricketune
      12 exeggcute
      13 emboar
      14 relicanth
      15 haxorus
      16 simisear
      17 registeel
      18 landorus
      19 seaking
      20 girafarig
      21 gabite
      22 emolga
      23 audino

    Rust[edit]

    Translation of: Kotlin

    /// # Panics
    ///
    /// If string is empty.
    fn first_char(string: &str) -> char {
        string.chars().next().unwrap()
    }
    
    /// # Panics
    ///
    /// If string is empty.
    fn first_and_last_char(string: &str) -> (char, char) {
        (
            first_char(string),
            first_char(string.rmatches(|_: char| true).next().unwrap()),
        )
    }
    
    struct Pokemon {
        name: &'static str,
        first: char,
        last: char,
    }
    
    impl Pokemon {
        fn new(name: &'static str) -> Pokemon {
            let (first, last) = first_and_last_char(name);
            Pokemon { name, first, last }
        }
    }
    
    #[derive(Default)]
    struct App {
        max_path_length: usize,
        max_path_length_count: usize,
        max_path_example: Vec<&'static str>,
        pokemon: Vec<Pokemon>,
    }
    
    impl App {
        fn search(&mut self, offset: usize) {
            if offset > self.max_path_length {
                self.max_path_length = offset;
                self.max_path_length_count = 1;
            } else if offset == self.max_path_length {
                self.max_path_length_count += 1;
                self.max_path_example.clear();
                self.max_path_example.extend(
                    self.pokemon[0..offset]
                        .iter()
                        .map(|Pokemon { name, .. }| *name),
                );
            }
    
            let last_char = self.pokemon[offset - 1].last;
            for i in offset..self.pokemon.len() {
                if self.pokemon[i].first == last_char {
                    self.pokemon.swap(offset, i);
                    self.search(offset + 1);
                    self.pokemon.swap(offset, i);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    
    fn main() {
        let pokemon_names = [
            "audino",
            "bagon",
            "baltoy",
            "banette",
            "bidoof",
            "braviary",
            "bronzor",
            "carracosta",
            "charmeleon",
            "cresselia",
            "croagunk",
            "darmanitan",
            "deino",
            "emboar",
            "emolga",
            "exeggcute",
            "gabite",
            "girafarig",
            "gulpin",
            "haxorus",
            "heatmor",
            "heatran",
            "ivysaur",
            "jellicent",
            "jumpluff",
            "kangaskhan",
            "kricketune",
            "landorus",
            "ledyba",
            "loudred",
            "lumineon",
            "lunatone",
            "machamp",
            "magnezone",
            "mamoswine",
            "nosepass",
            "petilil",
            "pidgeotto",
            "pikachu",
            "pinsir",
            "poliwrath",
            "poochyena",
            "porygon2",
            "porygonz",
            "registeel",
            "relicanth",
            "remoraid",
            "rufflet",
            "sableye",
            "scolipede",
            "scrafty",
            "seaking",
            "sealeo",
            "silcoon",
            "simisear",
            "snivy",
            "snorlax",
            "spoink",
            "starly",
            "tirtouga",
            "trapinch",
            "treecko",
            "tyrogue",
            "vigoroth",
            "vulpix",
            "wailord",
            "wartortle",
            "whismur",
            "wingull",
            "yamask",
        ];
    
        let mut app = App {
            pokemon: pokemon_names
                .iter()
                .map(|name| Pokemon::new(name))
                .collect(),
            ..App::default()
        };
    
        for i in 0..app.pokemon.len() {
            app.pokemon.swap(0, i);
            app.search(1);
            app.pokemon.swap(0, i);
        }
    
        println!("Maximum path length: {}", app.max_path_length);
        println!("Paths of that length: {}", app.max_path_length_count);
        println!(
            "Example path of that length: {}",
            app.max_path_example.join(" "),
        );
    }
    

    Recommend you run as `release` or at least with `opt-level=1`

    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length: machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
    

    Scala[edit]

    Naive[edit]

    object LastLetterFirstLetterNaive extends App {
      def solve(names: Set[String]) = {
        def extend(solutions: List[List[String]]): List[List[String]] = {
          val more = solutions.flatMap{solution =>
            val lastLetter = solution.head takeRight 1
            (names -- solution).filter(_.take(1) equalsIgnoreCase lastLetter).map(_ :: solution)
          }
          if (more.isEmpty) solutions else extend(more)
        }
    
        extend(names.toList.map(List(_))).map(_.reverse)
      }
    
      val names70 = Set("audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask")
    
      val solutions = solve(names70)
      println(s"Maximum path length: ${solutions.head.length}")
      println(s"Paths of that length: ${solutions.size}")
      println("Example path of that length:")
      println(solutions.head.sliding(7,7).map(_.mkString(" ")).map("  "+_).mkString("n"))
    }
    

