Recursive Merge Sort C++ - visual-c++

I want to write a recursive merge sort program in C++. The problem is, I don't know how to get the base case idea working recursively. Can anybody please tell me what would be the base case for Merg Function(), Split Function() and MergSort() function. I would be thankful to you.
void Merg(int A[], int s1, int e1, int s2, int e2)
{
int B[8];
int i=0;
while (A[s1] < A[s2])
B[i] = B[s1];
i++;
s1++;
if (s1 == e1)
{
B[i] = A[s2];
i++;
s2++;
}
while (A[s2] < A[s1])
B[i] = B[s2];
i++;
s2++;
if (s2 == e2)
{
B[i] = A[s1];
i++;
s1++;
}
}
void Split(int A[], int s, int e)
{
int mid = (s+e)/2;
if (s < e && mid != 0)
{
Split(A, s, mid);
Split(A, mid+1, e);
}
Merg(A, s, mid, mid+1, e);
}
int main()
{
int A[8] = {10,4,8,12,11,2,7,5};
Split(A, 0, 7);
return 0;
}

The base case is an array that is guaranteed to be sorted, so either an empty array or an array of length 1.
Your merge function is not correct, but at least contains most of the right ideas. All you need there is a further wrapping loop and a few conditions to prevent your merge running past the end of the arrays. The split function is totally off, splitting is not recursive, further splits happen inside the recursive mergeSort calls.
if length(A) < 2 return // already sorted
split A in lower half L and upper half H
merge-sort L
merge-sort H
merge the sorted L and H
done

Related

Minimum number of swaps to convert a string to palindrome

We are given a string and we have to find out the minimum number of swaps to convert it into a palindrome.
Ex-
Given string: ntiin
Palindrome: nitin
Minimum number of swaps: 1
If it is not possible to convert it into a palindrome, return -1.
I am unable to think of any approach except brute force. We can check on the first and last characters, if they are equal, we check for the smaller substring, and then apply brute force on it. But this will be of a very high complexity, and I feel this question can be solved in another way. Maybe dynamic programming. How to approach it?
First you could check if the string can be converted to a palindrome.
Just have an array of letters (26 chars if all letters are latin lowercase), and count the number of each letter in the input string.
If string length is even, all letters counts should be even.
If string length is odd, all letters counts should be even except one.
This first pass in O(n) will already treat all -1 cases.
If the string length is odd, start by moving the element with odd count to the middle.
Then you can apply following procedure:
Build a weighted graph with the following logic for an input string S of length N:
For every element from index 0 to N/2-1:
- If symmetric element S[N-index-1] is same continue
- If different, create edge between the 2 characters (alphabetic order), or increment weight of an existing one
The idea is that when a weight is even you can do a 'good swap' by forming two pairs in one swap.
When weight is odd, you cannot place two pairs in one swap, your swaps need to form a cycle
1. For instance "a b a b"
One edge between a,b of weight 2:
a - b (2)
Return 1
2. For instance: "a b c b a c"
a - c (1)
b - a (1)
c - b (1)
See the cycle: a - b, b - c, c - a
After a swap of a,c you get:
a - a (1)
b - c (1)
c - b (1)
Which is after ignoring first one and merge 2 & 3:
c - b (2)
Which is even, you get to the result in one swap
Return 2
3. For instance: "a b c a b c"
a - c (2)
One swap and you are good
So basically after your graph is generated, add to the result the weight/2 (integer division e.g. 7/3 = 3) of each edge
Plus find the cycles and add to the result length-1 of each cycle
there is the same question as asked!
https://www.codechef.com/problems/ENCD12
I got ac for this solution
https://www.ideone.com/8wF9DT
//minimum adjacent swaps to make a string to its palindrome
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
bool check(string s)
{
int n=s.length();
map<char,int> m;
for(auto i:s)
{
m[i]++;
}
int cnt=0;
for(auto i=m.begin();i!=m.end();i++)
{
if(i->second%2)
{
cnt++;
}
}
if(n%2&&cnt==1){return true;}
if(!(n%2)&&cnt==0){return true;}
return false;
}
int main()
{
string a;
while(cin>>a)
{
if(a[0]=='0')
{
break;
}
string s;s=a;
int n=s.length();
//first check if
int cnt=0;
bool ini=false;
if(n%2){ini=true;}
if(check(s))
{
for(int i=0;i<n/2;i++)
{
bool fl=false;
int j=0;
for(j=n-1-i;j>i;j--)
{
if(s[j]==s[i])
{
fl=true;
for(int k=j;k<n-1-i;k++)
{
swap(s[k],s[k+1]);
cnt++;
// cout<<cnt<<endl<<flush;
}
// cout<<" "<<i<<" "<<cnt<<endl<<flush;
break;
}
}
if(!fl&&ini)
{
for(int k=i;k<n/2;k++)
{
swap(s[k],s[k+1]);
cnt++;
}
// cout<<cnt<<" "<<i<<" "<<endl<<flush;
}
}
cout<<cnt<<endl;
}
else{
cout<<"Impossible"<<endl;
}
}
}
Hope it helps!
Technique behind my code is Greedy
first check if palindrome string can exist for the the string and if it can
there would be two cases one is when the string length would be odd then only count of one char has be odd
and if even then no count should be odd
then
from index 0 to n/2-1 do the following
fix this character and search for this char from n-i-1 to i+1
if found then swap from that position (lets say j) to its new position n-i-1
if the string length is odd then every time you encounter a char with no other occurence shift it to n/2th position..
