Weird behavior with process.hrtime() - node.js

If I execute this code:
//brute force
console.log('------------------');
console.log('Brute Force Method');
console.log('------------------');
var aTimer = process.hrtime();
var sum = 0;
for (var x = 3 ; x < 1000 ; x++) {
if (x % 3 === 0 || x % 5 === 0) {
sum += x;
}
}
console.log('The sum of them is: '+ sum);
//console.log(aTimer);
var aTimerDiff = process.hrtime(aTimer);
console.log('Benchmark took %d nanoseconds.', aTimerDiff[0] * 1e9 + aTimerDiff[1]);
//arithmetic method
console.log('------------------');
console.log('Arithmetic Method');
console.log('------------------');
var bTimer = process.hrtime();
var term3 = parseInt(999/3);
var threes = 3 * term3 * (term3 + 1) / 2;
var term5 = parseInt(999/5);
var fives = 5 * term5 * (term5 + 1) / 2;
var term15 = parseInt(999/15);
var fifteens = 15 * term15 * (term15 + 1) / 2;
console.log('The sum of them is: '+ (threes + fives - fifteens));
//console.log(bTimer);
var bTimerDiff = process.hrtime(bTimer);
console.log('Benchmark took %d nanoseconds.', bTimerDiff[0] * 1e9 + bTimerDiff[1]);
console.log('------------------');
console.log('Which is Faster');
console.log('------------------');
if (bTimerNano > aTimerNano) {
console.log('A is %d nanoseconds faster than B.', bTimerNano - aTimerNano)
}
else {
console.log('B is %d nanoseconds faster than A.', aTimerNano - bTimerNano)
}
The result is:
------------------
Brute Force Method
------------------
The sum of them is: 233168
Benchmark took 64539 nanoseconds.
------------------
Arithmetic Method
------------------
The sum of them is: 233168
Benchmark took 155719 nanoseconds.
------------------
Which is Faster
------------------
A is 91180 nanoseconds faster than B.
That can't be right... arithmetic should be faster. So I uncomment these lines to get a look:
console.log(aTimer);
console.log(bTimer);
And the results look accurate now.
------------------
Brute Force Method
------------------
The sum of them is: 233168
[ 1697962, 721676140 ]
Benchmark took 1642444 nanoseconds.
------------------
Arithmetic Method
------------------
The sum of them is: 233168
[ 1697962, 723573374 ]
Benchmark took 284646 nanoseconds.
------------------
Which is Faster
------------------
B is 1357798 nanoseconds faster than A.
Then I comment those lines out again and I get the same funky results.
What could cause this to happen? Am I missing something about process.hrtime()?
$ node -v
v0.10.0
Edit: I just tested this with v0.8.11 and get the same kind of behavior.

Running the test cases completely separately returns these results:
Brute Force: [ 0, 32414 ]
Arithmetic Method: [ 0, 123523 ]
Those results are pretty consistent between runs, so I'm thinking that your initial assumption that the arithmetic method should be faster is actually wrong (EDIT: the reason for that seems to be the use of parseInt()).
The reason you get different results with a console.log in between is caused by that console.log itself probably.

Related

Why calling times.cpuTime() is slow in Nim?

In c++, std::chrono::steady_clock::now().time_since_epoch().count() takes about 20 nanos on my machine, which is close to rdtsc instruction. But in Nim, times.cpuTime (it calls clock_gettime in Linux) takes about 350ns. Any body knows why?
proc toNanos(sec: float): int64 =
let SecInNano = 1000000000f64
return (sec * SecInNano).int64
proc testTimes() =
let N = 1000000
var ts : seq[float]
ts.setLen(N+1)
for i in 0..N :
ts[i]= cpuTime()
var dur = toNanos((ts[N-1] - ts[0]) / N.float)
for i in 0..<N :
ts[i] = ts[i+1] - ts[i]
discard ts.pop
ts.sort()
echo fmt"---------- latency of invoking cpuTime (ns): nSamples: ", N, " ----------------"
echo fmt" Avg Min 50% 90% Max"
echo fmt" {dur} {ts[0].toNanos} {ts[N div 2].toNanos} {ts[int(N.float*0.9)].toNanos} {ts[N-1].toNanos}"
I think the reason is that std::chrono::steady_clock::now().time_since_epoch().count() returns an int. Whereas times.cpuTime() converts the result to a float.
Using monotimes.getMonoTime() which returns an int, I get times of about 40ns.
import std/[algorithm, strformat, monotimes]
proc testTimes() =
const N = 1000000
var ts = newSeq[int64](N+1)
for i in 0..N:
ts[i] = getMonoTime().ticks
var dur = int(float(ts[N-1] - ts[0]) / float(N))
for i in 0..<N:
ts[i] = ts[i+1] - ts[i]
discard ts.pop
ts.sort()
echo fmt"---------- latency of invoking cpuTime (ns): nSamples: ", N, " ----------------"
echo fmt" Avg Min 50% 90% Max"
echo fmt" {dur} {ts[0]} {ts[N div 2]} {ts[int(N.float*0.9)]} {ts[N-1]}"
testTimes()
BTW: The next time please post a complete runnable example, it simplifies testing.

