Edit Distance

Q:

Given two words word1 and word2, find the minimum number of steps required to convert word1 to word2. (each operation is counted as 1 step.)

You have the following 3 operations permitted on a word:

a) Insert a character
b) Delete a character
c) Replace a character

Solution:

public class Solution {
    public int minDistance(String word1, String word2) {
        if (word1.equals(word2))
            return 0;
        if (word1.length() == 0 || word2.length() == 0)
            return word1.length() == 0? word2.length(): word1.length();
        int n1 = word1.length();
        int n2 = word2.length();
        
        // dp[i][j] means the minimum steps needed to transform from word1(0, i) to word2(0, j)
        int[][] dp = new int[n1+1][n2+1];
        dp[0][0] = 0;
        for (int i = 1; i <= n1; i++)
            dp[i][0] = i;
        for (int i = 1; i <= n2; i++)
            dp[0][i] = i;
        for (int i = 1; i <= n1; i++) {
            for (int j = 1; j <= n2; j++) {
                if (word1.charAt(i-1) == word2.charAt(j-1))
                    dp[i][j] = dp[i-1][j-1];
                else {
                    dp[i][j] = Math.min(Math.min(dp[i-1][j], dp[i][j-1]), dp[i-1][j-1]) + 1;
                }
            }
        }
        return dp[n1][n2];
    }
}