My solution revolves around the palindrome property that first element and last element should match and if their adjacent elements also do not match then its not a palindrome. Keep comparing and swapping till both reach the same element or adjacent elements.
Written solution in java as below:
public static void main(String args[]){
String input = "natinat";
char[] arr = input.toCharArray();
int swap = 0;
int i = 0;
int j = arr.length-1;
char temp;
while(i<j){
if(arr[i] != arr[j]){
if(arr[i+1] == arr[j]){
//swap i and i+1 and increment i, decrement j, swap++
temp = arr[i];
arr[i] = arr[i+1];
arr[i+1] = temp;
i++;j--;
swap++;
} else if(arr[i] == arr[j-1]){
//swap j and j-1 and increment i, decrement j, swap++
temp = arr[j];
arr[j] = arr[j-1];
arr[j-1] = temp;
i++;j--;
swap++;
} else if(arr[i+1] == arr[j-1] && i+1 != j-1){
//swap i and i+1, swap j and j-1 and increment i, decrement j, swap+2
temp = arr[j];
arr[j] = arr[j-1];
arr[j-1] = temp;
temp = arr[i];
arr[i] = arr[i+1];
arr[i+1] = temp;
i++;j--;
swap = swap+2;
}else{
swap = -1;break;
}
} else{
//increment i, decrement j
i++;j--;
}
}
System.out.println("No Of Swaps: "+swap);
}
My solution in java for any type of string i.e Binary String, Numbers
public int countSwapInPalindrome(String s){
int length = s.length();
if (length == 0 || length == 1) return -1;
char[] str = s.toCharArray();
int start = 0, end = length - 1;
int count = 0;
while (start < end) {
if (str[start] != str[end]){
boolean isSwapped = false;
for (int i = start + 1; i < end; i++){
if (str[start] == str[i]){
char temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[end];
str[end] = temp;
count++;
isSwapped = true;
break;
}else if (str[end] == str[i]){
char temp = str[i];
str[i] = str[start];
str[start] = temp;
count++;
isSwapped = true;
break;
}
}
if (!isSwapped) return -1;
}
start++;
end--;
}
return (s.equals(String.valueOf(str))) ? -1 : count;
}
I hope it helps
string s;
cin>>s;
int n = s.size(),odd=0;
vi cnt(26,0);
unordered_map<int,set<int>>mp;
for(int i=0;i<n;i++){
cnt[s[i]-'a']++;
mp[s[i]-'a'].insert(i);
}
for(int i=0;i<26;i++){
if(cnt[i]&1) odd++;
}
int ans=0;
if((n&1 && odd == 1)|| ((n&1) == 0 && odd == 0)){
int left=0,right=n-1;
while(left < right){
if(s[left] == s[right]){
cnt[left]--;
cnt[right]--;
mp[s[left]-'a'].erase(left);
mp[s[right]-'a'].erase(right);
left++;
right--;
}else{
if(cnt[left]&1 == 0){
ans++;
int index = *mp[s[left]-'a'].rbegin();
mp[s[left]-'a'].erase(index);
mp[s[right]-'a'].erase(right);
mp[s[right]-'a'].insert(index);
swap(s[right],s[index]);
cnt[left]-=2;
}else{
ans++;
int index = *mp[s[right]-'a'].begin();
mp[s[right]-'a'].erase(index);
mp[s[left]-'a'].erase(left);
mp[s[left]-'a'].insert(index);
swap(s[left],s[index]);
cnt[right]-=2;
}
left++;
right--;
}
}
}else{
// cout<<odd<<" ";
cout<<"-1\n";
return;
}
cout<<ans<<"\n";

Maximum element in array which is equal to product of two elements in array

We need to find the maximum element in an array which is also equal to product of two elements in the same array. For example [2,3,6,8] , here 6=2*3 so answer is 6.
My approach was to sort the array and followed by a two pointer method which checked whether the product exist for each element. This is o(nlog(n)) + O(n^2) = O(n^2) approach. Is there a faster way to this ?
There is a slight better solution with O(n * sqrt(n)) if you are allowed to use O(M) memory M = max number in A[i]
Use an array of size M to mark every number while you traverse them from smaller to bigger number.
For each number try all its factors and see if those were already present in the array map.
Here is a pseudo code for that:
#define M 1000000
int array_map[M+2];
int ans = -1;
sort(A,A+n);
for(i=0;i<n;i++) {
for(j=1;j<=sqrt(A[i]);j++) {
int num1 = j;
if(A[i]%num1==0) {
int num2 = A[i]/num1;
if(array_map[num1] && array_map[num2]) {
if(num1==num2) {
if(array_map[num1]>=2) ans = A[i];
} else {
ans = A[i];
}
}
}
}
array_map[A[i]]++;
}
There is an ever better approach if you know how to find all possible factors in log(M) this just becomes O(n*logM). You have to use sieve and backtracking for that
#JerryGoyal 's solution is correct. However, I think it can be optimized even further if instead of using B pointer, we use binary search to find the other factor of product if arr[c] is divisible by arr[a]. Here's the modification for his code:
for(c=n-1;(c>1)&& (max==-1);c--){ // loop through C
for(a=0;(a<c-1)&&(max==-1);a++){ // loop through A
if(arr[c]%arr[a]==0) // If arr[c] is divisible by arr[a]
{
if(binary_search(a+1, c-1, (arr[c]/arr[a]))) //#include<algorithm>
{
max = arr[c]; // if the other factor x of arr[c] is also in the array such that arr[c] = arr[a] * x
break;
}
}
}
}
I would have commented this on his solution, unfortunately I lack the reputation to do so.