Optimizing a primality test based on runtime in Python

I'm pretty new to algorithms and runtimes, and I'm trying to optimise a bit of my code for a personal project.
import math
for num in range(0, 10000000000000000000000):
if all((num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num))%i!=0 for i in range(2,int(math.sqrt((num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num))))+1)):
print(num)
What can I do to speed this up? I know that num=80 should work but my code isn't getting past num=0, 1, 2 (it's not fast enough).
First I define my range, then I say if 'such-and-such' is prime from range 2 to sqrt(such-and-such) + 1, then return that number. Sqrt(n) + 1 is the minimum number of factors to test for the primality of n.
This is a primality test of sequence A051442
You would probably get a minor boost from computing (num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num)) only once per iteration instead of sqrt(num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num)) times. As you can see, this will greatly reduce the constant factor in your complexity. It won't change the fundamental complexity because you still need to compute the remainder. Change
if all((num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num))%i!=0 for i in range(2,int(math.sqrt((num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num))))+1)):
to
k = num**(num+1)+(num+1)**(num)
if all(k%i for i in range(2,int(math.sqrt(k))+1)):
The != 0 is implicit in Python.
Update
All this is just trivial improvement to an extremely inefficieny algorithm. The biggest speedup I can think of is to reduce the check k % i to only prime i. For any composite i = a * b such that k % i == 0, it must be the case that k % a == 0 and k % b == 0 (if k is divisible by i, it must also be divisible by the factors of i).
I am assuming that you don't want to use any kind of pre-computed prime tables in your code. In that case, you can compute the table yourself. This will involve checking all the numbers up to a given sqrt(k) only once ever, instead of once per iteration of num, since we can stash the previously computed primes in say a list. That will effectively increase the lower limit of the range in your current all from 2 to the square root of the previous k.
Let's define a function to extend our set of primes using the seive of Eratosthenes:
from math import sqrt
def extend(primes, from_, to):
"""
primes: a sequence containing prime numbers from 2 to `from - 1`, in order
from_: the number to start checking with
to: the number to end with (inclusive)
"""
if not primes:
primes.extend([2, 3])
return
for k in range(max(from_, 5), to + 1):
s = int(sqrt(k)) # No need to compute this more than once per k
for p in primes:
if p > s:
# Reached sqrt(k) -> short circuit success
primes.append(k)
break
elif not k % p:
# Found factor -> short circuit failure
break
Now we can use this function to extend our list of primes at every iteration of the original loop. This allows us to check the divisibility of k only against the slowly growing list of primes, not against all numbers:
primes = []
prev = 0
for num in range(10000000000000000000000):
k = num**(num + 1) + (num + 1)**num
lim = int(sqrt(k)) + 1
extend(primes, prev, lim)
#print('Num={}, K={}, checking {}-{}, p={}'.format(num, k, prev, lim, primes), end='... ')
if k <= 3 and k in primes or all(k % i for i in primes):
print('{}: {} Prime!'.format(num, k))
else:
print('{}: {} Nope'.format(num, k))
prev = lim + 1
I am not 100% sure that my extend function is optimal, but I am able to get to num == 13, k == 4731091158953433 in <10 minutes on my ridiculously old and slow laptop, so I guess it's not too bad. That means that the algorithm builds a complete table of primes up to ~7e7 in that time.
Update #2
A sort-of-but-not-really optimization you could do would be to check all(k % i for i in primes) before calling extend. This would save you a lot of cycles for numbers that have small prime factors, but would probably catch up to you later on, when you would end up having to compute all the primes up to some enormous number. Here is a sample of how you could do that:
primes = []
prev = 0
for num in range(10000000000000000000000):
k = num**(num + 1) + (num + 1)**num
lim = int(sqrt(k)) + 1
if not all(k % i for i in primes):
print('{}: {} Nope'.format(num, k))
continue
start = len(primes)
extend(primes, prev, lim)
if all(k % i for i in primes[start:]):
print('{}: {} Prime!'.format(num, k))
else:
print('{}: {} Nope'.format(num, k))
prev = lim + 1
