1754. Largest Merge Of Two Strings

You are given two strings word1 and word2. You want to construct a string merge in the following way: while either word1 or word2 are non-empty, choose one of the following options:

• If word1 is non-empty, append the first character in word1 to merge and delete it from word1.
  • For example, if word1 = "abc" and merge = "dv", then after choosing this operation, word1 = "bc" and merge = "dva".
• If word2 is non-empty, append the first character in word2 to merge and deleteg it from word2.
  • For example, if word2 = "abc" and merge = "", then after choosing this operation, word2 = "bc" and merge = "a".

Return the lexicographically largest merge you can construct.

A string a is lexicographically larger than a string b (of the same length) if in the first position where a and b differ, a has a character strictly larger than the corresponding character in b. For example, "abcd" is lexicographically larger than "abcc" because the first position they differ is at the fourth character, and d is greater than c.

Example 1:

Input: word1 = "cabaa", word2 = "bcaaa"
Output: "cbcabaaaaa"
Explanation: One way to get the lexicographically largest merge is:
- Take from word1: merge = "c", word1 = "abaa", word2 = "bcaaa"
- Take from word2: merge = "cb", word1 = "abaa", word2 = "caaa"
- Take from word2: merge = "cbc", word1 = "abaa", word2 = "aaa"
- Take from word1: merge = "cbca", word1 = "baa", word2 = "aaa"
- Take from word1: merge = "cbcab", word1 = "aa", word2 = "aaa"
- Append the remaining 5 a's from word1 and word2 at the end of merge.

Example 2:

Input: word1 = "abcabc", word2 = "abdcaba"
Output: "abdcabcabcaba"

Constraints:

• 1 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 3000
• word1 and word2 consist only of lowercase English letters.

题目：给定两个字符串，每次选取两个字符串最前位置的字符，组合成一个新的字符串，使新组成的字符串最大。

思路：这是一道周赛题，刚好我那周参加了。用两个指针分别指向两个字符串最前位置，比较两个字符大小，分三种情况：

1，如果word1[i]大，则选取word1[i], 更新结果，更新指针i；

2，反之如果word2[j]大，则选取word2[j],更新结果更新指针j.

3，难点在如果word1[i] == word2[j]，则定义新指针i1, j1一直往后找，找到第一个不相等的字符。这里又分为3种情况：

        （1） i1找到了字符串末尾，则选取字符串word2第一个字符，更新指针j,

        （2） j1找到了字符串末尾，则选取字符串word1第一个字符，更新指针i；

        （3） i1和j1都每到字符串末尾，则比较word1[i1]和word2[j1]。

最后记得如果一个字符串选择完了，需将另一个字符串剩余的子字符串附加在结果后。

代码如下：

class Solution {
public:
    string largestMerge(string word1, string word2) {
        string res = "";
        int i = 0, j = 0;
        while(i < word1.length() && j < word2.length()){
            if(word1[i] > word2[j]){
                res.push_back(word1[i++]);
            } else if(word1[i] < word2[j]){
                res.push_back(word2[j++]);
            } else {
                int i1 = i, j1 = j;
                while(i1 < word1.length() && j1 < word2.length() && word1[i1] == word2[j1]){
                    i1++;
                    j1++;
                }
                if(i1 == word1.length()) res.push_back(word2[j++]);
                else if(j1 == word2.length()) res.push_back(word1[i++]);
                else {
                    if(word1[i1] > word2[j1]){
                        res.push_back(word1[i++]);
                    } else{
                        res.push_back(word2[j++]);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        if(i < word1.length()) res += word1.substr(i);
        if(j < word2.length()) res += word2.substr(j);
        return res;
    }
};

time: O(N), space:O(1).

word1[i] == word2[j] 的时候三种情况可以优化合并一下，直接比较word1.substr(i) 和word2.substr(j) 即可。这种虽然代码优化了，但增加了时间复杂度：

class Solution {
public:
    string largestMerge(string word1, string word2) {
        string res = "";
        int i = 0, j = 0;
        while(i < word1.length() && j < word2.length()){
            if(word1[i] > word2[j]){
                res.push_back(word1[i++]);
            } else if(word1[i] < word2[j]){
                res.push_back(word2[j++]);
            } else {
                if(word1.substr(i) >= word2.substr(j))
                    res.push_back(word1[i++]);
                else
                    res.push_back(word2[j++]);
            }
        }
        if(i < word1.length()) res += word1.substr(i);
        if(j < word2.length()) res += word2.substr(j);
        return res;
    }
};