Try this.
Written in c++
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
int MaxElement(vector< int > Input)
{
sort(Input.begin(), Input.end());
int LargestElementOfInput = 0;
int i = 0;
while (i < Input.size() - 1)
{
if (LargestElementOfInput == Input[Input.size() - (i + 1)])
{
i++;
continue;
}
else
{
if (Input[i] != 0)
{
LargestElementOfInput = Input[Input.size() - (i + 1)];
int AllowedValue = LargestElementOfInput / Input[i];
int j = 0;
while (j < Input.size())
{
if (Input[j] > AllowedValue)
break;
else if (j == i)
{
j++;
continue;
}
else
{
int Product = Input[i] * Input[j++];
if (Product == LargestElementOfInput)
return Product;
}
}
}
i++;
}
}
return -1;
}
Once you have sorted the array, then you can use it to your advantage as below.
One improvement I can see - since you want to find the max element that meets the criteria,
Start from the right most element of the array. (8)
Divide that with the first element of the array. (8/2 = 4).
Now continue with the double pointer approach, till the element at second pointer is less than the value from the step 2 above or the match is found. (i.e., till second pointer value is < 4 or match is found).
If the match is found, then you got the max element.
Else, continue the loop with next highest element from the array. (6).
Efficient solution:
2 3 8 6
Sort the array
keep 3 pointers C, B and A.
Keeping C at the last and A at 0 index and B at 1st index.
traverse the array using pointers A and B till C and check if A*B=C exists or not.
If it exists then C is your answer.
Else, Move C a position back and traverse again keeping A at 0 and B at 1st index.
Keep repeating this till you get the sum or C reaches at 1st index.
Here's the complete solution:
int arr[] = new int[]{2, 3, 8, 6};
Arrays.sort(arr);
int n=arr.length;
int a,b,c,prod,max=-1;
for(c=n-1;(c>1)&& (max==-1);c--){ // loop through C
for(a=0;(a<c-1)&&(max==-1);a++){ // loop through A
for(b=a+1;b<c;b++){ // loop through B
prod=arr[a]*arr[b];
if(prod==arr[c]){
System.out.println("A: "+arr[a]+" B: "+arr[b]);
max=arr[c];
break;
}
if(prod>arr[c]){ // no need to go further
break;
}
}
}
}
System.out.println(max);
I came up with below solution where i am using one array list, and following one formula:
divisor(a or b) X quotient(b or a) = dividend(c)
Sort the array.
Put array into Collection Col.(ex. which has faster lookup, and maintains insertion order)
Have 2 pointer a,c.
keep c at last, and a at 0.
try to follow (divisor(a or b) X quotient(b or a) = dividend(c)).
Check if a is divisor of c, if yes then check for b in col.(a
If a is divisor and list has b, then c is the answer.
else increase a by 1, follow step 5, 6 till c-1.
if max not found then decrease c index, and follow the steps 4 and 5.
Check this C# solution:
-Loop through each element,
-loop and multiply each element with other elements,
-verify if the product exists in the array and is the max
private static int GetGreatest(int[] input)
{
int max = 0;
int p = 0; //product of pairs
//loop through the input array
for (int i = 0; i < input.Length; i++)
{
for (int j = i + 1; j < input.Length; j++)
{
p = input[i] * input[j];
if (p > max && Array.IndexOf(input, p) != -1)
{
max = p;
}
}
}
return max;
}
Time complexity O(n^2)

NxN matrix is given and we have to find

N things to select for N people, you were given a NxN matrix and cost at each element, you needed to find the one combination with max total weight, such that each person gets exactly one thing.
I found difficulty in making its dp state.
please help me and if possible then also write code for it
C++ style code:
double max_rec(int n, int r, int* c, double** m, bool* f)
{
if (r < n)
{
double max_v = 0.0;
int max_i = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
if (f[i] == false)
{
f[i] = true;
double value = m[r][i] + max_rec(n, r + 1, c, m, f);
if (value > max_v)
{
max_v = value;
max_i = i;
}
f[i] = false;
}
}
c[i] = max_i;
return max_v;
}
return 0.0;
}
int* max_comb(int n, double** m)
{
bool* f = new bool[n];
int* c = new int[n];
max_rec(n, 0, c, m, f);
delete [] f;
return c;
}
Call max_comb with N and your NxN matrix (2d array). Returns the column indices of the maximum combination.
Time complexity: O(N!)
I know this is bad but the problem does not have a greedy structure.
And as #mszalbach said, try to attempt the problem yourself before asking.
EDIT: can reduce to polynomial time by memoizing.

Generate all compositions of an integer into k parts

I can't figure out how to generate all compositions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_%28number_theory%29) of an integer N into K parts, but only doing it one at a time. That is, I need a function that given the previous composition generated, returns the next one in the sequence. The reason is that memory is limited for my application. This would be much easier if I could use Python and its generator functionality, but I'm stuck with C++.