While this version does not do much for the long run, it does explain why you were able to get to 15 so quickly in your original run. The prime table does note get extended after num == 3, until num == 16, which is when the terrible delay occurs in this version as well. The net runtime to 16 should be identical in both versions.
Update #3
As #paxdiablo suggests, the only numbers we need to consider in extend are multiples of 6 +/- 1. We can combine that with the fact that only a small number of primes generally need to be tested, and convert the functionality of extend into a generator that will only compute as many primes as absolutely necessary. Using Python's lazy generation should help. Here is a completely rewritten version:
from itertools import count
from math import ceil, sqrt
prime_table = [2, 3]
def prime_candidates(start=0):
"""
Infinite generator of prime number candidates starting with the
specified number.
Candidates are 2, 3 and all numbers that are of the form 6n-1 and 6n+1
"""
if start <= 3:
if start <= 2:
yield 2
yield 3
start = 5
delta = 2
else:
m = start % 6
if m < 2:
start += 1 - m
delta = 4
else:
start += 5 - m
delta = 2
while True:
yield start
start += delta
delta = 6 - delta
def isprime(n):
"""
Checks if `n` is prime.
All primes up to sqrt(n) are expected to already be present in
the generated `prime_table`.
"""
s = int(ceil(sqrt(n)))
for p in prime_table:
if p > s:
break
if not n % p:
return False
return True
def generate_primes(max):
"""
Generates primes up to the specified maximum.
First the existing table is yielded. Then, the new primes are
found in the sequence generated by `prime_candidates`. All verified
primes are added to the existing cache.
"""
for p in prime_table:
if p > max:
return
yield p
for k in prime_candidates(prime_table[-1] + 1):
if isprime(k):
prime_table.append(k)
if k > max:
# Putting the return here ensures that we always stop on a prime and therefore don't do any extra work
return
else:
yield k
for num in count():
k = num**(num + 1) + (num + 1)**num
lim = int(ceil(sqrt(k)))
b = all(k % i for i in generate_primes(lim))
print('n={}, k={} is {}prime'.format(num, k, '' if b else 'not '))
This version gets to 15 almost instantly. It gets stuck at 16 because the smallest prime factor for k=343809097055019694337 is 573645313. Some future expectations:
17 should be a breeze: 16248996011806421522977 has factor 19
18 will take a while: 812362695653248917890473 has factor 22156214713
19 is easy: 42832853457545958193355601 is divisible by 3
20 also easy: 2375370429446951548637196401 is divisible by 58967
21: 138213776357206521921578463913 is divisible by 13
22: 8419259736788826438132968480177 is divisible by 103
etc... (link to sequence)
So in terms of instant gratification, this method will get you much further if you can make it past 18 (which will take >100 times longer than getting past 16, which in my case took ~1.25hrs).
That being said, your greatest speedup at this point would be re-writing this in C or some similar low-level language that does not have as much overhead for loops.
Update #4
Just for giggles, here is an implementation of the latest Python version in C. I chose to go with GMP for arbitrary precision integers, because it is easy to use and install on my Red Hat system, and the docs are very clear:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <gmp.h>
typedef struct {
size_t alloc;
size_t size;
mpz_t *numbers;
} PrimeTable;
void init_table(PrimeTable *buf)
{
buf->alloc = 0x100000L;
buf->size = 2;
buf->numbers = malloc(buf->alloc * sizeof(mpz_t));
if(buf == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "No memory for prime table\n");
exit(1);
}
mpz_init_set_si(buf->numbers[0], 2);
mpz_init_set_si(buf->numbers[1], 3);
return;
}
void append_table(PrimeTable *buf, mpz_t number)
{
if(buf->size == buf->alloc) {
size_t new = 2 * buf->alloc;
mpz_t *tmp = realloc(buf->numbers, new * sizeof(mpz_t));
if(tmp == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Ran out of memory for prime table\n");
exit(1);
}
buf->alloc = new;
buf->numbers = tmp;
}
mpz_set(buf->numbers[buf->size], number);
buf->size++;
return;
}
size_t print_table(PrimeTable *buf, FILE *file)
{
size_t i, n;
n = fprintf(file, "Array contents = [");
for(i = 0; i < buf->size; i++) {
n += mpz_out_str(file, 10, buf->numbers[i]);
if(i < buf->size - 1)
n += fprintf(file, ", ");
}
n += fprintf(file, "]\n");
return n;
}
void free_table(PrimeTable *buf)
{
for(buf->size--; ((signed)(buf->size)) >= 0; buf->size--)
mpz_clear(buf->numbers[buf->size]);
