This is the problem definition:
Given a string of lowercase letters, determine the index of the
character whose removal will make a palindrome. If is already a
palindrome or no such character exists, then print -1. There will always
be a valid solution, and any correct answer is acceptable. For
example, if "bcbc", we can either remove 'b' at index or 'c' at index.
I tried this code:
# !/bin/python
import sys
def palindromeIndex(s):
# Complete this function
length = len(s)
index = 0
while index != length:
string = list(s)
del string[index]
if string == list(reversed(string)):
return index
index += 1
return -1
q = int(raw_input().strip())
for a0 in xrange(q):
s = raw_input().strip()
result = palindromeIndex(s)
print(result)
This code works for the smaller values. But taken hell lot of time for the larger inputs.
Here is the sample: Link to sample
the above one is the bigger sample which is to be decoded. But at the solution must run for the following input:
Input (stdin)
3
aaab
baa
aaa
Expected Output
3
0
-1
How to optimize the solution?
Here is a code that is optimized for the very task
def palindrome_index(s):
# Complete this function
rev = s[::-1]
if rev == s:
return -1
for i, (a, b) in enumerate(zip(s, rev)):
if a != b:
candidate = s[:i] + s[i + 1:]
if candidate == candidate[::-1]:
return i
else:
return len(s) - i - 1
First we calculate the reverse of the string. If rev equals the original, it was a palindrome to begin with. Then we iterate the characters at the both ends, keeping tab on the index as well:
for i, (a, b) in enumerate(zip(s, rev)):
a will hold the current character from the beginning of the string and b from the end. i will hold the index from the beginning of the string. If at any point a != b then it means that either a or b must be removed. Since there is always a solution, and it is always one character, we test if the removal of a results in a palindrome. If it does, we return the index of a, which is i. If it doesn't, then by necessity, the removal of b must result in a palindrome, therefore we return its index, counting from the end.
There is no need to convert the string to a list, as you can compare strings. This will remove a computation that is called a lot thus speeding up the process. To reverse a string, all you need to do is used slicing:
>>> s = "abcdef"
>>> s[::-1]
'fedcba'
So using this, you can re-write your function to:
def palindromeIndex(s):
if s == s[::-1]:
return -1
for i in range(len(s)):
c = s[:i] + s[i+1:]
if c == c[::-1]:
return i
return -1
and the tests from your question:
>>> palindromeIndex("aaab")
3
>>> palindromeIndex("baa")
0
>>> palindromeIndex("aaa")
-1
and for the first one in the link that you gave, the result was:
16722
which computed in about 900ms compared to your original function which took 17000ms but still gave the same result. So it is clear that this function is a drastic improvement. :)
Related
here is my code:
def string_match(a, b):
count = 0
if len(a) < 2 or len(b) < 2:
return 0
for i in range(len(a)):
if a[i:i+2] == b[i:i+2]:
count = count + 1
return count
And here are the results:
Correct me if I am wrong but, I see that it didn't work probably because the two string lengths are the same. If I were to change the for loop statement to:
for i in range(len(a)-1):
then it would work for all cases provided. But can someone explain to me why adding the -1 makes it work? Perhaps I'm comprehending how the for loop works in this case. And can someone tell me a more optimal way to write this because this is probably really bad code. Thank you!
But can someone explain to me why adding the -1 makes it work?
Observe:
test = 'food'
i = len(test) - 1
test[i:i+2] # produces 'd'
Using len(a) as your bound means that len(a) - 1 will be used as an i value, and therefore a slice is taken at the end of a that would extend past the end. In Python, such slices succeed, but produce fewer characters.
String slicing can return strings that are shorter than requested. In your first failing example that checks "abc" against "abc", in the third iteration of the for loop, both a[i:i+2] and b[i:i+2] are equal to "c", and therefore count is incremented.
Using range(len(a)-1) ensures that your loop stops before it gets to a slice that would be just one letter long.
Since the strings may be of different lengths, you want to iterate only up to the end of the shortest one. In addition, you're accessing i+2, so you only want i to iterate up to the index before the last item (otherwise you might get a false positive at the end of the string by going off the end and getting a single-character string).
def string_match(a: str, b: str) -> int:
return len([
a[i:i+2]
for i in range(min(len(a), len(b)) - 1)
if a[i:i+2] == b[i:i+2]
])
(You could also do this counting with a sum, but this makes it easy to get the actual matches as well!)
You can use this :
def string_match(a, b):
if len(a) < 2 or len(b) < 0:
return 0
subs = [a[i:i+2] for i in range(len(a)-1)]
occurence = list(map(lambda x: x in b, subs))
return occurence.count(True)
I have created a code generating strings which have hamming distance n from given binary string. Though I'm not able to rewrite this in a simple recursive function. There are several sequences (edit: actually only one, the length change) in the for loops logic but I don't know how to write it into the recursive way (the input for the function is string and distance (int), but in my code the distance is represented by the count of nested for cycles. Could you please help me?
