Substring.md

Minimum window

Template

1. Use two pointers: start and end to represent a window.
2. Move end to find a valid window.
3. When a valid window is found, move start to find a smaller window.

  public String minWindow(String s, String t) {
    int [] map = new int[128];
    for (char c : t.toCharArray()) {
      map[c]++;
    }
    int start = 0, end = 0, minStart = 0, minLen = Integer.MAX_VALUE, counter = t.length();
    while (end < s.length()) {
      final char c1 = s.charAt(end);
      if (map[c1] > 0) counter--;
      map[c1]--;
      end++;
      while (counter == 0) {
        if (minLen > end - start) {
          minLen = end - start;
          minStart = start;
        }
        final char c2 = s.charAt(start);
        map[c2]++;
        if (map[c2] > 0) counter++;
        start++;
      }
    }

    return minLen == Integer.MAX_VALUE ? "" : s.substring(minStart, minStart + minLen);
}

Longest Substring - at most K distinct characters

  public int lengthOfLongestSubstringKDistinct(String s, int k) {
    int[] map = new int[256];
    int start = 0, end = 0, maxLen = Integer.MIN_VALUE, counter = 0;

    while (end < s.length()) {
      final char c1 = s.charAt(end);
      if (map[c1] == 0) counter++;
      map[c1]++;
      end++;

      while (counter > k) {
        final char c2 = s.charAt(start);
        if (map[c2] == 1) counter--;
        map[c2]--;
        start++;
      }

      maxLen = Math.max(maxLen, end - start);
    }

    return maxLen;
  }

Longest Substring - at most 2 distinct characters

public int lengthOfLongestSubstringTwoDistinct(String s) {
    int[] map = new int[128];
    int start = 0, end = 0, maxLen = 0, counter = 0;

    while (end < s.length()) {
      final char c1 = s.charAt(end);
      if (map[c1] == 0) counter++;
      map[c1]++;
      end++;

      while (counter > 2) {
        final char c2 = s.charAt(start);
        if (map[c2] == 1) counter--;
        map[c2]--;
        start++;
      }

      maxLen = Math.max(maxLen, end - start);
    }

    return maxLen;
  }

LongestSubstring - without repeating characters

  public int lengthOfLongestSubstring2(String s) {
    int[] map = new int[128];
    int start = 0, end = 0, maxLen = 0, counter = 0;

    while (end < s.length()) {
      final char c1 = s.charAt(end);
      if (map[c1] > 0) counter++;
      map[c1]++;
      end++;

      while (counter > 0) {
        final char c2 = s.charAt(start);
        if (map[c2] > 1) counter--;
        map[c2]--;
        start++;
      }

      maxLen = Math.max(maxLen, end - start);
    }

    return maxLen;
  }