    Output:

    Maximum path length: 23
    Paths of that length: 1248
    Example path of that length:
      machamp petilil loudred darmanitan nosepass snivy yamask
      kricketune emboar rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus
      simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute
      emolga audino

    With Lookup Table (Faster)[edit]

    object LastLetterFirstLetterLookup extends App {
      def solve(names: Set[String]) = {
        val transitions = {
          val startsWith = names.groupBy(_.take(1).toLowerCase).withDefaultValue(Set.empty)
          names.map{name => name -> startsWith(name.takeRight(1).toLowerCase)}.toMap
        }
    
        def extend(solutions: List[List[String]]): List[List[String]] =
          solutions.flatMap{solution =>
            (transitions(solution.head) -- solution).map(_ :: solution)
          } match {
            case Nil => solutions
            case more => extend(more)
          }
    
        extend(names.toList.map(List(_))).map(_.reverse)
      }
    
      val names70 = Set("audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask")
    
      val solutions = solve(names70)
      println(s"Maximum path length: ${solutions.head.length}")
      println(s"Paths of that length: ${solutions.size}")
      println("Example path of that length:")
      println(solutions.head.sliding(7,7).map(_.mkString(" ")).map("  "+_).mkString("n"))
    }
    

    Parallelised With Lookup Table (Faster)[edit]

    object LastLetterFirstLetterLookupParallel extends App {
      def solve(names: Set[String]) = {
        val transitions = {
          val startsWith = names.groupBy(_.take(1).toLowerCase).withDefaultValue(Set.empty)
          names.map{name => name -> startsWith(name.takeRight(1).toLowerCase)}.toMap
        }
    
        import scala.collection.parallel.immutable.ParSeq
        def extend(solutions: ParSeq[List[String]]): ParSeq[List[String]] =
          solutions.flatMap{solution =>
            (transitions(solution.head) -- solution).map(_ :: solution)
          } match {
            case seq if seq.isEmpty => solutions
            case more => extend(more)
          }
    
        extend(names.toList.map(List(_)).par).map(_.reverse)
      }
    
      val names70 = Set("audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask")
    
      val solutions = solve(names70)
      println(s"Maximum path length: ${solutions.head.length}")
      println(s"Paths of that length: ${solutions.size}")
      println("Example path of that length:")
      println(solutions.head.sliding(7,7).map(_.mkString(" ")).map("  "+_).mkString("n"))
    }
    

    Seed7[edit]

    $ include "seed7_05.s7i";
    
    var integer: maxPathLength is 0;
    var integer: maxPathLengthCount is 0;
    var string: maxPathExample is "";
    
    var array string: names is [] (
        "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor",
        "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino",
        "emboar", "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus",
        "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff", "kangaskhan",
        "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone",
        "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto",
        "pikachu", "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz",
        "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede",
        "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax",
        "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth",
        "vulpix", "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask");
    
    const proc: recursive (in array string: part, in integer: offset) is func
      local
        var integer: index is 0;
        var char: lastChar is ' ';
        var string: tmp is "";
      begin
        if pred(offset) > maxPathLength then
          maxPathLength := pred(offset);
          maxPathLengthCount := 1;
        elsif pred(offset) = maxPathLength then
          incr(maxPathLengthCount);
          maxPathExample := "";
          for index range 1 to pred(offset) do
            if pred(index) rem 5 = 0 then
              maxPathExample &:= "n  ";
            else
              maxPathExample &:= " ";
            end if;
            maxPathExample &:= part[index];
          end for;
        end if;
        lastChar := part[pred(offset)][length(part[pred(offset)])];
        for index range offset to length(part) do
          if part[index][1] = lastChar then
            tmp := names[offset];
            names[offset] := names[index];
            names[index] := tmp;
            recursive(names, succ(offset));
            names[index] := names[offset];
            names[offset] := tmp;
          end if;
        end for;
      end func;
    
    const proc: main is func
      local
        var integer: index is 0;
        var string: tmp is "";
      begin
        for index range 1 to length(names) do
          tmp := names[1];
          names[1] := names[index];
          names[index] := tmp;
          recursive(names, 2);
          names[index] := names[1];
          names[1] := tmp;
        end for;
        writeln("maximum path length:  " <& maxPathLength lpad 4);
        writeln("paths of that length: " <& maxPathLengthCount lpad 4);
        writeln("example path of that length:"  <& maxPathExample);
      end func;

