[leetcode] Regular Expression Matching

Implement regular expression matching with support for '.' and '*'.

'.' Matches any single character.
'*' Matches zero or more of the preceding element.

The matching should cover the entire input string (not partial).

The function prototype should be:
bool isMatch(const char *s, const char *p)

Some examples:
isMatch("aa","a") → false
isMatch("aa","aa") → true
isMatch("aaa","aa") → false
isMatch("aa", "a*") → true
isMatch("aa", ".*") → true
isMatch("ab", ".*") → true
isMatch("aab", "c*a*b") → true

solution: DP method. there are three main cases:

1. when *(p+1) == '*'

      a. omitting '*' the preceding elements, considering the subsequent elements.

      b. if a doesn't work, pick '*' and preceding elements.

2. when *(p+1) != '*'

3. else mismatch

bool isMatch(const char* s, const char* p) {
	if(s == NULL || p == NULL) return false;
	if(*p == '\0' && *s == '\0') return true;
	else {
		if( *(p+1) == '*' ) {
			if((*s != '\0' && *p == '.') || *s == *p) {
				//there may be zero or more preceding elements
				//we should take into account e.g: aaa-->a*a; aaa-->a*aa
				if(isMatch(s, p+2)) 
					return true;
				return isMatch(++s, p);
			} else { return isMatch(s, p+2); }
		} else {
			if(*s == *p || (*s != '\0' && *p == '.')) { return isMatch(++s, ++p); }
		}
		return false;
	}
}