LeetCode--14. Longest Common Prefix

Problem:

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

Answer:
算法1：逐个字符比较，时间复杂度为O(N*L),N是字符串个数，L是最长前缀的长度，运行时间3ms。

public class Solution {
    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if(strs==null || strs.length==0) return "";
        String res=strs[0];
        for(int i=1;i<strs.length;i++){
            //commomPre(strs[i],res);
        int len = Math.min(strs[i].length(),res.length());
        int j=0;
        for(;j<len;j++){
            if(strs[i].charAt(j)!=res.charAt(j)){
                break;
            }
        }
        if(j==0) res="";
        else res = res.substring(0,j);
        }
        return res;
    }
 }   

算法2的时间复杂度是O(N*M),N是字符串个数，M = strs[0]和其他字符串的前缀长度的平均值, 算法2中字符的比较次数要比算法1多。例如以下例子,运行时间2ms

public class Solution {
     public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
          if(strs.length == 0||strs == null)
              return "";           
         for(int i = 0; i<strs[0].length(); i++){
             char x = strs[0].charAt(i);
              for(int j = 1; j<strs.length; j++){
                  if(strs[j].length() == i || strs[j].charAt(i) != x)
                     return strs[0].substring(0,i);
             }
         }         
         return strs[0];
     }
}

算法3，运用2分法的思想，运行时间1ms

public class Solution {
    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if(strs == null || strs.length == 0) return "";
        int shortest = Integer.MAX_VALUE, answer = 0;
        for(String str : strs) shortest = Math.min(shortest, str.length());
        int low = 0, high = shortest;
        while(low <= high){
            int middle = (low + high) / 2;
            if(isSubstring(strs, middle)) low = middle + 1;
            else high = middle - 1;
        }
        return strs[0].substring(0, (low + high) / 2);
    }

    private boolean isSubstring(String[] strs, int length){
        String match = strs[0].substring(0, length);
        for(String str : strs) if(!str.substring(0, length).equals(match)) return false;
        return true;
    }
}