72. Edit Distance

1. 原题

Given two words word1 and word2, find the minimum number of steps required to convert word1 to word2. (each operation is counted as 1 step.)

You have the following 3 operations permitted on a word:

a) Insert a character
b) Delete a character
c) Replace a character

2. 分析

• 把 a 转换成 b 的最小操作次数，也就是所谓的最小编辑距离
• 开一个二维数组$d[i][j]$来记录$a_0-a_i$与$b_0-b_j$之间的编辑距离，要递推时，需要考虑对其中一个字符串的删除操作、插入操作和替换操作分别花费的开销，从中找出一个最小的开销即为所求
• 如果这两个字符串分别在$i ,j$位置相同，那么可以判定他们在这个位置对应的编辑距离为都退一个的距离加1
  $d[i][j] = d[i-1][j-1]+1$
• 如果第二个字符串删去一个后和第一个一样,同理得
  $d[i][j] = d[i][j-1] + 1$
• 如果第二个字符串增加一个后和第一个一样,同理得
  $d[i][j] = d[i-1][j] + 1$
• 考虑初始化问题，str1空str2不空，那就是第二个删去一个字符，
  $d[0][j] = d[0][j-1]+1$
• 考虑初始化问题，str1不空str2空，那就是第二个增加一个字符，
  $d[i][0] = d[i-1][0]+1$

3. 代码

class Solution {
public:
    int minDistance(string word1, string word2) {
        int len1 = word1.length();
        int len2 = word2.length();

        vector<vector<int> > dp (len1 + 1, vector<int>(len2 + 1, 0));
        for (int i = 1; i <= len2; i++){
            dp[0][i] = dp[0][i-1] + 1;
        }
        for (int i = 1; i <= len1; i++){
            dp[i][0] = dp[i-1][0] + 1;
        }
        for (int i = 1; i <= len1; i++){
            for (int j = 1; j <= len2; j++){
                if (word1[i - 1] == word2[j-1])
                    dp[i][j] = dp[i-1][j-1];
                else
                    dp[i][j] = min(min(dp[i-1][j-1] + 1, dp[i-1][j] + 1), dp[i][j - 1] + 1);
            }
        }
        return dp[len1][len2];
    }
};