(e.g. for string '00100' and distance 4, code returns ['11010', '11001', '11111', '10011', '01011'],
for string '00100' and distance 3, code returns ['11000', '11110', '11101', '10010', '10001', '10111', '01010', '01001', '01111', '00011'])
def change(string, i):
if string[i] == '1':
return string[:i] + '0' + string[i+1:]
else: return string[:i] + '1' + string[i+1:] #'0' on input
def hamming_distance(number):
array = []
for i in range(len(number)-3): #change first bit
a = number
a = change(a, i) #change bit on index i
for j in range(i+1, len(number)-2): #change second bit
b = a
b = change(b, j)
for k in range(j+1, len(number)-1): #change third bit
c = b
c = change(c, k)
for l in range(k+1, len(number)): #change fourth bit
d = c
d = change(d, l)
array.append(d)
return array
print(hamming_distance('00100'))
Thank you!
Very briefly, you have three base cases:
len(string) == 0: # return; you've made all the needed changes
dist == 0 # return; no more changes to make
len(string) == dist # change all bits and return (no choice remaining)
... and two recursion cases; with and without the change:
ham1 = [str(1-int(string[0])) + alter
for alter in change(string[1:], dist-1) ]
ham2 = [str[0] + alter for alter in change(string[1:], dist) ]
From each call, you return a list of strings that are dist from the input string. On each return, you have to append the initial character to each item in that list.
Is that clear?
CLARIFICATION
The above approach also generates only those that change the string. "Without" the change refers to only the first character. For instance, given input string="000", dist=2, the algorithm will carry out two operations:
'1' + change("00", 2-1) # for each returned string, "10" and "01"
'0' + change("00", 2) # for the only returned string, "11"
Those two ham lines go in the recursion part of your routine. Are you familiar with the structure of such a function? It consists of base cases and recursion cases.
A string is palindrome if it reads the same forward and backward. Given a string that contains only lower case English alphabets, you are required to create a new palindrome string from the given string following the rules gives below:
1. You can reduce (but not increase) any character in a string by one; for example you can reduce the character h to g but not from g to h
2. In order to achieve your goal, if you have to then you can reduce a character of a string repeatedly until it becomes the letter a; but once it becomes a, you cannot reduce it any further.
Each reduction operation is counted as one. So you need to count as well how many reductions you make. Write a Python program that reads a string from a user input (using raw_input statement), creates a palindrome string from the given string with the minimum possible number of operations and then prints the palindrome string created and the number of operations needed to create the new palindrome string.
I tried to convert the string to a list first, then modify the list so that should any string be given, if its not a palindrome, it automatically edits it to a palindrome and then prints the result.after modifying the list, convert it back to a string.
c=raw_input("enter a string ")
x=list(c)
y = ""
i = 0
j = len(x)-1
a = 0
while i < j:
if x[i] < x[j]:
a += ord(x[j]) - ord(x[i])
x[j] = x[i]
print x
else:
a += ord(x[i]) - ord(x[j])
x [i] = x[j]
print x
i = i + 1
j = (len(x)-1)-1
print "The number of operations is ",a print "The palindrome created is",( ''.join(x) )
Am i approaching it the right way or is there something I'm not adding up?
Since only reduction is allowed, it is clear that the number of reductions for each pair will be the difference between them. For example, consider the string 'abcd'.
Here the pairs to check are (a,d) and (b,c).
Now difference between 'a' and 'd' is 3, which is obtained by (ord('d')-ord('a')).
I am using absolute value to avoid checking which alphabet has higher ASCII value.
I hope this approach will help.
s=input()
l=len(s)
count=0
m=0
n=l-1
while m<n:
count+=abs(ord(s[m])-ord(s[n]))
m+=1
n-=1
print(count)
This is a common "homework" or competition question. The basic concept here is that you have to find a way to get to minimum values with as few reduction operations as possible. The trick here is to utilize string manipulation to keep that number low. For this particular problem, there are two very simple things to remember: 1) you have to split the string, and 2) you have to apply a bit of symmetry.
