Joseph:
I'm not going to end it!

Peter:
The strings are one way to swap digits around. Of course there are probably 1000's of ways to write the code to solve the same problem. You seem to be missing the points that I made earlier saying that the code was:

1) Not designed as a product.
2) Was intentionally obfusticated to "hide" the algorithm.
3) Was intended as a puzzle for fun

This was never intended for submission to critical design review prior to deployment in a pacemaker or on a mission to Pluto.

Michael Karas