This is similar to Next Composition of n into k parts - does anyone have a working algorithm?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Preliminary remarks
First start from the observation that [1,1,...,1,n-k+1] is the first composition (in lexicographic order) of n over k parts, and [n-k+1,1,1,...,1] is the last one.
Now consider an exemple: the composition [2,4,3,1,1], here n = 11 and k=5. Which is the next one in lexicographic order? Obviously the rightmost part to be incremented is 4, because [3,1,1] is the last composition of 5 over 3 parts.
4 is at the left of 3, the rightmost part different from 1.
So turn 4 into 5, and replace [3,1,1] by [1,1,2], the first composition of the remainder (3+1+1)-1 , giving [2,5,1,1,2]
Generation program (in C)
The following C program shows how to compute such compositions on demand in lexicographic order
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
bool get_first_composition(int n, int k, int composition[k])
{
if (n < k) {
return false;
}
for (int i = 0; i < k - 1; i++) {
composition[i] = 1;
}
composition[k - 1] = n - k + 1;
return true;
}
bool get_next_composition(int n, int k, int composition[k])
{
if (composition[0] == n - k + 1) {
return false;
}
// there'a an i with composition[i] > 1, and it is not 0.
// find the last one
int last = k - 1;
while (composition[last] == 1) {
last--;
}
// turn a b ... y z 1 1 ... 1
// ^ last
// into a b ... (y+1) 1 1 1 ... (z-1)
// be careful, there may be no 1's at the end
int z = composition[last];
composition[last - 1] += 1;
composition[last] = 1;
composition[k - 1] = z - 1;
return true;
}
void display_composition(int k, int composition[k])
{
char *separator = "[";
for (int i = 0; i < k; i++) {
printf("%s%d", separator, composition[i]);
separator = ",";
}
printf("]\n");
}
void display_all_compositions(int n, int k)
{
int composition[k]; // VLA. Please don't use silly values for k
for (bool exists = get_first_composition(n, k, composition);
exists;
exists = get_next_composition(n, k, composition)) {
display_composition(k, composition);
}
}
int main()
{
display_all_compositions(5, 3);
}
Results
[1,1,3]
[1,2,2]
[1,3,1]
[2,1,2]
[2,2,1]
[3,1,1]
Weak compositions
A similar algorithm works for weak compositions (where 0 is allowed).
bool get_first_weak_composition(int n, int k, int composition[k])
{
if (n < k) {
return false;
}
for (int i = 0; i < k - 1; i++) {
composition[i] = 0;
}
composition[k - 1] = n;
return true;
}
bool get_next_weak_composition(int n, int k, int composition[k])
{
if (composition[0] == n) {
return false;
}
// there'a an i with composition[i] > 0, and it is not 0.
// find the last one
int last = k - 1;
while (composition[last] == 0) {
last--;
}
// turn a b ... y z 0 0 ... 0
// ^ last
// into a b ... (y+1) 0 0 0 ... (z-1)
// be careful, there may be no 0's at the end
int z = composition[last];
composition[last - 1] += 1;
composition[last] = 0;
composition[k - 1] = z - 1;
return true;
}
Results for n=5 k=3
[0,0,5]
[0,1,4]
[0,2,3]
[0,3,2]
[0,4,1]
[0,5,0]
[1,0,4]
[1,1,3]
[1,2,2]
[1,3,1]
[1,4,0]
[2,0,3]
[2,1,2]
[2,2,1]
[2,3,0]
[3,0,2]
[3,1,1]
[3,2,0]
[4,0,1]
[4,1,0]
[5,0,0]
Similar algorithms can be written for compositions of n into k parts greater than some fixed value.
You could try something like this:
start with the array [1,1,...,1,N-k+1] of (K-1) ones and 1 entry with the remainder. The next composition can be created by incrementing the (K-1)th element and decreasing the last element. Do this trick as long as the last element is bigger than the second to last.
When the last element becomes smaller, increment the (K-2)th element, set the (K-1)th element to the same value and set the last element to the remainder again. Repeat the process and apply the same principle for the other elements when necessary.
You end up with a constantly sorted array that avoids duplicate compositions

Generate list of all possible permutations of a string

How would I go about generating a list of all possible permutations of a string between x and y characters in length, containing a variable list of characters.
Any language would work, but it should be portable.
There are several ways to do this. Common methods use recursion, memoization, or dynamic programming. The basic idea is that you produce a list of all strings of length 1, then in each iteration, for all strings produced in the last iteration, add that string concatenated with each character in the string individually. (the variable index in the code below keeps track of the start of the last and the next iteration)
Some pseudocode:
list = originalString.split('')
index = (0,0)
list = [""]
for iteration n in 1 to y:
index = (index[1], len(list))
for string s in list.subset(index[0] to end):
for character c in originalString:
list.add(s + c)
you'd then need to remove all strings less than x in length, they'll be the first (x-1) * len(originalString) entries in the list.
It's better to use backtracking
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
void swap(char *a, char *b) {
char temp;
temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
}
void print(char *a, int i, int n) {
int j;
if(i == n) {
printf("%s\n", a);
} else {
for(j = i; j <= n; j++) {
swap(a + i, a + j);
print(a, i + 1, n);
swap(a + i, a + j);
}
}
}
int main(void) {
char a[100];
gets(a);
print(a, 0, strlen(a) - 1);
return 0;
}
You are going to get a lot of strings, that's for sure...