First, split the string in half. The following function should do it.
def split_string_to_halves(string):
half, rem = divmod(len(string), 2)
a, b, c = '', '', ''
a, b = string[:half], string[half:]
if rem > 0:
b, c = string[half + 1:], string[rem + 1]
return (a, b, c)
The above should recreate the string if you do a + c + b. Next is you have to convert a and b to lists and map the ord function on each half. Leave the remainder alone, if any.
def convert_to_ord_list(string):
return map(ord, list(string))
Since you just have to do a one-way operation (only reduction, no need for addition), you can assume that for each pair of elements in the two converted lists, the higher value less the lower value is the number of operations needed. Easier shown than said:
def convert_to_palindrome(string):
halfone, halftwo, rem = split_string_to_halves(string)
if halfone == halftwo[::-1]:
return halfone + halftwo + rem, 0
halftwo = halftwo[::-1]
zipped = zip(convert_to_ord_list(halfone), convert_to_ord_list(halftwo))
counter = sum([max(x) - min(x) for x in zipped])
floors = [min(x) for x in zipped]
res = "".join(map(chr, floors))
res += rem + res[::-1]
return res, counter
Finally, some tests:
target = 'ideal'
print convert_to_palindrome(target) # ('iaeai', 6)
target = 'euler'
print convert_to_palindrome(target) # ('eelee', 29)
target = 'ohmygodthisisinsane'
print convert_to_palindrome(target) # ('ehasgidihmhidigsahe', 84)
I'm not sure if this is optimized nor if I covered all bases. But I think this pretty much covers the general concept of the approach needed. Compared to your code, this is clearer and actually works (yours does not). Good luck and let us know how this works for you.
def unZip(master3):
c = len(master3)
sub1=''
sub2=''
for i in range(0,c,2):
sub1+=master3[i]
sub2+=master3[i+1]
print(sub1,",",sub2)
basically I have written this code that separates alternative char from string and shows them separately,
I have been trying to convert or comprehend this with recursion but I have been failing lately.
Here is my try, can someone tell me how should I approach it?
def unzip(a):
storage1=''
storage2=''
storage3=''
storage4=''
if len(a)==0:
return 0
else:
if len(a)>=1:
storage1=a[0::2]
storage2=a[1::2]
storage3+=storage1
storage4+=storage2
print(storage3,storage4)
return unzip(a[0]+a[1:])
instead of using slicing to determine your strings you should be taking one character at a time off your string and then recalling your recursive function like so
def unzip(s, a, b='', c=''):
if len(a) == 0:
return b + ', ' + c
if s%2 == 0:
b += a[0]
else:
c += a[0]
return unzip(s+1, a[1:], b, c)
print unzip(0, 'HelloWorld')
Hlool, elWrd
What that does is it starts with the string a and alternates between adding to b or c with the variable s depending on whether it is even or odd. Add the first letter of a to either b or c and then remove that letter from a. Then call the function again but with s+1. If the length of a is zero then return b and c and then print your result
To get the same results with what you have you could simplify yours down to
a = 'HelloWorld'
storage1=a[0::2]
storage2=a[1::2]
print(storage1,storage2)
('Hlool', 'elWrd')
The slicing takes care of getting every other letter in a and then you can just print that. The way you have it set up now it will just keep passing a and become an infinite loop since the size of a will never change.
I am trying to find the index of the first letter of a sub string within the main string. The function acts exactly like the find method of python. I have created a find_chr function that gives me the index of a character in a string and I am using the find_chr to get the index of the substring.
def find_str(s,x):
i=0
if x in s:
return find_chr(s,x[i])
else:
return -1
My problem is that when I am using the string "IS GOING GOING" and substring as "ING", I am getting the index of the first "I", when I am expecting the index of the "I" of "ING". I will appreciate any input about changing the function to get the right index of the first letter of the substring.
In find_str you call find_chr(s,x[i]). This is calling find_chr with only x[i] (the ith part of the substring).
This should fix your problem
def find_chr(s,char):
i=0
step = len(char)
for j in range(len(s)+1):
ch = s[j:j+step]
if ch==char:
return (i)
break
i+=1
return -1
def find_str(s,x):
i=0
if x in s:
return find_chr(s,x)
else:
return -1
You aren't looping through the characters, you only check for i == 0 (i.e. the first character in s). You need to apply a "window" to the string, checking len(s) characters in a row:
def find_str(s, x):
if x in s: # is x present?
for i in range(len(s)): # work through string indices
if s[i:i+len(x)] == x: # does x start at current index?
return i
return -1
This should solve your problem:
def find_str(s, x):
i = 0
while i < len(s):
if s[i:i + len(x)] == x:
return i
else:
i += 1
print find_str('IS GOING GOING', 'ING')
Look up the use of the index function in strings. You will then happily replace all of that code with about 1 line.
Supplying the answer because of the following comments. Seriously though, if one is going to learn python, it is a good exercise to be aware of the methods available for an object.
>>> 'is going going'.index('ing')
5
or more generally
>>> fullstring.index(substring)
This should be marked as the correct answer because it is the simplest and most obviously correct. The complexity of the algorithms offered is way too high for this problem.
If the substring is not in the fullstring, a ValueError exception will be raised. So if you need a function, then it should return the index from a try or -1 (or None) from the except blocks.