Given a string of numbers and operators, return all possible results from computing all the different possible ways to group numbers and operators. The valid operators are +
, -
and *
.
Example 1
Input: "2-1-1"
.
((2-1)-1) = 0 (2-(1-1)) = 2
Output: [0, 2]
Example 2
Input: "2*3-4*5"
(2*(3-(4*5))) = -34 ((2*3)-(4*5)) = -14 ((2*(3-4))*5) = -10 (2*((3-4)*5)) = -10 (((2*3)-4)*5) = 10
Output: [-34, -14, -10, -10, 10]
Solution:
- 1st use divide and conquer
we can recursively divide the string into left and right part substring.
then recursively calculate the left and right part substring result when there is only one numerical number and the other numberical number with a valid operator
finally, merge their results.
1 def calcMath(num1, num2, operator): #python does not have switch/case 2 res = 0 3 if operator == "+": 4 res = num1 + num2 5 elif operator == "-": 6 res = num1 - num2 7 elif operator == "*": 8 res = num1 * num2 9 return res 10 11 result = [] 12 for i, c in enumerate(input): 13 if c == "+" or c == "-" or c == "*": 14 leftSubStr = input[0:i] 15 rightSubStr = input[i+1::] 16 17 leftLst = self.diffWaysToCompute(leftSubStr) 18 rightLst = self.diffWaysToCompute(rightSubStr) 19 #print ("ttttt ", i, c, leftLst, rightLst) 20 for ls in leftLst: 21 for rs in rightLst: 22 rs = calcMath(ls, rs, c) 23 result.append(rs) 24 #print ("ttttt ", result) 25 if len(result) == 0: 26 result.append(int(input)) 27 return result
2. 2nd optimization 1st method; (Dynamic programming) using hashmap to store previous subproblem's result; Dynamic programming
#in the previous calculations, there are repeated calculation of substring with same left substring and right substring calculation
1 def calcMath(num1, num2, operator): #python does not have switch/case 2 res = 0 3 if operator == "+": 4 res = num1 + num2 5 elif operator == "-": 6 res = num1 - num2 7 elif operator == "*": 8 res = num1 * num2 9 return res 10 11 12 13 def diffWaysToComputeHelper(input, start, end): 14 15 result = [] 16 strKey = str(start) + "-" + str(end) 17 if strKey in dic: 18 result = dic[strKey] 19 return result 20 #print ("sssss ", result, start, end) 21 for i, c in enumerate(input[start:end+1]): 22 if c == "+" or c == "-" or c == "*": 23 leftLst = diffWaysToComputeHelper(input, start, start+i-1 ) 24 rightLst = diffWaysToComputeHelper(input, start+i+1, end) 25 #print ("xxxxx ", i, c, leftLst, rightLst, start, end) 26 for ls in leftLst: 27 for rs in rightLst: 28 rs = calcMath(ls, rs, c) 29 result.append(rs) 30 31 #print ("ttttt ", result, start, end, input[start:end+1]) 32 if len(result) == 0: 33 result.append(int(input[start:end+1])) 34 dic[strKey] = result 35 return result 36 37 dic = {} #memoization 38 return diffWaysToComputeHelper(input, 0, len(input)-1)
--reference:
http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/all-ways-to-add-parenthesis-for-evaluation/