Where x and y is how you define them and r is the number of characters we are selecting from --if I am understanding you correctly. You should definitely generate these as needed and not get sloppy and say, generate a powerset and then filter the length of strings.
The following definitely isn't the best way to generate these, but it's an interesting aside, none-the-less.
Knuth (volume 4, fascicle 2, 7.2.1.3) tells us that (s,t)-combination is equivalent to s+1 things taken t at a time with repetition -- an (s,t)-combination is notation used by Knuth that is equal to . We can figure this out by first generating each (s,t)-combination in binary form (so, of length (s+t)) and counting the number of 0's to the left of each 1.
10001000011101 --> becomes the permutation: {0, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1}
Non recursive solution according to Knuth, Python example:
def nextPermutation(perm):
k0 = None
for i in range(len(perm)-1):
if perm[i]<perm[i+1]:
k0=i
if k0 == None:
return None
l0 = k0+1
for i in range(k0+1, len(perm)):
if perm[k0] < perm[i]:
l0 = i
perm[k0], perm[l0] = perm[l0], perm[k0]
perm[k0+1:] = reversed(perm[k0+1:])
return perm
perm=list("12345")
while perm:
print perm
perm = nextPermutation(perm)
You might look at "Efficiently Enumerating the Subsets of a Set", which describes an algorithm to do part of what you want - quickly generate all subsets of N characters from length x to y. It contains an implementation in C.
For each subset, you'd still have to generate all the permutations. For instance if you wanted 3 characters from "abcde", this algorithm would give you "abc","abd", "abe"...
but you'd have to permute each one to get "acb", "bac", "bca", etc.
Some working Java code based on Sarp's answer:
public class permute {
static void permute(int level, String permuted,
boolean used[], String original) {
int length = original.length();
if (level == length) {
System.out.println(permuted);
} else {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (!used[i]) {
used[i] = true;
permute(level + 1, permuted + original.charAt(i),
used, original);
used[i] = false;
}
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s = "hello";
boolean used[] = {false, false, false, false, false};
permute(0, "", used, s);
}
}
Here is a simple solution in C#.
It generates only the distinct permutations of a given string.
static public IEnumerable<string> permute(string word)
{
if (word.Length > 1)
{
char character = word[0];
foreach (string subPermute in permute(word.Substring(1)))
{
for (int index = 0; index <= subPermute.Length; index++)
{
string pre = subPermute.Substring(0, index);
string post = subPermute.Substring(index);
if (post.Contains(character))
continue;
yield return pre + character + post;
}
}
}
else
{
yield return word;
}
}
There are a lot of good answers here. I also suggest a very simple recursive solution in C++.
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
template<typename Consume>
void permutations(std::string s, Consume consume, std::size_t start = 0) {
if (start == s.length()) consume(s);
for (std::size_t i = start; i < s.length(); i++) {
std::swap(s[start], s[i]);
permutations(s, consume, start + 1);
}
}
int main(void) {
std::string s = "abcd";
permutations(s, [](std::string s) {
std::cout << s << std::endl;
});
}
Note: strings with repeated characters will not produce unique permutations.
I just whipped this up quick in Ruby:
def perms(x, y, possible_characters)
all = [""]
current_array = all.clone
1.upto(y) { |iteration|
next_array = []
current_array.each { |string|
possible_characters.each { |c|
value = string + c
next_array.insert next_array.length, value
all.insert all.length, value
}
}
current_array = next_array
}
all.delete_if { |string| string.length < x }
end
You might look into language API for built in permutation type functions, and you might be able to write more optimized code, but if the numbers are all that high, I'm not sure there is much of a way around having a lot of results.
Anyways, the idea behind the code is start with string of length 0, then keep track of all the strings of length Z where Z is the current size in the iteration. Then, go through each string and append each character onto each string. Finally at the end, remove any that were below the x threshold and return the result.
I didn't test it with potentially meaningless input (null character list, weird values of x and y, etc).
