Encode and Decode Strings

Design an algorithm to encode a list of strings to a string. The encoded string is then sent over the network and is decoded back to the original list of strings.

Machine 1 (sender) has the function:

string encode(vector<string> strs) {
  // ... your code
  return encoded_string;
}

Machine 2 (receiver) has the function:

vector<string> decode(string s) {
  //... your code
  return strs;
}

So Machine 1 does:

string encoded_string = encode(strs);

and Machine 2 does:

vector<string> strs2 = decode(encoded_string);

strs2 in Machine 2 should be the same as strs in Machine 1.

Implement the encode and decode methods.

Note:

• The string may contain any possible characters out of 256 valid ascii characters. Your algorithm should be generalized enough to work on any possible characters.
• Do not use class member/global/static variables to store states. Your encode and decode algorithms should be stateless.
• Do not rely on any library method such as eval or serialize methods. You should implement your own encode/decode algorithm.

思路：就是把string的length信息，encode到string的开头，这样每次取出来的时候，就知道后面string有多长；同时也避免了，string包含dilimiter的情况；

public class Codec {

    private String DELIMITER = "#";
    // Encodes a list of strings to a single string.
    public String encode(List<String> strs) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for(String word: strs) {
            sb.append(word.length()).append(DELIMITER).append(word);
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

    // Decodes a single string to a list of strings.
    public List<String> decode(String s) {
        List<String> res = new ArrayList<>();
        int i = 0;
        while(i < s.length()) {
            i = s.indexOf(DELIMITER);
            int len = Integer.parseInt(s.substring(0, i));
            String word = s.substring(i + 1, i + len + 1);
            res.add(word);
            s = s.substring(i + len + 1);
        }
        return res;
    }
}

// Your Codec object will be instantiated and called as such:
// Codec codec = new Codec();
// codec.decode(codec.encode(strs));