127 Word Ladder

Given two words (beginWord and endWord), and a dictionary's word list, find the length of shortest transformation sequence from beginWord to endWord, such that:

1. Only one letter can be changed at a time.
2. Each transformed word must exist in the word list. Note that beginWord is not a transformed word.

Note:

• Return 0 if there is no such transformation sequence.
• All words have the same length.
• All words contain only lowercase alphabetic characters.
• You may assume no duplicates in the word list.
• You may assume beginWord and endWord are non-empty and are not the same.

Example 1:

Input:
beginWord = "hit",
endWord = "cog",
wordList = ["hot","dot","dog","lot","log","cog"]

Output: 5

Explanation: As one shortest transformation is "hit" -> "hot" -> "dot" -> "dog" -> "cog",
return its length 5.

Example 2:

Input:
beginWord = "hit"
endWord = "cog"
wordList = ["hot","dot","dog","lot","log"]

Output: 0

Explanation: The endWord "cog" is not in wordList, therefore no possible transformation.

求最短路径，用广搜

/**
 *
 * @author dongb
 * Word Ladder
 * BFS, one side
 * TC O(n), SC O(n)
 */
public class Solution {
    public static int ladderLength(String beginWord, String endWord, List<String> wordList) {
        // change from Set<String> wordList to List<String> wordList
        Set<String> words = new HashSet<>();
        words.addAll(wordList);
        
        Set<String> visited = new HashSet<>();
        visited.add(beginWord);
        Queue<String> queue = new LinkedList<>();
        queue.add(beginWord);
        
        int len = 1;
        while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
            int size = queue.size();
            
            for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
                String word = queue.poll();
                // Another way to achieve the switch letter in words
                char[] chars = word.toCharArray();
                for (char c = 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++) {
                    for (int j = 0; j < chars.length; j++) {
                        if (chars[j] == c) {
                            continue;
                        }
                        char old = chars[j];
                        chars[j] = c;
                        String newWord = new String(chars);
                        if (words.contains(newWord)) {
                            if (newWord.equals(endWord)) {
                                return len + 1;
                            } else if (visited.add(newWord)) {
                                queue.add(newWord);
                            }    
                        }
                        chars[j] = old;
                    }
                }
            }
            len++;
        }
        return 0;
    }
    
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        Scanner cin = new Scanner(System.in);
        String beginWord = cin.next();
        String endWord = cin.next();
        List<String> wordList = Arrays.asList("hot","dot","dog","lot","log","cog");
        int answer = ladderLength(beginWord, endWord, wordList);
        System.out.println(answer);
    }
}

/**
 *
 * @author dongb
 * Word Ladder
 * BFS, one side
 * TC O(n), SC O(n)
 */
public class Solution {
    public static int ladderLength(String beginWord, String endWord, List<String> wordList) {
        // change from Set<String> wordList to List<String> wordList
        Set<String> words = new HashSet<>();
        words.addAll(wordList);
        
        Set<String> visited = new HashSet<>();
        visited.add(beginWord);
        Queue<String> queue = new LinkedList<>();
        queue.add(beginWord);
        
        int len = 1;
        while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
            int size = queue.size();
            
            for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
                String word = queue.poll();
                // Another way to achieve the switch letter in words
                char[] chars = word.toCharArray();
                for (char c = 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++) {
                    for (int j = 0; j < chars.length; j++) {
                        if (chars[j] == c) {
                            continue;
                        }
                        char old = chars[j];
                        chars[j] = c;
                        String newWord = new String(chars);
                        if (words.contains(newWord)) {
                            if (newWord.equals(endWord)) {
                                return len + 1;
                            } else if (visited.add(newWord)) {
                                queue.add(newWord);
                            }    
                        }
                        chars[j] = old;
                    }
                }
            }
            len++;
        }
        return 0;
    }
    
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        Scanner cin = new Scanner(System.in);
        String beginWord = cin.next();
        String endWord = cin.next();
        List<String> wordList = Arrays.asList("hot","dot","dog","lot","log","cog");
        int answer = ladderLength(beginWord, endWord, wordList);
        System.out.println(answer);
    }
}