Interview Question


Country: United States




Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
1
of 1 vote

/*
1 represent A, 2 rep B etc and 26 rep Z. Given a number, find number of
possible decoding for this number. No need to consider number starts with zero.
Eg: input – 1234, output – 3(ABCD, AWD, LCD)
*/

import java.util.*;

class Decoder {

    static final char[] CHARY;
    static {
        CHARY = ((String)"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ").toCharArray();
    }
    private String numStr;
    Decoder(String numStr) {
        this.numStr = numStr;
    }
    void printWords() {
        recurse("", numStr);
    }
    void recurse(String ltrStr, String numStr) {
        int len = numStr.length();
        if (len == 0 && ltrStr.length() > 0) {
            System.out.println(ltrStr);
            return;
        } else if (len > 2) {
            len = 2;
        }
        // Try valid 1 and 2 digit encodings.
        for (int i = 1; i <= len; i++) {
            int n = Integer.parseInt(numStr.substring(0, i));
            if (n >= 1 && n <= 26)
                recurse(ltrStr + CHARY[n - 1], numStr.substring(i));
        }
    }
}
public class WordDecoder {
    // Usage: java WordDecoder 1234
    // Output:
    //   ABCD
    //   AWD
    //   LCD
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            // Validate input.
            int n = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
            if (n <= 0)
                throw new NumberFormatException();
        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + args[0] + " is not a positive, base-10 numeric string.");
            return;
        }
        Decoder decoder = new Decoder(args[0]);
        decoder.printWords();
    }
}
// vim:ts=4:sw=4:et:tw=78

- Brett Pershing Stahlman July 24, 2014 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 votes

Please provide the solution using dp.

- Anonymous July 24, 2014 | Flag
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0
of 0 vote

What are you looking for exactly?

- Brett Pershing Stahlman July 24, 2014 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

DP formula:
if s[i] == 0, dp[i] = 0
else if s[i] <= 2 && s[i+1] <= 6, dp[i] = dp[i+1] + dp[i+2]
else dp[i] = dp[i+1]
Code in C++:

int getWaysToDecode(const string& text){
        //check if head decodable
        if(text.empty() || text[0] == '0') return 0;
        //if single character
        if(text.size() == 1) return 1;
        
        int len = text.size(), i;
        int* dp = new int[len + 1];
        //check if memory allocation failed
        if(dp == NULL) return -1;
        dp[len] = 1;
        dp[len-1] = text[len-1] > '0';
        for(i = len-2; i >= 0; --i){
            if(text[i] > '0'){
                //we can decode text[i] as a one-code word
                dp[i] = dp[i+1];
                //try to decode text[i,i+1] as a two-code word
                if(text[i] <= '2' && text[i+1] <= '6') dp[i] += dp[i+2];
            }
            else dp[i] = 0;
        }
        //free memory before return
        len = dp[0];
        delete[] dp;
        return len;
    }

- uuuouou July 25, 2014 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 votes

What are you trying to achieve ?
I don't get this.

- Anonymous July 25, 2014 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

@Anonymous, it's to figure out how many ways there are to decode the number string into a legal letter string.

- uuuouou July 25, 2014 | Flag
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0
of 0 vote

1, Check the last two digits before the letter. Add all the possible array to a stack.
2, Poll one item from the stack and repeat step 1.
3, If the pulled item has no letter, put it in the result.

- Allen July 25, 2014 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 votes

one example for the 1st step, the last two digits for 1234 is 34. Since 34 is larger than 26. So the only possible array is 123D.

- Allen July 25, 2014 | Flag
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0
of 0 vote

if you need print the letters

void decode(const char* number, char* letters, int n, int idxN = 0, int idxL = 0)
{
    if (idxN == n)
	{
		printf("%s\n", letters);
        return;
	}

	if (number[idxN] != '0')
	{
		letters[idxL] = number[idxN] - '0' - 1 + 'a';
		letters[idxL + 1] = '\0';
		decode(number, letters, n, idxN+1, idxL + 1);
	}
	
	if (idxN+1 < n && (number[idxN]-'0')*10 + number[idxN+1]-'0' <= 26)
	{
		letters[idxL] = (number[idxN]-'0')*10 + number[idxN+1]-'0' - 1 + 'a';
		letters[idxL + 1] = '\0';
		decode(number, letters, n, idxN+2, idxL + 1);
	}

}

if not, use memorization to avoid recompute the same solutions again

int count(const char* number, int* numWays, int n, int idxN)
{
    if (idxN == n)
    {
        return 1;
	}
    else if (idxN > n) return 0;
    else if (numWays[idxN] != -1) return numWays[idxN];
    else{
        numWays[idxN] = 0;
    	if (number[idxN] != '0')
    	{
    		numWays[idxN] += count(number, numWays, n, idxN+1);
    	}
    	
    	if (idxN+1 < n && (number[idxN]-'0')*10 + number[idxN+1]-'0' <= 26)
    	{
    		numWays[idxN] += count(number, numWays, n, idxN+2);
    	}
        
        printf("numWays[%d] = %d\n", idxN, numWays[idxN]);
        return numWays[idxN];
    }

}

- Anonymous July 26, 2014 | Flag Reply


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