free(buf->numbers);
return;
}
int isprime(mpz_t num, PrimeTable *table)
{
mpz_t max, rem, next;
size_t i, d, r;
mpz_inits(max, rem, NULL);
mpz_sqrtrem(max, rem, num);
// Check if perfect square: definitely not prime
if(!mpz_cmp_si(rem, 0)) {
mpz_clears(rem, max, NULL);
return 0;
}
/* Normal table lookup */
for(i = 0; i < table->size; i++) {
// Got to sqrt(n) -> prime
if(mpz_cmp(max, table->numbers[i]) < 0) {
mpz_clears(rem, max, NULL);
return 1;
}
// Found a factor -> not prime
if(mpz_divisible_p(num, table->numbers[i])) {
mpz_clears(rem, max, NULL);
return 0;
}
}
/* Extend table and do lookup */
// Start with last found prime + 2
mpz_init_set(next, table->numbers[i - 1]);
mpz_add_ui(next, next, 2);
// Find nearest number of form 6n-1 or 6n+1
r = mpz_fdiv_ui(next, 6);
if(r < 2) {
mpz_add_ui(next, next, 1 - r);
d = 4;
} else {
mpz_add_ui(next, next, 5 - r);
d = 2;
}
// Step along numbers of form 6n-1/6n+1. Check each candidate for
// primality. Don't stop until next prime after sqrt(n) to avoid
// duplication.
for(;;) {
if(isprime(next, table)) {
append_table(table, next);
if(mpz_divisible_p(num, next)) {
mpz_clears(next, rem, max, NULL);
return 0;
}
if(mpz_cmp(max, next) <= 0) {
mpz_clears(next, rem, max, NULL);
return 1;
}
}
mpz_add_ui(next, next, d);
d = 6 - d;
}
// Return can only happen from within loop.
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
PrimeTable table;
mpz_t k, a, b;
size_t n, next;
int p;
init_table(&table);
mpz_inits(k, a, b, NULL);
for(n = 0; ; n = next) {
next = n + 1;
mpz_set_ui(a, n);
mpz_pow_ui(a, a, next);
mpz_set_ui(b, next);
mpz_pow_ui(b, b, n);
mpz_add(k, a, b);
p = isprime(k, &table);
printf("n=%ld k=", n);
mpz_out_str(stdout, 10, k);
printf(" p=%d\n", p);
//print_table(&table, stdout);
}
mpz_clears(b, a, k, NULL);
free_table(&table);
return 0;
}
While this version has the exact same algorithmic complexity as the Python one, I expect it to run a few orders of magnitude faster because of the relatively minimal overhead incurred in C. And indeed, it took about 15 minutes to get stuck at n == 18, which is ~5 times faster than the Python version so far.
Update #5
This is going to be the last one, I promise.
GMP has a function called mpz_nextprime, which offers a potentially much faster implementation of this algorightm, especially with caching. According to the docs:
This function uses a probabilistic algorithm to identify primes. For practical purposes it’s adequate, the chance of a composite passing will be extremely small.
This means that it is probably much faster than the current prime generator I implemented, with a slight cost offset of some false primes being added to the cache. This cost should be minimal: even adding a few thousand extra modulo operations should be fine if the prime generator is faster than it is now.
The only part that needs to be replaced/modified is the portion of isprime below the comment /* Extend table and do lookup */. Basically that whole section just becomes a series of calls to mpz_nextprime instead of recursion.
At that point, you may as well adapt isprime to use mpz_probab_prime_p when possible. You only need to check for sure if the result of mpz_probab_prime_p is uncertain:
int isprime(mpz_t num, PrimeTable *table)
{
mpz_t max, rem, next;
size_t i, r;
int status;
status = mpz_probab_prime_p(num, 50);
// Status = 2 -> definite yes, Status = 0 -> definite no
if(status != 1)
return status != 0;
mpz_inits(max, rem, NULL);
mpz_sqrtrem(max, rem, num);
// Check if perfect square: definitely not prime
if(!mpz_cmp_si(rem, 0)) {
mpz_clears(rem, max, NULL);
return 0;
}
mpz_clear(rem);
/* Normal table lookup */
for(i = 0; i < table->size; i++) {
// Got to sqrt(n) -> prime
if(mpz_cmp(max, table->numbers[i]) < 0) {
mpz_clear(max);
return 1;
}
// Found a factor -> not prime
if(mpz_divisible_p(num, table->numbers[i])) {
mpz_clear(max);
return 0;
}
}
/* Extend table and do lookup */
// Start with last found prime + 2
mpz_init_set(next, table->numbers[i - 1]);
mpz_add_ui(next, next, 2);
// Step along probable primes
for(;;) {
mpz_nextprime(next, next);
append_table(table, next);
if(mpz_divisible_p(num, next)) {
r = 0;
break;
}
if(mpz_cmp(max, next) <= 0) {
r = 1;
break;
}
}
mpz_clears(next, max, NULL);
return r;
}
Sure enough, this version makes it to n == 79 in a couple of seconds at most. It appears to get stuck on n == 80, probably because mpz_probab_prime_p can't determine if k is a prime for sure. I doubt that computing all the primes up to ~10^80 is going to take a trivial amount of time.

