78. Longest Common Prefix

78. Longest Common Prefix

Description:

Given k strings, find the longest common prefix (LCP).

Example
Example 1:
Input: “ABCD”, “ABEF”, “ACEF”
Output: “A”

Example 2:
Input: “ABCDEFG”, “ABCEFG” and “ABCEFA”
Output: “ABC”

Main Idea:

String Problem. Using two for-loop to solve this problem, the first for-loop iterate each string, the second one iterate the character of string. Every time second for-loop complete, it means every string has one more common prefix.

Time/Space Cost:

Time Cost: $O(nm)$
Space Cost: $O(1)$

Code:

class Solution {
public:
    /**
     * @param strs: A list of strings
     * @return: The longest common prefix
     */
    string longestCommonPrefix(vector<string> &strs) {
        // write your code here
        string res = "";
        if(strs.empty())
            return res;
        
        for(int j = 0; j < strs[0].size(); j++){
            for(int i = 1; i < strs.size(); i++){
                if(strs[i][j] != strs[0][j]){
                    return res;
                }
            }
            res += strs[0][j];
        }
        return res;
        
    }
};