14. Longest Common Prefix

Write a function to find the longest common prefix string amongst an array of strings.

Solution:

Tips:

two-way merge sort

Java Code:

public class Solution {
    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if (strs.length < 1) {
            return "";
        }
        
        return longestCommonPrefix(strs, 0, strs.length - 1);
    }
    
    private String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs, int begin, int end) {
        if (end < begin) {
            return "";
        }
        if (begin == end) {
            return strs[begin];
        }

        int middle = begin + (end - begin) / 2;
        String left = longestCommonPrefix(strs, begin, middle);
        String right = longestCommonPrefix(strs, middle + 1, end);

        int i = 0;
        while (i < left.length() && i < right.length()) {
            if (left.charAt(i) != right.charAt(i)) {
                break;
            }
            i++;
        }

        return left.substring(0, i);
    }
}