LeetCode String 14 Longest Common Prefix

14. Longest Common Prefix

Write a function to find the longest common prefix string amongst an array of strings.
If there is no common prefix, return an empty string “”.

Example 1:
Input: [“flower”,“flow”,“flight”]
Output: “fl”

Example 2:
Input: [“dog”,“racecar”,“car”]
Output: “”
Explanation: There is no common prefix among the input strings.

Note: All given inputs are in lowercase letters a-z.

solution 1: brute force

    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if (strs == null || strs.length < 1) return "";
        String prefix = "";

        int minLen = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
        for (int k = 0; k < strs.length; k++) {
            minLen = Math.min(minLen, strs[k].length());
        }

        int i = 0;
        while (i < minLen) {
            char temp = strs[0].charAt(i);
            for (int j = 0; j < strs.length; j++) {
                if (temp != strs[j].charAt(i)) {
                    return prefix;
                }

            }
            prefix = prefix + strs[0].charAt(i);
            i++;
        }
        return prefix;
    }

solution 2: horizontal scanning

基本思路是 $$LCP(S_1...S_n)=LCP(LCP(LCP(S_1,S_2),S_3),...S_n)$$
算法：对$[S_1,S_2,...S_n]$进行循环，在每一次循环 i 中都找到$LCP(S_1...S_i)$，最后得到$LCP(S_1...S_n)$，需要注意的是如果循环中出现prefix = ""需要直接return“”

    public String longestCommonPrefix3(String[] strs) {
        if (strs == null || strs.length < 1) return "";
        String prefix = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < strs[0].length(); i++) {
            char temp = strs[0].charAt(i);
            for (int j = 1; j < strs.length; j++) {
                // return the prefix, when there is a mismatch or
                // one of the string is running out
                if (strs[j].charAt(i) != temp || i == strs[j].length()) {
                    return prefix;
                }
            }
            prefix = prefix + temp;
        }
        return prefix;
    }

solution 3: vertical scanning

vertical scanning和上面brute force的思路一致

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

solution 4: binary search

上面三种solution的复杂度都是$O(n_1+n_2+n_3+...n_n)$
binary search并不能降低复杂度， divide and conquer
$$LCP(S_1...S_n)=LCP(LCP(LCP(S_1,S_2),S_3),...S_n)$$同样有：
$$LCP(S_1...S_n)=LCP(LCP(S_1，S_2,...S_k),LCP(S_{k+1},S_{k+2},...S_n))$$由于上面的公式成立所以可以采用divide and conquer。

binary search 复杂度为$O((n_1+n_2+n_3+...n_n)\ast logn)$，其中n为字符串数组的大小。

    public String longestCommonPrefix4(String[] strs) {
        if (strs == null || strs.length < 1) return "";
        // search for the shortest string
        int minLem = strs[0].length();
        for (int i = 1; i < strs.length; i++) {
            minLem = Math.min(minLem, strs[i].length());
        }
        int lo = 0;
        int hi = minLem;

        while (lo <= hi) {
            int mid = lo + (hi - lo)/2;
            if (isCommonPrefix(strs, mid)) lo = mid + 1;
            else hi = mid - 1;
        }

        return strs[0].substring(0, (hi+lo)/2);


    }

    public boolean isCommonPrefix(String[] strs, int len) {
        String temp = strs[0].substring(0, len);
        for (int i = 1; i < strs.length; i++) {
            if (!temp.equals(strs[i].substring(0, len)))
                return false;
        }
        return true;
    }