This is a translation of Mike's Ruby version, into Common Lisp:
(defun perms (x y original-string)
(loop with all = (list "")
with current-array = (list "")
for iteration from 1 to y
do (loop with next-array = nil
for string in current-array
do (loop for c across original-string
for value = (concatenate 'string string (string c))
do (push value next-array)
(push value all))
(setf current-array (reverse next-array)))
finally (return (nreverse (delete-if #'(lambda (el) (< (length el) x)) all)))))
And another version, slightly shorter and using more loop facility features:
(defun perms (x y original-string)
(loop repeat y
collect (loop for string in (or (car (last sets)) (list ""))
append (loop for c across original-string
collect (concatenate 'string string (string c)))) into sets
finally (return (loop for set in sets
append (loop for el in set when (>= (length el) x) collect el)))))
Here is a simple word C# recursive solution:
Method:
public ArrayList CalculateWordPermutations(string[] letters, ArrayList words, int index)
{
bool finished = true;
ArrayList newWords = new ArrayList();
if (words.Count == 0)
{
foreach (string letter in letters)
{
words.Add(letter);
}
}
for(int j=index; j<words.Count; j++)
{
string word = (string)words[j];
for(int i =0; i<letters.Length; i++)
{
if(!word.Contains(letters[i]))
{
finished = false;
string newWord = (string)word.Clone();
newWord += letters[i];
newWords.Add(newWord);
}
}
}
foreach (string newWord in newWords)
{
words.Add(newWord);
}
if(finished == false)
{
CalculateWordPermutations(letters, words, words.Count - newWords.Count);
}
return words;
}
Calling:
string[] letters = new string[]{"a","b","c"};
ArrayList words = CalculateWordPermutations(letters, new ArrayList(), 0);
... and here is the C version:
void permute(const char *s, char *out, int *used, int len, int lev)
{
if (len == lev) {
out[lev] = '\0';
puts(out);
return;
}
int i;
for (i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
if (! used[i])
continue;
used[i] = 1;
out[lev] = s[i];
permute(s, out, used, len, lev + 1);
used[i] = 0;
}
return;
}
permute (ABC) -> A.perm(BC) -> A.perm[B.perm(C)] -> A.perm[(*BC), (CB*)] -> [(*ABC), (BAC), (BCA*), (*ACB), (CAB), (CBA*)]
To remove duplicates when inserting each alphabet check to see if previous string ends with the same alphabet (why? -exercise)
public static void main(String[] args) {
for (String str : permStr("ABBB")){
System.out.println(str);
}
}
static Vector<String> permStr(String str){
if (str.length() == 1){
Vector<String> ret = new Vector<String>();
ret.add(str);
return ret;
}
char start = str.charAt(0);
Vector<String> endStrs = permStr(str.substring(1));
Vector<String> newEndStrs = new Vector<String>();
for (String endStr : endStrs){
for (int j = 0; j <= endStr.length(); j++){
if (endStr.substring(0, j).endsWith(String.valueOf(start)))
break;
newEndStrs.add(endStr.substring(0, j) + String.valueOf(start) + endStr.substring(j));
}
}
return newEndStrs;
}
Prints all permutations sans duplicates
Recursive solution in C++
int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
string s = "sarp";
bool used [4];
permute(0, "", used, s);
}
void permute(int level, string permuted, bool used [], string &original) {
int length = original.length();
if(level == length) { // permutation complete, display
cout << permuted << endl;
} else {
for(int i=0; i<length; i++) { // try to add an unused character
if(!used[i]) {
used[i] = true;
permute(level+1, original[i] + permuted, used, original); // find the permutations starting with this string
used[i] = false;
}
}
}
In Perl, if you want to restrict yourself to the lowercase alphabet, you can do this:
my #result = ("a" .. "zzzz");
This gives all possible strings between 1 and 4 characters using lowercase characters. For uppercase, change "a" to "A" and "zzzz" to "ZZZZ".
For mixed-case it gets much harder, and probably not doable with one of Perl's builtin operators like that.
Ruby answer that works:
class String
def each_char_with_index
0.upto(size - 1) do |index|
yield(self[index..index], index)
end
end
def remove_char_at(index)
return self[1..-1] if index == 0
self[0..(index-1)] + self[(index+1)..-1]
end
end
def permute(str, prefix = '')
if str.size == 0
puts prefix
return
end
str.each_char_with_index do |char, index|
permute(str.remove_char_at(index), prefix + char)
end
end
# example
# permute("abc")
The following Java recursion prints all permutations of a given string:
//call it as permut("",str);
public void permut(String str1,String str2){
if(str2.length() != 0){
char ch = str2.charAt(0);
for(int i = 0; i <= str1.length();i++)
permut(str1.substring(0,i) + ch + str1.substring(i,str1.length()),
str2.substring(1,str2.length()));
}else{
System.out.println(str1);
}
}
Following is the updated version of above "permut" method which makes n! (n factorial) less recursive calls compared to the above method
//call it as permut("",str);
public void permut(String str1,String str2){
if(str2.length() > 1){
char ch = str2.charAt(0);
for(int i = 0; i <= str1.length();i++)
permut(str1.substring(0,i) + ch + str1.substring(i,str1.length()),
str2.substring(1,str2.length()));
}else{
char ch = str2.charAt(0);
for(int i = 0; i <= str1.length();i++)
System.out.println(str1.substring(0,i) + ch + str1.substring(i,str1.length()),
str2.substring(1,str2.length()));
}
}
import java.util.*;
public class all_subsets {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String a = "abcd";
for(String s: all_perm(a)) {
System.out.println(s);
}
}
public static Set<String> concat(String c, Set<String> lst) {
HashSet<String> ret_set = new HashSet<String>();
for(String s: lst) {
ret_set.add(c+s);
}
return ret_set;
}
public static HashSet<String> all_perm(String a) {
HashSet<String> set = new HashSet<String>();
if(a.length() == 1) {
set.add(a);
} else {
for(int i=0; i<a.length(); i++) {
set.addAll(concat(a.charAt(i)+"", all_perm(a.substring(0, i)+a.substring(i+1, a.length()))));
}
}
return set;
}
}
I'm not sure why you would want to do this in the first place. The resulting set for any moderately large values of x and y will be huge, and will grow exponentially as x and/or y get bigger.
Lets say your set of possible characters is the 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet, and you ask your application to generate all permutations where length = 5. Assuming you don't run out of memory you'll get 11,881,376 (i.e. 26 to the power of 5) strings back. Bump that length up to 6, and you'll get 308,915,776 strings back. These numbers get painfully large, very quickly.