Algorithm for finding continuous repeated sequences

I'm looking for an algorithm that finds short tandem repeats in a genome sequence.
Basically, given a really long string which can only consist of the 4 characters 'ATCG', I need to find short repeats between 2-5 characters long that are next to each other.
ex:
TACATGAGATCATGATGATGATGATGGAGCTGTGAGATC
would give ATGATGATG or ATG repeated 3 times
The algorithm needs to scale up to a string of 1 million characters so I'm trying to get as close to linear runtime as possible.
My current algorithm:
Since the repeats can be 2-5 characters long, I check the string character by character and see if the Nth character is the same as the N+Xth character, with X being 2 through 5. With a counter for each X that counts sequential matches and resets at a mismatch, we know if there is a repeat when X = the counter. The subsequent repeats can then be checked manually.
You are looking at each character which gives you O(n), since you compare on each character the next (maximum) five characters this gives you a constant c:
var data = get_input();
var compare = { `A`, `T`, `G`, `A`, `T` } // or whatever
var MAX_LOOKAHEAD = compare.length
var n
var c
for(n = data_array.length; n < size; i++) { // Has runtime O(n)
for(c = 0; c < MAX_LOOKAHEAD; c++) { // Maximum O(c)
if( compare[c] != data[i+c] ) {
break;
} else {
report( "found match at position " + i )
}
}
}
It is easy to see that this runs O(n*c) times. Since c is very small it can be ignored - and I think one can not get rid of that constant - which results in a total runtime of O(n).
The good news:
You can speed this up with parallelization. E.g. you could split this up in k intervals and let multiple threads do the job for you by giving them appropriate start and end indices. This could give you a linear speedup.
If you do that make sure that you treat the intersections as special cases since you could miss a match if your intervals split a match in two.
E.g. n = 50000:
Partition for 4 threads: (n/10000) - 1 = 4. The 5th thread won't have a lot to do since it just handles the intersections which is why we don't need to consider its (in our case tiny) overhead.
1 10000 20000 40000 50000
|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
| <- thread 1 -> | <- thread 2 -> | <- thread 3 -> | <- thread 4 -> |
|---| |---| |---|
|___________________|___________________|
|
thread 5
And this is how it could look like:
var data;
var compare = { `A`, `T`, `G`, `A`, `T` };
var MAX_LOOKAHEAD = compare.length;
thread_function(args[]) {
var from = args[0];
var to = args[1];
for(n = from ; n < to ; i++) {
for(c = 0; c < MAX_LOOKAHEAD; c++) {
if( compare[c] != data[i+c] ) {
break;
} else {
report( "found match at position " + i )
}
}
}
}
main() {
var data_size = 50000;
var thread_count = 4;
var interval_size = data_size / ( thread_count + 1) ;
var tid[]
// This loop starts the threads for us:
for( var i = 0; i < thread_count; i++ ) {
var args = { interval_size * i, (interval_size * i) + interval_size };
tid.add( create_thread( thread_function, args ) );
}
// And this handles the intersections:
for( var i = 1; i < thread_count - 1; i++ ) {
var args = { interval_size * i, (interval_size * i) + interval_size };
from = (interval_size * i) - compare.length + 1;
to = (interval_size * i) + compare.length - 1;
for(j = from; j < to ; j++) {
for(k = 0; k < MAX_LOOKAHEAD; k++) {
if( compare[k] != data[j+k] ) {
break;
} else {
report( "found match at position " + j )
}
}
}
}
wait_for_multiple_threads( tid );
}

