I have this exercise:
Write a recursive function that takes a string and returns all the characters that are not repeated in said string.
The characters in the output don't need to have the same order as in the input string.
First I tried this, but given the condition for the function to stop, it never evaluates the last character:
i=0
lst = []
def list_of_letters_rec(str=""):
if str[i] not in lst and i < len(str) - 1:
lst.append(str[i])
list_of_letters_rec(str[i+1:])
elif str[i] in lst and i < len(str) - 1:
list_of_letters_rec(str[i+1:])
elif i > len(str) - 1:
return lst
return lst
word = input(str("Word?"))
print(list_of_letters_rec(word))
The main issue with this function is that it never evaluates the last character.
An example of an output:
['a', 'r', 'd', 'v'] for input 'aardvark'.
Since the characters don't need to be ordered, I suppose a better approach would be to do the recursion backwards, and I also tried another approach (below), but no luck:
lst = []
def list_of_letters_rec(str=""):
n = len(str) - 1
if str[n] not in lst and n >= 0:
lst.append(str[n])
list_of_letters_rec(str[:n-1])
elif str[n] in lst and n >= 0:
list_of_letters_rec(str[:n-1])
return lst
word = input(str("Word?"))
print(list_of_letters_rec(word))
Apparently, the stop conditions are not well defined, especially in the last one, as the output I get is
IndexError: string index out of range
Could you give me any hints to help me correct the stop condition, either in the 1st or 2nd try?
You can try:
word = input("> ")
result = [l for l in word if word.count(l) < 2]
> aabc
['b', 'c']
Demo
One improvement I would offer on #trincot's answer is the use of a set, which has better look-up time, O(1), compared to lists, O(n).
if the input string, s, is empty, return the empty result
(inductive) s has at least one character. if the first character, s[0] is in the memo, mem, the character has already been seen. Return the result of the sub-problem, s[1:]
(inductive) The first character is not in the memo. Add the first character to the memo and prepend the first character to the result of the sub-problem, s[1:]
def list_of_letters(s, mem = set()):
if not s:
return "" #1
elif s[0] in mem:
return list_of_letters(s[1:], mem) #2
else:
return s[0] + list_of_letters(s[1:], {*mem, s[0]}) #3
print(list_of_letters("aardvark"))
ardvk
Per your comment, the exercise asks only for a string as input. We can easily modify our program to privatize mem -
def list_of_letters(s): # public api
def loop(s, mem): # private api
if not s:
return ""
elif s[0] in mem:
return loop(s[1:], mem)
else:
return s[0] + loop(s[1:], {*mem, s[0]})
return loop(s, set()) # run private func
print(list_of_letters("aardvark")) # mem is invisible to caller
ardvk
Python's native set data type accepts an iterable which solves this problem instantly. However this doesn't teach you anything about recursion :D
print("".join(set("aardvark")))
akdrv
Some issues:
You miss the last character because of i < len(str) - 1 in the conditionals. That should be i < len(str) (but read the next points, as this still needs change)
The test for if i > len(str) - 1 should come first, before doing anything else, otherwise you'll get an invalid index reference. This also makes the other conditions on the length unnecessary.
Don't name your variable str, as that is already a used name for the string type.
Don't populate a list that is global. By doing this, you can only call the function once reliably. Any next time the list will still have the result of the previous call, and you'll be adding to that. Instead use the list that you get from the recursive call. In the base case, return an empty list.
The global i has no use, since you never change its value; it is always 0. So you should just reference index [0] and check that the string is not empty.
Here is your code with those corrections:
def list_of_letters_rec(s=""):
if not s:
return []
result = list_of_letters_rec(s[1:])
if s[0] not in result:
result.append(s[0])
return result
print(list_of_letters_rec("aardvark"))
NB: This is not the most optimal way to do it. But I guess this is what you are asked to do.