Here's a solution I put together in Java. You'll need to provide two runtime arguments (corresponding to x and y). Have fun.
public class GeneratePermutations {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int lower = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
int upper = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
if (upper < lower || upper == 0 || lower == 0) {
System.exit(0);
}
for (int length = lower; length <= upper; length++) {
generate(length, "");
}
}
private static void generate(int length, String partial) {
if (length <= 0) {
System.out.println(partial);
} else {
for (char c = 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++) {
generate(length - 1, partial + c);
}
}
}
}
Here's a non-recursive version I came up with, in javascript.
It's not based on Knuth's non-recursive one above, although it has some similarities in element swapping.
I've verified its correctness for input arrays of up to 8 elements.
A quick optimization would be pre-flighting the out array and avoiding push().
The basic idea is:
Given a single source array, generate a first new set of arrays which swap the first element with each subsequent element in turn, each time leaving the other elements unperturbed.
eg: given 1234, generate 1234, 2134, 3214, 4231.
Use each array from the previous pass as the seed for a new pass,
but instead of swapping the first element, swap the second element with each subsequent element. Also, this time, don't include the original array in the output.
Repeat step 2 until done.
Here is the code sample:
function oxe_perm(src, depth, index)
{
var perm = src.slice(); // duplicates src.
perm = perm.split("");
perm[depth] = src[index];
perm[index] = src[depth];
perm = perm.join("");
return perm;
}
function oxe_permutations(src)
{
out = new Array();
out.push(src);
for (depth = 0; depth < src.length; depth++) {
var numInPreviousPass = out.length;
for (var m = 0; m < numInPreviousPass; ++m) {
for (var n = depth + 1; n < src.length; ++n) {
out.push(oxe_perm(out[m], depth, n));
}
}
}
return out;
}
In ruby:
str = "a"
100_000_000.times {puts str.next!}
It is quite fast, but it is going to take some time =). Of course, you can start at "aaaaaaaa" if the short strings aren't interesting to you.
I might have misinterpreted the actual question though - in one of the posts it sounded as if you just needed a bruteforce library of strings, but in the main question it sounds like you need to permutate a particular string.
Your problem is somewhat similar to this one: http://beust.com/weblog/archives/000491.html (list all integers in which none of the digits repeat themselves, which resulted in a whole lot of languages solving it, with the ocaml guy using permutations, and some java guy using yet another solution).
I needed this today, and although the answers already given pointed me in the right direction, they weren't quite what I wanted.
Here's an implementation using Heap's method. The length of the array must be at least 3 and for practical considerations not be bigger than 10 or so, depending on what you want to do, patience and clock speed.
Before you enter your loop, initialise Perm(1 To N) with the first permutation, Stack(3 To N) with zeroes*, and Level with 2**. At the end of the loop call NextPerm, which will return false when we're done.
* VB will do that for you.
** You can change NextPerm a little to make this unnecessary, but it's clearer like this.
Option Explicit
Function NextPerm(Perm() As Long, Stack() As Long, Level As Long) As Boolean
Dim N As Long
If Level = 2 Then
Swap Perm(1), Perm(2)
Level = 3
Else
While Stack(Level) = Level - 1
Stack(Level) = 0
If Level = UBound(Stack) Then Exit Function
Level = Level + 1
Wend
Stack(Level) = Stack(Level) + 1
If Level And 1 Then N = 1 Else N = Stack(Level)
Swap Perm(N), Perm(Level)
Level = 2
End If
NextPerm = True
End Function
Sub Swap(A As Long, B As Long)
A = A Xor B
B = A Xor B
A = A Xor B
End Sub
'This is just for testing.
Private Sub Form_Paint()
Const Max = 8
Dim A(1 To Max) As Long, I As Long
Dim S(3 To Max) As Long, J As Long
Dim Test As New Collection, T As String
For I = 1 To UBound(A)
A(I) = I
Next
Cls
ScaleLeft = 0
J = 2
Do
If CurrentY + TextHeight("0") > ScaleHeight Then
ScaleLeft = ScaleLeft - TextWidth(" 0 ") * (UBound(A) + 1)
CurrentY = 0
CurrentX = 0
End If
T = vbNullString
For I = 1 To UBound(A)
Print A(I);
T = T & Hex(A(I))
Next
Print
Test.Add Null, T
Loop While NextPerm(A, S, J)
J = 1
For I = 2 To UBound(A)
J = J * I
Next
If J <> Test.Count Then Stop
End Sub
Other methods are described by various authors. Knuth describes two, one gives lexical order, but is complex and slow, the other is known as the method of plain changes. Jie Gao and Dianjun Wang also wrote an interesting paper.
