如果将每个字符串看作一个节点,并且记录下两两之间的重叠字符数,那么问题就变成,遍历所有的节点(每个节点访问一次),遍历过程中消除掉重叠的字符。类似于TSP问题。
状态方程dp[V][j]表示访问过集合V中所有节点(即包含所有字符串),以j结尾的superstring。V由二进制编码表示(即1代表在集合中,0代表不在),这样,表示n个节点需要n位(共2^n个集合)。
状态转移方程dp[V][j]=shorter( dp[V][j] , dp[V-{j}][k]+substr(overlaps[k][j]) )
class Solution {
public:
string shortestSuperstring(vector<string>& A) {
int size = A.size();
int overlaps[size][size]; //表示A[i]在前、A[j]在后,重叠的字母个数
for (int i = 0; i < size; i ++) {
for (int j = 0; j < size; j++) {
int k;
for (k = A[j].size(); k > 0; k --) {
int num = A[i].find(A[j].substr(0,k), A[i].size()-k);
//cout << A[i] << " " << A[j].substr(0,k) << " " << num << endl;
if (num >= 0) {
overlaps[i][j] = k;
break;
}
}
if (k == 0) overlaps[i][j] = 0;
}
}
//状态方程,(1<<size)可以表示出所有集合
string dp[(1<<size)][size] = {""};
for(int i = 1; i < (1<<size); i ++) {
for (int j = 0; j < size; j ++) {
if (i & (1<<j)) {
if (i == (1<<j)) dp[i][j] = A[j];
else {
for (int k = 0; k < size; k ++) {
if (j == k) continue;
if (i & (1<<k)) {
//表示在集合中去掉第j个字符串
//即找出倒数第二个字符串
string s = dp[i-(1<<j)][k];
s += A[j].substr(overlaps[k][j],A[j].size()-overlaps[k][j]);
//状态转移
if (dp[i][j] == "" || s.size() < dp[i][j].size()) dp[i][j] = s;
}
}
}
}
}
}
int min = dp[(1<<size)-1][0].size();
int index = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < size; i ++) {
if (dp[(1<<size)-1][i].size() < min) {
min = dp[(1<<size)-1][i].size();
index = i;
}
}
return dp[(1<<size)-1][index];
}
};