A possible solution would be to just use an index instead of splicing the string:
def list_of_letters_rec(string="", index = 0, lst = []):
if(len(string) == index):
return lst
char = string[index]
if string.count(char) == 1:
lst.append(char)
return list_of_letters_rec(string, index+1, lst)
word = input(str("Word?"))
print(list_of_letters_rec(word))
Related
Given a string, find the first non-repeating character in it and return its index. If it doesn't exist, return -1. Input string already all lowercase.
Why does my code not work?
str1 = input("give me a string: ")
def unique(x):
stack = []
if x is None:
return (-1)
i = 0
while i < len(x):
stack = stack.append(x[i])
if x[i] in stack:
return(i)
else:
i += 1
unique(str1)
str1 = input("give me a string: ")
def unique(x):
for i in x:
if x.count(i) == 1:
return x.index(i)
else:
return -1
print(unique(str1))
This will work
Explanation
Instead of using the list stack use the count() function of the string. The function unique(x) will return the index of that first element whose count is 1 in the str1 string.
You need to know what your code is doing to figure out why it doesn't work, let's breakthrough it step by step.
you create a empty list stack for later use, that's fine.
if x is None is a strange way to check if a string is given, and it doesn't work because even a empty string "" is not equal to None. is is used to check if both sides are the same object, and == is a better operator to check if values of both sides are the same. Therefore, if x == "" is better, but if not x is even better to check if something is empty.
using variable i and while loop to iterate the string is fine.
append() change the list in-place and return None, so stack = stack.append(x[i]) is assigning None to stack.
in stack is going to raise TypeError as NoneType is not iterable. If we change the last line to stack.append(x[i]), it now works, as x[0] is already appended to stack, if x[0] in stack must be True and return 0 for your result.
That's what your code is doing, you just append the first character and return the first index. You need to go through the whole string to know if a character is unique.
Although Rishabh's answer is cleaner, I provide a way to doing it using lists to save seen and repeated characters, then read the string again to find the index of unique character.
x = input("give me a string: ")
def unique(x):
seen = []
repeated = []
for char in x:
if char in seen:
repeated.append(char)
else:
seen.append(char)
for idx, char in enumerate(x):
if char not in repeated:
return idx
return -1
print(unique(x))
I'm trying to write a function to return the longest common prefix from a series of strings. Using a debugger, saw that my function reaches the longest common prefix correctly, but then when it reaches the statement to return, it begins reverting to earlier stages of the algorithm.
For test case strs = ["flower","flow","flight"]
The output variable holds the following values:-
f > fl > f
instead of returning fl.
Any help would be appreciated, because I don't really know how to Google for this one. Thank you.
class Solution(object):
def longestCommonPrefix(self, strs, output = ''):
#return true if all chars in string are the same
def same(s):
return s == len(s) * s[0]
#return new list of strings with first char removed from each string
def slicer(list_, list_2 = []):
for string in list_:
string1 = string[1:]
list_2.append(string1)
return list_2
#return string containing first char from each string
def puller(list_):
s = ''
for string in list_:
s += string[0]
return s
#pull first character from each string
s = puller(strs)
#if they are the same
#add one char to output
#run again on sliced list
if same(s):
output += s[0]
self.longestCommonPrefix(slicer(strs), output)
return output
This can be handled with os.path.commonprefix.
>>> import os
>>> strs = ["flower","flow","flight"]
>>> os.path.commonprefix(strs)
'fl'
It doesn't "revert". longestCommonPrefix potentially calls itself - what you're seeing is simply the call-stack unwinding, and flow of execution is returning to the calling code (the line that invoked the call to longestCommonPrefix from which you are returning).
That being said, there's really no need to implement a recursive solution in the first place. I would suggest something like:
def get_common_prefix(strings):
def get_next_prefix_char():
for chars in zip(*strings):
if len(set(chars)) != 1:
break
yield chars[0]
return "".join(get_next_prefix_char())
print(get_common_prefix(["hello", "hey"]))
You are looking at the behavior...the final result...of recursive calls to your method. However, the recursive calls don't do anything to affect the result of the initial execution of the method. If we look at the few lines that matter at the end of your method:
if same(s):
output += s[0]
self.longestCommonPrefix(slicer(strs), output)
return output
The problem here is that since output is immutable, its value won't be changed by calling longestCommonPrefix recursively. So from the standpoint of the outermost call to longestCommonPrefix, the result it will return is determined only by if same(s) is true or false. If it is true it will return s[0], otherwise it will return ''.
