leetcode 72: Edit Distance

Use DP method: dp[i][j] means the minimum distance between 0 to i of word1 and 0 to j of word2. The initialization of the first row and col has tricks in it because the first character of word1 and word2 can be matched for only one time.

class Solution {
public:
    int minDistance(string word1, string word2) {
        int l1=word1.length();
        int l2=word2.length();
        if(l1==0)
            return l2;
        if(l2==0)
            return l1;
        vector<int> a(l2,0);
        vector<vector<int> > dp;
        for(int i=0;i<l1;i++)
            dp.push_back(a);
        dp[0][0]=word1[0]==word2[0]?0:1;
        for(int i=1;i<l1;i++)
        {
            if(dp[i-1][0]!=i-1&&word1[i]==word2[0])//first time word2[0] is mathced
                dp[i][0]=dp[i-1][0];
            else
                dp[i][0]=dp[i-1][0]+1;
        }
        for(int i=1;i<l2;i++)
        {
            if(dp[0][i-1]!=i-1&&word1[0]==word2[i])//first time word1[0] is matched
                dp[0][i]=dp[0][i-1];
            else
                dp[0][i]=dp[0][i-1]+1;
        }
        for(int i=1;i<l1;i++)
            for(int j=1;j<l2;j++)
            {
                if(word1[i]==word2[j])
                    dp[i][j]=dp[i-1][j-1];
                else
                    dp[i][j]=1+min(min(dp[i-1][j],dp[i][j-1]),dp[i-1][j-1]);
            }
        return dp[l1-1][l2-1];
    }
};