#!/usr/bin/env cscript int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { const char *ALPHABET = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"; index column_index; char *column_string = "ABC"; char *needle; column_index = 0; for (needle = column_string; *needle != '\0'; needle++) { column_index *= 'Z' - 'A'; column_index += strchr(ALPHABET, *needle) - ALPHABET; } }