    Output:

    maximum path length:    23
    paths of that length: 1248
    example path of that length:
      machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor
      remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask
      kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus
      simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig
      gabite emolga audino
    

    Sidef[edit]

    Translation of: Perl

    class LLFL(Array words) {
    
        has f = Hash()
    
        method init {
            words.each {|w|
                var m = w.match(/^(.).*(.)$/)
                f{m[0]}{w} = m[1]
            }
        }
    
        method longest_chain {
    
            var stack   = []
            var longest = []
    
            func poke(c) {
                var h = f{c}
    
                h.each_k { |word|
                    var v = h.delete(word)
                    stack.push(word)
                    longest[] = stack[] if (stack.len > longest.len)
                    __FUNC__(v) if f.exists(v)
                    stack.pop
                    h{word} = v
                }
            }
    
            f.each_k { poke(_) }
            return longest
        }
    }
    
    var words = %w(
      audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
      cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
      girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
      kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
      nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
      porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
      sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
      tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask
    )
    
    var obj = LLFL(words)
    var longest = obj.longest_chain()
    
    say "#{longest.len}: #{longest.join(' ')}"
    
    23: machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear rufflet trapinch heatmor relicanth haxorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino
    

    Tcl[edit]

    proc search {path arcs} {
        set solutions {}
        set c [string index [lindex $path end] end]
        set i -1
        foreach arc $arcs {
    	incr i
    	if {[string index $arc 0] ne $c} continue
    	set soln [search [concat $path [list $arc]] [lreplace $arcs $i $i]]
    	lappend solutions [list [llength $soln] $soln]
        }
        if {[llength $solutions]} {
    	return [lindex [lsort -integer -decreasing -index 0 $solutions] 0 1]
        } else {
    	return $path
        }
    }
    proc firstlast names {
        set solutions {}
        set i -1
        foreach initial $names {
    	incr i
    	set soln [search [list $initial] [lreplace $names $i $i]]
    	lappend solutions [list [llength $soln] $soln]
        }
        return [lindex [lsort -integer -decreasing -index 0 $solutions] 0 1]
    }
    
    set names {
        audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
        cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
        girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff
        kangaskhan kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp
        magnezone mamoswine nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath
        poochyena porygon2 porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye
        scolipede scrafty seaking sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink
        starly tirtouga trapinch treecko tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle
        whismur wingull yamask
    }
    set path [firstlast $names]
    puts "Path (length: [llength $path]): $path"
    

    Output:

    Path (length 23): machamp petilil landorus scrafty yamask kricketune emboar registeel loudred darmanitan nosepass simisear relicanth heatmor rufflet trapinch haxorus seaking girafarig gabite exeggcute emolga audino
    

    Ursala[edit]

    #import std
    
    mon = 
    
    ~&*~ sep`  mat`  -[
       audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon
       cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite
       girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan
       kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine
       nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2
       porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking
       sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko
       tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask]-
    
    poke = @iiDrzhK16rlXOASK24PiX ~&llrHiFPrYX^=rxS^|~&iNCS *=+ ~&rlwNrlCQ^*D/~&+ @h
    
    #show+
    
    example = ~&h poke mon

    output:

    machamp
    petilil
    landorus
    scrafty
    yamask
    kricketune
    emboar
    registeel
    loudred
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    simisear
    relicanth
    heatmor
    rufflet
    trapinch
    haxorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    exeggcute
    emolga
    audino
    

    VBScript[edit]

    Translation of: BBC BASIC

    ' Last letter-first letter - VBScript - 11/03/2019
        names = array( _
            "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", _
            "bidoof", "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", _
            "cresselia", "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", _
            "emolga", "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", _
            "haxorus", "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", _
            "jumpluff", "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", _
            "loudred", "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", _
            "mamoswine", "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", _
            "pinsir", "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", _
            "registeel", "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", _
            "scolipede", "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", _
            "simisear", "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga", _
            "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix", _
            "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask")
    
        maxPathLength = 0
        maxPathLengthCount = 0
        maxPathExample = ""
        t1=timer
    
        For i = 0 To ubound(names)
            'swap names(0), names(i)
            temp=names(0): names(0)=names(i): names(i)=temp
            Call lastfirst(names, 1)
            'swap names(0), names(i)
            temp=names(0): names(0)=names(i): names(i)=temp
        Next 'i
        buf = buf & "Maximum length = " & maxPathLength & vbCrLf
        buf = buf & "Number of solutions with that length = " & maxPathLengthCount & vbCrLf
        buf = buf & "One such solution: "  & vbCrLf & maxPathExample & vbCrLf
        t2=timer
        MsgBox buf,,"Last letter-first letter - " & Int(t2-t1) & " sec"
    
