# Hamming Calculate the Hamming difference between two DNA strands. A mutation is simply a mistake that occurs during the creation or copying of a nucleic acid, in particular DNA. Because nucleic acids are vital to cellular functions, mutations tend to cause a ripple effect throughout the cell. Although mutations are technically mistakes, a very rare mutation may equip the cell with a beneficial attribute. In fact, the macro effects of evolution are attributable by the accumulated result of beneficial microscopic mutations over many generations. The simplest and most common type of nucleic acid mutation is a point mutation, which replaces one base with another at a single nucleotide. By counting the number of differences between two homologous DNA strands taken from different genomes with a common ancestor, we get a measure of the minimum number of point mutations that could have occurred on the evolutionary path between the two strands. This is called the 'Hamming distance'. It is found by comparing two DNA strands and counting how many of the nucleotides are different from their equivalent in the other string. GAGCCTACTAACGGGAT CATCGTAATGACGGCCT ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ The Hamming distance between these two DNA strands is 7. # Implementation notes The Hamming distance is only defined for sequences of equal length. This means that based on the definition, each language could deal with getting sequences of equal length differently. ## Getting Started Make sure you have read the [C page](http://exercism.io/languages/c) on the Exercism site. This covers the basic information on setting up the development environment expected by the exercises. ## Passing the Tests Get the first test compiling, linking and passing by following the [three rules of test-driven development][3-tdd-rules]. The included makefile can be used to create and run the tests using the `test` task. make test Create just the functions you need to satisfy any compiler errors and get the test to fail. Then write just enough code to get the test to pass. Once you've done that, move onto the next test. [3-tdd-rules]: http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.TheThreeRulesOfTdd As you progress through the tests, take the time to refactor your implementation for readability and expressiveness and then go on to the next test. Try to use standard C99 facilities in preference to writing your own low-level algorithms or facilities by hand. ## Source The Calculating Point Mutations problem at Rosalind [http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/](http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/) ## Submitting Incomplete Solutions It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.