LeetCode72：Edit Distance

Given two words word1 and word2, find the minimum number of operations required to convert word1 to word2.

You have the following 3 operations permitted on a word:

1. Insert a character
2. Delete a character
3. Replace a character

Example 1:

Input: word1 = "horse", word2 = "ros"
Output: 3
Explanation: 
horse -> rorse (replace 'h' with 'r')
rorse -> rose (remove 'r')
rose -> ros (remove 'e')

Example 2:

Input: word1 = "intention", word2 = "execution"
Output: 5
Explanation: 
intention -> inention (remove 't')
inention -> enention (replace 'i' with 'e')
enention -> exention (replace 'n' with 'x')
exention -> exection (replace 'n' with 'c')
exection -> execution (insert 'u')

---

LeetCode：链接

这道题是很有名的编辑距离问题。用动态规划来解决。

状态转移方程是这样的：

1）dp[i][j]表示word1[0...i-1]到word2[0...j-1]的编辑距离。而dp[i][0]显然等于i，因为只需要做i次删除操作就可以了。

2）同理dp[0][i]也是如此，等于i，因为只需做i次插入操作就可以了。

3）dp[i-1][j]变到dp[i][j]需要加1，因为word1[0...i-2]到word2[0...j-1]的距离是dp[i-1][j]，而word2[0...i-2]需要到word1[0...i-1]到执行一次插入操作，所以dp[i][j]=dp[i-1][j]+1。

4）同理dp[i][j]=dp[i][j-1]+1，因为还需要加一次word2的插入操作。

5）如果word[i-1]==word[j-1]，则dp[i][j]=dp[i-1][j-1]，如果word[i-1]!=word[j-1]，那么需要执行一次替换replace操作，所以dp[i][j]=dp[i-1][j-1]+1，以上就是状态转移方程的推导。

class Solution(object):
    def minDistance(self, word1, word2):
        """
        :type word1: str
        :type word2: str
        :rtype: int
        """
        m = len(word1) + 1
        n = len(word2) + 1
        dp = [[0 for i in range(n)] for j in range(m)]
        for i in range(n):
            dp[0][i] = i
        for i in range(m):
            dp[i][0] = i
        for i in range(1, m):
            for j in range(1, n):
                dp[i][j]=min(dp[i-1][j] + 1, dp[i][j-1] + 1, dp[i-1][j-1]+ (0 if word1[i-1] == word2[j-1] else 1))
        return dp[m-1][n-1]