    Sub lastfirst(names, offset)
        dim i, l
        If offset > maxPathLength Then
            maxPathLength = offset
            maxPathLengthCount = 1
        ElseIf offset = maxPathLength Then
            maxPathLengthCount = maxPathLengthCount + 1
            maxPathExample = ""
            For i = 0 To offset-1
                maxPathExample = maxPathExample & names(i) & vbCrLf
            Next 'i
        End If
        l = Right(names(offset - 1),1)
        For i = offset To ubound(names)
            If Left(names(i),1) = l Then
                'swap names(i), names(offset)
                temp=names(offset): names(offset)=names(i): names(i)=temp
                Call lastfirst(names, offset+1)
                'swap names(i), names(offset)
                temp=names(offset): names(offset)=names(i): names(i)=temp
            End If
        Next 'i
    End Sub 'lastfirst
    
    Maximum length = 23
    Number of solutions with that length = 1248
    One such solution:
    machamp
    pinsir
    rufflet
    trapinch
    heatmor
    remoraid
    darmanitan
    nosepass
    starly
    yamask
    kricketune
    exeggcute
    emboar
    relicanth
    haxorus
    simisear
    registeel
    landorus
    seaking
    girafarig
    gabite
    emolga
    audino
    

    Duration : 69 sec

    Wren[edit]

    Translation of: Kotlin

    var maxPathLength = 0
    var maxPathLengthCount = 0
    var maxPathExample = ""
    
    var names = [
        "audino", "bagon", "baltoy", "banette", "bidoof",
        "braviary", "bronzor", "carracosta", "charmeleon", "cresselia",
        "croagunk", "darmanitan", "deino", "emboar", "emolga",
        "exeggcute", "gabite", "girafarig", "gulpin", "haxorus",
        "heatmor", "heatran", "ivysaur", "jellicent", "jumpluff",
        "kangaskhan", "kricketune", "landorus", "ledyba", "loudred", 
        "lumineon", "lunatone", "machamp", "magnezone", "mamoswine",
        "nosepass", "petilil", "pidgeotto", "pikachu", "pinsir",
        "poliwrath", "poochyena", "porygon2", "porygonz", "registeel",
        "relicanth", "remoraid", "rufflet", "sableye", "scolipede",
        "scrafty", "seaking", "sealeo", "silcoon", "simisear",
        "snivy", "snorlax", "spoink", "starly", "tirtouga",
        "trapinch", "treecko", "tyrogue", "vigoroth", "vulpix",
        "wailord", "wartortle", "whismur", "wingull", "yamask"
    ]
    
    var search // recursive function
    search = Fn.new { |part, offset|
        if (offset > maxPathLength) {
            maxPathLength = offset
            maxPathLengthCount = 1
        } else if (offset == maxPathLength) {
            maxPathLengthCount = maxPathLengthCount + 1
            maxPathExample = ""
            for (i in 0...offset) {
                maxPathExample = maxPathExample + ((i % 5 == 0) ? "n  " : " ") + part[i]
            }
        }
        var lastChar = part[offset - 1][-1]
        for (i in offset...part.count) {
            if (part[i][0] == lastChar) {
                var tmp = names[offset]
                names[offset] = names[i]
                names[i] = tmp
                search.call(names, offset + 1)
                names[i] = names[offset]
                names[offset] = tmp
            }
        }
    }
    
    for (i in 0...names.count) {
        var tmp = names[0]
        names[0] = names[i]
        names[i] = tmp
        search.call(names, 1)
        names[i] = names[0]
        names[0] = tmp
    }
    System.print("Maximum path length         : %(maxPathLength)")
    System.print("Paths of that length        : %(maxPathLengthCount)")
    System.print("Example path of that length : %(maxPathExample)")
    
    Maximum path length         : 23
    Paths of that length        : 1248
    Example path of that length : 
      machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor
      remoraid darmanitan nosepass starly yamask
      kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus
      simisear registeel landorus seaking girafarig
      gabite emolga audino
    

    Yabasic[edit]