Playing baudio multiple sounds

I recently discovered baudio NodeJS library that is awesome.
I have the following code:
var baudio = require("baudio")
, b = baudio()
, tau = 2 * Math.PI
;
function playSound (f, duration) {
console.log(f, duration);
b.push(function (t) {
return (square (f) + square (f + 1)) * (t < duration);
function square (freq) {
return Math.sin(tau * t * freq) < 0 ? -1 : 1;
}
});
b.play();
}
playSound(440, 2) will play A key for 2 seconds. This is right. If I make another call to playSound function, no other sounds will be played.
Why? How can I play other sounds after the first one was played or is playing?
Your playSound() function should accept a parameter t in seconds and you can use modulo to replay the sound. For an example of this consider this pluck function:
return function (t, i) {
return pluck(t % 0.5, 100, 10, 10);
}
function pluck (t, freq, duration, steps) {
var n = duration;
var scalar = Math.max(0, 0.95 - (t * n) / ((t * n) + 1));
var sum = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
sum += Math.sin(2 * Math.PI * t * (freq + i * freq));
}
return scalar * sum / 6;
}
Use this link to experiment with a live version.
Don't use setTimeout, setInterval, or other kinds of IO in songs. It will perform very poorly because of how baudio interacts with the event loop (it pegs it and there is not a 1:1 correspondence between system time and music time).
If you run playSound(440, 2); and then periodically check b.t, you'll see that it is still increasing after the 2 seconds is up, and if you check top or ps, you'll see that a sox process is still chugging along.
It turns out baudio is pretty much a wrapper around sox, which is sweet, and the baudio::play method returns a reference to a child process running sox.
So anyway, there's likely a better way, but you can make it work by killing the process at the end of your duration and newing up a new process with each call to playSound like:
var baudio = require("baudio");
function square(freq, t) {
return Math.sin(2 * Math.PI * t * freq) < 0 ? -1 : 1;
}
function playSound(f, duration) {
var b = baudio();
b.push(function (t) {
return (square (f, t) + square (f + 1, t)) * (t < duration);
});
var ps = b.play();
setTimeout(function() {
ps.kill('SIGHUP');
b.t = 0;
}
, duration * 1000);
}
playSound(440, 2);
this works in node 0.8.24, but not so well in 0.10.26... not sure why

