[Lintcode]Edit Distance

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:

• Insert a character
• Delete a character
• Replace a character

Example

Given word1 = "mart" and word2 = "karma", return 3.

一般字符串比较的题目，都可以用DP解决。这道题同样。可以使用二维DP解决。

公式为: if word1[i] = word2[j], res[i][j] = min(res[i-1][j-1], res[i-1][j], res[i][j-1]) + 1 如果i字符不等于j字符，则需要增/删/替换其中之一操作。

    else res[i][j] = res[i-1][j-1] 如果word1中第i个字符等于word2中第j个字符，则word1前i位转化为word2前j位的步数等于word1前i-1位转化为word2前j-1位的步数，因为第i位和第j位相等。

初始值设定是：当i=0或者j=0时，最佳转换方案始终是插入。因此res[0][j]=j和res[i][0]=i

public class Solution {
    /**
     * @param word1 & word2: Two string.
     * @return: The minimum number of steps.
     */
    public int minDistance(String word1, String word2) {
        int[][] res = new int[word1.length() + 1][word2.length() + 1];
        //res[i][j] = min(res[i-1][j-1], res[i-1][j], res[i][j-1]) + 1
        res[0][0] = 0;
        for(int i = 1; i <= word1.length(); i++) res[i][0] = i;
        for(int i = 1; i <= word2.length(); i++) res[0][i] = i;
        
        for(int i = 1; i <= word1.length(); i++){
            for(int j = 1; j <= word2.length(); j++){
                if(word1.charAt(i - 1) != word2.charAt(j - 1)) {
                    res[i][j] = Math.min(Math.min(res[i - 1][j - 1],
                        res[i][j - 1]), res[i - 1][j]) + 1;
                }
                else {
                    res[i][j] = res[i - 1][j - 1];
                }
            }
        }
        return res[word1.length()][word2.length()];
    }
}