Leetcode: 67. Add Binary

Question:

Given two binary strings, return their sum (also a binary string).

The input strings are both non-empty and contains only characters 1 or 0.

Example 1:

Input: a = “11”, b = “1”
Output: “100”

Note:

1. We can’t converse the binary strings to decimal number cuz it will cause Memory Limit Exceeded.

Solution:

class Solution {
    public String addBinary(String a, String b) {
    	int length = Math.max(a.length(), b.length());
    	// the answer will be at most this much long
    	char[] chars = new char[length + 1];
    	for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    		int count = 0; // count how many 1 at this position
    		// traverse from right to left, 
    		//count all '1' at this index, count should be 0-3
    		if (i < a.length() && a.charAt(a.length()-i-1) == '1') count++;
    		if (i < b.length() && b.charAt(b.length()-i-1) == '1') count++;
    		if (chars[length-1] == '1') count++;
    		// if the count of '1' is an odd number, which is 1 or 3
    		if ((count & 1) == 1) {
    			chars[length - i] = '1';
    		// if the count at this index is 3,  
    		//then the previous chars[index - 1] will be '1' 
    		//even we havent seen it yet
    			if (count == 3) {
    				chars[length - i - 1] = '1'
    			}
    		} else {
    			chars[length - 1] == '0';
    			if (count == 2) chars[length - i - 1] = '1';
    		}
    	}
    	if (chars[0] == '1') return new String(chars);
        else return new String(chars, 1, length);
    }
}