Google Interview : Find Crazy Distance Between Strings

This Question was asked to me at the Google interview. I could do it O(n*n) ... Can I do it in better time.
A string can be formed only by 1 and 0.
Definition:
X & Y are strings formed by 0 or 1
D(X,Y) = Remove the things common at the start from both X & Y. Then add the remaining lengths from both the strings.
For e.g.
D(1111, 1000) = Only First alphabet is common. So the remaining string is 111 & 000. Therefore the result length("111") & length("000") = 3 + 3 = 6
D(101, 1100) = Only First two alphabets are common. So the remaining string is 01 & 100. Therefore the result length("01") & length("100") = 2 + 3 = 5
It is pretty that obvious that do find out such a crazy distance is going to be linear. O(m).
Now the question is
given n input, say like
1111
1000
101
1100
Find out the maximum crazy distance possible.
n is the number of input strings.
m is the max length of any input string.
The solution of O(n2 * m) is pretty simple. Can it be done in a better way?
Let's assume that m is fixed. Can we do this in better than O(n^2) ?
Put the strings into a tree, where 0 means go left and 1 means go right. So for example
1111
1000
101
1100
would result in a tree like
Root
1
0 1
0 1* 0 1
0* 0* 1*
where the * means that an element ends there. Constructing this tree clearly takes O(n m).
Now we have to find the diameter of the tree (the longest path between two nodes, which is the same thing as the "crazy distance"). The optimized algorithm presented there hits each node in the tree once. There are at most min(n m, 2^m) such nodes.
So if n m < 2^m, then the the algorithm is O(n m).
If n m > 2^m (and we necessarily have repeated inputs), then the algorithm is still O(n m) from the first step.
This also works for strings with a general alphabet; for an alphabet with k letters build a k-ary tree, in which case the runtime is still O(n m) by the same reasoning, though it takes k times as much memory.
I think this is possible in O(nm) time by creating a binary tree where each bit in a string encodes the path (0 left, 1 right). Then finding the maximum distance between nodes of the tree which can be done in O(n) time.
This is my solution, I think it works:
Create a binary tree from all strings. The tree will be constructed in this way:
at every round, select a string and add it to the tree. so for your example, the tree will be:
<root>
<1> <empty>
<1> <0>
<1> <0> <1> <0>
<1> <0> <0>
So each path from root to a leaf will represent a string.
Now the distance between each two leaves is the distance between two strings. To find the crazy distance, you must find the diameter of this graph, that you can do it easily by dfs or bfs.
The total complexity of this algorithm is:
O(n*m) + O(n*m) = O(n*m).
I think this problem is something like "find prefix for two strings", you can use trie(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trie) to accerlate searching
I have a google phone interview 3 days before, but maybe I failed...
Best luck to you
To get an answer in O(nm) just iterate across the characters of all string (this is an O(n) operation). We will compare at most m characters, so this will be done O(m). This gives a total of O(nm). Here's a C++ solution:
int max_distance(char** strings, int numstrings, int &distance) {
distance = 0;
// loop O(n) for initialization
for (int i=0; i<numstrings; i++)
distance += strlen(strings[i]);
int max_prefix = 0;
bool done = false;
// loop max O(m)
while (!done) {
int c = -1;
// loop O(n)
for (int i=0; i<numstrings; i++) {
if (strings[i][max_prefix] == 0) {
done = true; // it is enough to reach the end of one string to be done
break;
}
int new_element = strings[i][max_prefix] - '0';
if (-1 == c)
c = new_element;
else {
if (c != new_element) {
done = true; // mismatch
break;
}
}
}
if (!done) {
max_prefix++;
distance -= numstrings;
}
}
return max_prefix;
}
void test_misc() {
char* strings[] = {
"10100",
"10101110",
"101011",
"101"
};
std::cout << std::endl;
int distance = 0;
std::cout << "max_prefix = " << max_distance(strings, sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0]), distance) << std::endl;
}
Not sure why use trees when iteration gives you the same big O computational complexity without the code complexity. anyway here is my version of it in javascript O(mn)
var len = process.argv.length -2; // in node first 2 arguments are node and program file
var input = process.argv.splice(2);
var current;
var currentCount = 0;
var currentCharLoc = 0;
var totalCount = 0;
var totalComplete = 0;
var same = true;
while ( totalComplete < len ) {
current = null;
currentCount = 0;
for ( var loc = 0 ; loc < len ; loc++) {
if ( input[loc].length === currentCharLoc) {
totalComplete++;
same = false;
} else if (input[loc].length > currentCharLoc) {
currentCount++;
if (same) {
if ( current === null ) {
current = input[loc][currentCharLoc];
} else {
if (current !== input[loc][currentCharLoc]) {
same = false;
}
}
}
}
}
if (!same) {
totalCount += currentCount;
}
currentCharLoc++;
}
console.log(totalCount);

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