Here is a link that describes how to print permutations of a string.
http://nipun-linuxtips.blogspot.in/2012/11/print-all-permutations-of-characters-in.html
This code in python, when called with allowed_characters set to [0,1] and 4 character max, would generate 2^4 results:
['0000', '0001', '0010', '0011', '0100', '0101', '0110', '0111', '1000', '1001', '1010', '1011', '1100', '1101', '1110', '1111']
def generate_permutations(chars = 4) :
#modify if in need!
allowed_chars = [
'0',
'1',
]
status = []
for tmp in range(chars) :
status.append(0)
last_char = len(allowed_chars)
rows = []
for x in xrange(last_char ** chars) :
rows.append("")
for y in range(chars - 1 , -1, -1) :
key = status[y]
rows[x] = allowed_chars[key] + rows[x]
for pos in range(chars - 1, -1, -1) :
if(status[pos] == last_char - 1) :
status[pos] = 0
else :
status[pos] += 1
break;
return rows
import sys
print generate_permutations()
Hope this is of use to you. Works with any character, not only numbers
Many of the previous answers used backtracking. This is the asymptotically optimal way O(n*n!) of generating permutations after initial sorting
class Permutation {
/* runtime -O(n) for generating nextPermutaion
* and O(n*n!) for generating all n! permutations with increasing sorted array as start
* return true, if there exists next lexicographical sequence
* e.g [a,b,c],3-> true, modifies array to [a,c,b]
* e.g [c,b,a],3-> false, as it is largest lexicographic possible */
public static boolean nextPermutation(char[] seq, int len) {
// 1
if (len <= 1)
return false;// no more perm
// 2: Find last j such that seq[j] <= seq[j+1]. Terminate if no such j exists
int j = len - 2;
while (j >= 0 && seq[j] >= seq[j + 1]) {
--j;
}
if (j == -1)
return false;// no more perm
// 3: Find last l such that seq[j] <= seq[l], then exchange elements j and l
int l = len - 1;
while (seq[j] >= seq[l]) {
--l;
}
swap(seq, j, l);
// 4: Reverse elements j+1 ... count-1:
reverseSubArray(seq, j + 1, len - 1);
// return seq, add store next perm
return true;
}
private static void swap(char[] a, int i, int j) {
char temp = a[i];
a[i] = a[j];
a[j] = temp;
}
private static void reverseSubArray(char[] a, int lo, int hi) {
while (lo < hi) {
swap(a, lo, hi);
++lo;
--hi;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
String str = "abcdefg";
char[] array = str.toCharArray();
Arrays.sort(array);
int cnt=0;
do {
System.out.println(new String(array));
cnt++;
}while(nextPermutation(array, array.length));
System.out.println(cnt);//5040=7!
}
//if we use "bab"-> "abb", "bab", "bba", 3(#permutations)
}
Recursive Approach
func StringPermutations(inputStr string) (permutations []string) {
for i := 0; i < len(inputStr); i++ {
inputStr = inputStr[1:] + inputStr[0:1]
if len(inputStr) <= 2 {
permutations = append(permutations, inputStr)
continue
}
leftPermutations := StringPermutations(inputStr[0 : len(inputStr)-1])
for _, leftPermutation := range leftPermutations {
permutations = append(permutations, leftPermutation+inputStr[len(inputStr)-1:])
}
}
return
}
Though this doesn't answer your question exactly, here's one way to generate every permutation of the letters from a number of strings of the same length: eg, if your words were "coffee", "joomla" and "moodle", you can expect output like "coodle", "joodee", "joffle", etc.
Basically, the number of combinations is the (number of words) to the power of (number of letters per word). So, choose a random number between 0 and the number of combinations - 1, convert that number to base (number of words), then use each digit of that number as the indicator for which word to take the next letter from.
eg: in the above example. 3 words, 6 letters = 729 combinations. Choose a random number: 465. Convert to base 3: 122020. Take the first letter from word 1, 2nd from word 2, 3rd from word 2, 4th from word 0... and you get... "joofle".
If you wanted all the permutations, just loop from 0 to 728. Of course, if you're just choosing one random value, a much simpler less-confusing way would be to loop over the letters. This method lets you avoid recursion, should you want all the permutations, plus it makes you look like you know Maths(tm)!
If the number of combinations is excessive, you can break it up into a series of smaller words and concatenate them at the end.
c# iterative:
public List<string> Permutations(char[] chars)
{
List<string> words = new List<string>();
words.Add(chars[0].ToString());
for (int i = 1; i < chars.Length; ++i)
{
int currLen = words.Count;
for (int j = 0; j < currLen; ++j)
{
var w = words[j];
for (int k = 0; k <= w.Length; ++k)
{
var nstr = w.Insert(k, chars[i].ToString());
if (k == 0)
words[j] = nstr;
else
words.Add(nstr);
}
}
}
return words;
}
def gen( x,y,list): #to generate all strings inserting y at different positions
list = []
list.append( y+x )
for i in range( len(x) ):
list.append( func(x,0,i) + y + func(x,i+1,len(x)-1) )
return list
def func( x,i,j ): #returns x[i..j]
z = ''
for i in range(i,j+1):
z = z+x[i]
return z
def perm( x , length , list ): #perm function
if length == 1 : # base case
list.append( x[len(x)-1] )
return list
else:
lists = perm( x , length-1 ,list )
lists_temp = lists #temporarily storing the list
lists = []
for i in range( len(lists_temp) ) :
list_temp = gen(lists_temp[i],x[length-2],lists)
lists += list_temp
return lists
def permutation(str)
posibilities = []
str.split('').each do |char|
if posibilities.size == 0
posibilities[0] = char.downcase
posibilities[1] = char.upcase
else
posibilities_count = posibilities.length
posibilities = posibilities + posibilities
posibilities_count.times do |i|
posibilities[i] += char.downcase
posibilities[i+posibilities_count] += char.upcase
end
end
end
posibilities
end
Here is my take on a non recursive version

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