The easiest way to fix this behavior and have your recursive call affect the result of the prior call to the method would be to have its return value become the value of output, like this:
if same(s):
output += s[0]
output = self.longestCommonPrefix(slicer(strs), output)
return output
This is a common code pattern when using recursion. Just this change does seem to give you the result you expect! I haven't analyzed your whole algorithm, so I don't know if it becomes "correct" with just this change.
Can you try this? I
class Solution(object):
def longestCommonPrefix(self, strs, output = ''):
#return true if all chars in string are the same
def same(s):
return s == len(s) * s[0]
#return new list of strings with first char removed from each string
def slicer(list_, list_2 = []):
for string in list_:
string1 = string[1:]
list_2.append(string1)
return list_2
#return string containing first char from each string
def puller(list_):
s = ''
for string in list_:
s += string[0]
return s
#pull first character from each string
s = puller(strs)
# Can you Try this revision?
# I think the problem is that your new version of output is being lost when the fourth called function returns to the third and the third returns to the second, etc...
# You need to calculate a new output value before you call recursively, that is true, but you also need a way to 'store' that output when that recursively called function 'returns'. Right now it disappears, I believe.
if same(s):
output += s[0]
output = self.longestCommonPrefix(slicer(strs), output)
return output
def get_middle_character(odd_string):
variable = len(odd_string)
x = str((variable/2))
middle_character = odd_string.find(x)
middle_character2 = odd_string[middle_character]
return middle_character2
def main():
print('Enter a odd length string: ')
odd_string = input()
print('The middle character is', get_middle_character(odd_string))
main()
I need to figure out how to print the middle character in a given odd length string. But when I run this code, I only get the last character. What is the problem?
You need to think more carefully about what your code is actually doing. Let's do this with an example:
def get_middle_character(odd_string):
Let's say that we call get_middle_character('hello'), so odd_string is 'hello':
variable = len(odd_string) # variable = 5
Everything is OK so far.
x = str((variable/2)) # x = '2'
This is the first thing that is obviously odd - why do you want the string '2'? That's the index of the middle character, don't you just want an integer? Also you only need one pair of parentheses there, the other set is redundant.
middle_character = odd_string.find(x) # middle_character = -1
Obviously you can't str.find the substring '2' in odd_string, because it was never there. str.find returns -1 if it cannot find the substring; you should use str.index instead, which gives you a nice clear ValueError when it can't find the substring.
Note that even if you were searching for the middle character, rather than the stringified index of the middle character, you would get into trouble as str.find gives the first index at which the substring appears, which may not be the one you're after (consider 'lolly'.find('l')...).
middle_character2 = odd_string[middle_character] # middle_character2 = 'o'
As Python allows negative indexing from the end of a sequence, -1 is the index of the last character.
return middle_character2 # return 'o'
You could actually have simplified to return odd_string[middle_character], and removed the superfluous assignment; you'd have still had the wrong answer, but from neater code (and without middle_character2, which is a terrible name).
Hopefully you can now see where you went wrong, and it's trivially obvious what you should do to fix it. Next time use e.g. Python Tutor to debug your code before asking a question here.
