[LeetCode] 395. Longest Substring with At Least K Repeating Characters

QUESTION

Thought: Split string by the characters repeating less than k. Recursively call function with the sub string until sub string can not be split. Store the length of the longest un-split sub string.

1. use a map to store each character in the string and its repeating time.

2. go through the string again and get a list of sub string, split by the characters which repeating count <k.

3. go through this sub string list, recursively call and the the longest sub string of the the current string. Store the longest length of sub strings.

4. return the max length. 

public class Solution {
    public int longestSubstring(String s, int k) {
        Map<Character, Integer> map = new HashMap<Character, Integer>();
        for(int i =0; i<s.length(); i++){
            if(map.containsKey(s.charAt(i))){
                map.put(s.charAt(i), map.get(s.charAt(i))+1);
            } else{
                map.put(s.charAt(i), 1);
            }
        }
        
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        int left = 0;
        int right = 0;
        while(right<s.length()){
            if(map.get(s.charAt(right))>=k){
                right++;
            }else{
                if(left != right)
                    list.add(s.substring(left, right));
                left = right+1;
                right = left;
            }
            
        }
        if(left != right)
            list.add(s.substring(left, right));
        
        if(list.size() == 0){
            return 0;
        }
        
        if(list.size() == 1){
            return list.get(0).length();
        }
        
        int max = 0;
        for(String subString:list){
            max = Math.max(max, longestSubstring(subString, k));
        }
        
        return max;
    }
}