I have this very specific problem and not many ideas. I'm looking for some help to try to approach it. Here's the problem:

Given a sequence of no more than 8 '+' and '-' (strings), I need to form the smallest number possible following the rule: A '+' dictates that the next number is bigger than the current. A '-', that it's smaller. For example: if my string is '- - -', my number will be 4321, as all numbers are smaller than the one on their left, since the string is made only of '-'.

I forgot an important rule: The numbers have to be different! I can't have 1212 as a result, for example.

If I understand correctly, if I have a string with 'n' characters my number will be made of 'n+1' numbers. Now, I'm really out of ideas about how to implement a code for that. It's worth noting that I'm on a very basic level of learning python, the maximum i know is recursion (on a basic level, still). All I tried was using 'if/else' statements, but I'm not sure how to compare the numbers. Is using lists a good idea? And should I try recursion to go through the string?

Here's the code i have so far. Works only for the example i gave here.

def crypto(code:str):
    numbers = []
    # We start our list of numbers filling it with numbers equal to the length of the string. The idea is to decrease or increase these numbers accordingly with the srting
    for i in range(len(code)): 
        numbers.append(len(code)+1)

    # Here we decrease/increase. I'm not sure how to compare the numbers for cases like '-+-+', fro example.
    pos = 0
    for j in code:
        if j == '+':
            numbers[pos] += 1+pos
            pos += 1
        elif j == '-':
            numbers[pos] -= 1+pos
            pos += 1
    numbers.insert(0, len(codigo)+1)
    return print(numbers)


crypto('---')