    Translation of: Phix

    all$ = "audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary bronzor carracosta charmeleon "
    all$ = all$ + "cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino emboar emolga exeggcute gabite "
    all$ = all$ + "girafarig gulpin haxorus heatmor heatran ivysaur jellicent jumpluff kangaskhan "
    all$ = all$ + "kricketune landorus ledyba loudred lumineon lunatone machamp magnezone mamoswine "
    all$ = all$ + "nosepass petilil pidgeotto pikachu pinsir poliwrath poochyena porygon2 "
    all$ = all$ + "porygonz registeel relicanth remoraid rufflet sableye scolipede scrafty seaking "
    all$ = all$ + "sealeo silcoon simisear snivy snorlax spoink starly tirtouga trapinch treecko "
    all$ = all$ + "tyrogue vigoroth vulpix wailord wartortle whismur wingull yamask"
    
    dim word$(1)
     
    lnames = token(all$, word$())
    
    dim first(256), snext(lnames)
     
        
    for i = 1 to lnames
        ch = asc(left$(word$(i), 1))
        if first(ch)=0 then
            first(ch) = i
        end if
        for j=i+1 to lnames
            if asc(left$(word$(j), 1))=ch then
                snext(i) = j
                break
            end if
        next
    next
     
    dim taken(lnames), best(lnames)
     
    sub try(ch, last, n)
        local nex, i
        
        nex = first(ch)
        while(nex <> 0)
            if taken(nex)=0 then
                taken(last) = nex
                taken(nex) = -1
                try(asc(right$(word$(nex), 1)),nex,n+1)
                taken(last) = -1
                taken(nex) = 0
            end if
            nex = snext(nex)
        wend
        if n>maxn then
            bstart = tstart
            for i = 1 to lnames
                best(i) = taken(i)
            next
            maxn = n
            count = 1
        elsif n=maxn then
            count = count + 1
        end if
    end sub
     
    for i=1 to lnames
        tstart = i
        taken(i) = -1
        try(asc(right$(word$(i), 1)),i,1)
        taken(i) = 0
    next
    
    print "Runtime: ", peek("millisrunning")/1000, " seconds. Max length: ", maxn, ", found ", count, " of such, one of which is:n"
    do
        print word$(bstart), " ";
        bstart = best(bstart)
        if bstart = -1 break
    loop

    zkl[edit]

    This solution creates a hash table to all the possible word/following words to minimize search times.

    No speed records were approached but 25sec seems fine for a one off walk the entire tree.

    pokemon:=("audino bagon baltoy banette bidoof braviary "
       "bronzor carracosta charmeleon cresselia croagunk darmanitan deino "
       ...
       "whismur wingull yamask").split();
    
    tree:=pokemon.pump(Dictionary(),'wrap(name){ //--> Hash("aB":("Bc","Bd",,,) )
       T( name, pokemon.filter('wrap(nm){ name[-1]==nm[0] }) ) 
    });
    
    fcn maxPath([(a,_)]ab,[(c,_)]cd){ if(a>c) ab else cd }
    fcn walk(name,pathLen,path,tree){  //-->longest path for name
       names:=tree.find(name,T); tree[name]=T; // nuke cycle
       np:=names.reduce('wrap(np,name){
          maxPath(np,walk(name,pathLen+1,String(path," ",name),tree));
       },T(0,""));
       tree[name]=names;
       if(np[0]>pathLen) return(np);
       return(pathLen,path);
    }
    
    pokemon.reduce('wrap(np,name){ maxPath(walk(name,1,name,tree),np) },T(0,""))
    .println();
    L(23,"machamp pinsir rufflet trapinch heatmor remoraid darmanitan nosepass
       starly yamask kricketune exeggcute emboar relicanth haxorus simisear
       registeel landorus seaking girafarig gabite emolga audino")
    

    It is generally true, but I can think of some caveats:

    1) It won’t work well with all uppercase letters, as it is the shapes of the words that are our cues. All-uppercase words are essentially rectangles.

    AOCCDRNIG TO A RSCHEEARCH AT CMABRIDGE UINERVTISY, IT DEOSN’T MTTAER IN WAHT OREDR THE LTTEERS IN A WROD ARE, THE OLNY IPRMOETNT TIHNG IS TAHT FRIST AND LSAT LTTEER IS AT THE RGHIT PCLAE. THE RSET CAN BE A TOATL MSES AND YOU CAN SITLL RAED IT WOUTHIT PORBELM. TIHS IS BCUSEAE WE DO NOT RAED ERVEY LTETER BY IT SLEF BUT THE WROD AS A WLOHE.

    Still doable, especially having already read it once, but not as easy.

    2) Following from #1, distinctive letters that give the words their shape should be in or very near to their «normal» location. If you notice from the text you posted, most instances of i, t, d, l, p, g, h, etc. appear at or within one character position from normal. The last word, «wlohe» does not, but instead swaps the tall l and h to give the word the same overall shape.

    3) This works when the words are in a meaningful sequence, because our minds have a good idea of the subset of words that can follow any other, given the context and our understanding of syntax. We can further narrow it down by shape, and finally by letter, especially first and last. Out of context, these become anagrams, and suddenly rather more difficult to decipher.

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