LeetCode Longest Valid Parentheses

Description:

Given a string containing just the characters '(' and ')', find the length of the longest valid (well-formed) parentheses substring.

For "(()", the longest valid parentheses substring is "()", which has length = 2.

Another example is ")()())", where the longest valid parentheses substring is "()()", which has length = 4.

Solution:

TLE solution:

we can use dp[i][j] to represent the valid parentheses number.

if( str[i], str[j] is a pair):

dp[i][j] = dp[i+1][j-1] + 1

else:

dp[i][j] = dp[i+1][j-1]

<span style="font-size:18px;">import java.util.*;

public class Solution{
	public int longestValidParentheses(String s) {

		if (s == null)
			return 0;
		int n = s.length();
		if (n == 0)
			return 0;

		char ch1, ch2;

		int dp[][] = new int[n][n];
		for (int i = 0; i + 1 < n; i++) {
			ch1 = s.charAt(i);
			ch2 = s.charAt(i + 1);
			if (ch1 == '(' && ch2 == ')')
				dp[i][i + 1] = 1;
		}

		int j;
		int max = 0;
		for (int len = 3; len <= n; len++) {
			for (int i = 0; (j = i + len - 1) < n; i++) {
				ch1 = s.charAt(i);
				ch2 = s.charAt(j);
				if (ch1 == '(' && ch2 == ')') {
					dp[i][j] = dp[i + 1][j - 1] + 1;
				} else
					dp[i][j] = dp[i + 1][j - 1];
				max = Math.max(dp[i][j], max);
			}
		}

		return max;
	}
}</span>

Since we get a TLE on this, we may change to another solution, use a stack.

<span style="font-size:18px;">import java.util.*;

public class Solution {
	public int longestValidParentheses(String s) {

		if (s == null)
			return 0;
		int n = s.length();
		if (n == 0)
			return 0;

		int max = 0;

		Stack<Integer> stack = new Stack<Integer>();
		int start = 0;

		for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
			if (s.charAt(i) == '(')
				stack.push(i);
			else {
				if (!stack.isEmpty()) {
					stack.pop();
					if (stack.isEmpty())
						max = Math.max(max, i - start + 1);
					else
						max = Math.max(max, i - stack.peek() + 1);
				} else {
					start = i + 1;
				}
			}
		}

		return max;
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Solution s = new Solution();
		String str = "(()";
		System.out.println(s.longestValidParentheses(str));
	}

}</span>

Attention to the following two codes, they seem to have same functions, but are completely different. What we need here is the second one. Just feel the difference.

<span style="font-size:18px;">first = stack.pop();
if (stack.isEmpty())
	max = Math.max(max, i - start + 1);
else
	max = Math.max(max, i - first + 1);</span>

Second segment of codes

<span style="font-size:18px;">stack.pop();
if (stack.isEmpty())
	max = Math.max(max, i - start + 1);
else
	max = Math.max(max, i - stack.peek());</span>