You need to simply access character based on index of string and string slicing. For example:
>>> s = '1234567'
>>> middle_index = len(s)/2
>>> first_half, middle, second_half = s[:middle_index], s[middle_index], s[middle_index+1:]
>>> first_half, middle, second_half
('123', '4', '567')
Explanation:
str[:n]: returns string from 0th index to n-1th index
str[n]: returns value at nth index
str[n:]: returns value from nth index till end of list
Should be like below:
def get_middle_character(odd_string):
variable = len(odd_string)/2
middle_character = odd_string[variable +1]
return middle_character
i know its too late but i post my solution
I hope it will be useful ;)
def get_middle_char(string):
if len(string) % 2 == 0:
return None
elif len(string) <= 1:
return None
str_len = int(len(string)/2))
return string[strlen]
reversedString = ''
print('What is your name')
str = input()
idx = len(str)
print(idx)
str_to_iterate = str
for char in str_to_iterate[::-1]:
print(char)
evenodd = len(str) % 2
if evenodd == 0:
print('even')
else:
print('odd')
l = str
if len(l) % 2 == 0:
x = len(l) // 2
y = len(l) // 2 - 1
print(l[x], l[y])
else:
n = len(l) // 2
print(l[n])
The purpose of this code is to find the longest string in alphabetical order that occurs first and return that subset.
I can execute the code once, but when I try to loop it I get 'NoneType' object is not iterable (points to last line). I have made sure that what I return and input are all not of NoneType, so I feel like I'm missing a fundamental.
This is my first project in the class, so the code doesn't need to be the "best" or most efficient way - it's just about learning the basics at this point.
s = 'efghiabcdefg'
best = ''
comp = ''
temp = ''
def prog(comp, temp, best, s):
for char in s:
if comp <= char: #Begins COMParison of first CHARacter to <null>
comp = char #If the following character is larger (alphabetical), stores that as the next value to compare to.
temp = temp + comp #Creates a TEMPorary string of characters in alpha order.
if len(temp) > len(best): #Accepts first string as longest string, then compares subsequent strings to the "best" length string, replacing if longer.
best = temp
if len(best) == len(s): #This is the code that was added...
return(s, best) #...to fix the problem.
else:
s = s.lstrip(temp) #Removes those characters considered in this pass
return (str(s), str(best)) #Provides new input for subsequent passes
while len(s) != 0:
(s, best) = prog(comp, temp, best, s)
prog is returning None. The error you get is when you try to unpack the result into the tuple (s, best)
You need to fix your logic so that prog is guaranteed to not return None. It will return None if your code never executes the else clause in the loop.
You don't return in all cases. In Python, if a function ends without an explicit return statement, it will return None.
Consider returning something if, for example, the input string is empty.
I have written the above program. The program supposed to do remove chr from str if str has chr in it and character follow chr is different than chr.
Can anyone here help me what's going on this? Why is not working as supposed? I see some problems with function calling inside a function.
def removesingleton(str,chr):
'''
(str,str)->(str)
Returns str with removed single chr
>>>removesingleton("Welcomee","e")
Wlcomee
>>>removesingleton("XabXXaX","X")
abXXa
'''
output, index = "", 0
if str:
for char in str:
if char == chr:
if index+1 < len(str) and str[index+1] == chr:
output += str[:index+2]
removesingleton(str[index+2:],chr)
else:
removesingleton(str[index+1:],chr)
else:
output += str[index]
removesingleton(str[index+1:],chr)
index += 1
return output
print removesingleton("XabXXaX","X")
You don't need any of the recursive calls. They're completely unnecessary, since you're doing a loop over the whole string within the single call. (You were also ignoring the return value, so there was not much point in recursing in the first place.)
What you do need is to check both the next character and the previous one to see if the current character is part of a repeated sequence. You don't need to do any slicing, nor do you even need an explicit loop. Here's a working version of the code, distilled down to a single generator expression inside a str.join call:
def removesingleton(s, ch):
'''
(str,str)->(str)
Returns a copy of s with all non-repeated instances of ch removed
>>>removesingleton("Welcomee","e")
Wlcomee
>>>removesingleton("XabXXaX","X")
abXXa
'''
return "".join(c for i, c in enumerate(s) # enumerate gives us our index
if c != ch or # keep any of: non-matching characters
(i > 0 and s[i-1] == ch) or # previous character was the same
(i < len(s)-1 and s[i+1] == ch)) # next character is the same