leetcode-14. Longest Common Prefix

question:
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.

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解法一：水平比较一

思路：先求出第一个字符串与第二个字符串的公共子串，再用此公共子串和第三个字符串对比的出公共子串，以此类推。当比较过程中若公共子串变为""（空字符串），则可以返回""（空字符串）。

class Solution {
    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if(strs.length==0){
            return "";
        }
        String pre = strs[0];
        for(int i=1;i<strs.length;i++){
        //要善于使用API
            while(strs[i].indexOf(pre)!=0){
                pre = pre.substring(0,pre.length()-1);
                if(pre.equals("")){
                    return "";
                }
            }
        }
        return pre;
    }
}

解法二：水平比较二

思路：我们可以从下标0开始先比较每一个字符的相同下标的字符，若所有字符串下标处字符均相同，那么下标++。

class Solution {
    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 ++) {
			//i之前为已经确认的公共前缀，此时若某一字符串遍历完毕，或者i下标处字符不同则返回即可；
            if (i == strs[j].length() || strs[j].charAt(i) != c)
                return strs[0].substring(0, i);             
        }
    }
    return strs[0];

    }
}

解法三：分治

思路：递归分治，直至字符串数组只有一个字符串

class Solution {
    public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
        if(strs.length==0){
            return "";
        }
        return pre(strs,0,strs.length-1);
    }
    private String pre(String[] strs,int l,int r){
        if(l==r){
            return strs[l];
        }else{
            int mid = (l+r)/2;
            String ls = pre(strs,l,mid);
            String rs = pre(strs,mid+1,r);
            int min = Math.min(ls.length(),rs.length());
            int i =0;
            for(;i<min;i++){
                if(ls.charAt(i)!=rs.charAt(i)){
                    break;
                }
            }
            return ls.substring(0,i);
        }
    }
}

解法四：二分查找

思路：字符串数组中最短的字符串会限制公共前缀的长度，利用最短字符串的长度对其进行二分比较。注意善于利用API。

public String longestCommonPrefix(String[] strs) {
    if (strs == null || strs.length == 0)
        return "";
    int minLen = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    for (String str : strs)
        minLen = Math.min(minLen, str.length());
    int low = 1;
    int high = minLen;
    while (low <= high) {
        int middle = (low + high) / 2;
        if (isCommonPrefix(strs, middle))
            low = middle + 1;
        else
            high = middle - 1;
    }
    return strs[0].substring(0, (low + high) / 2);
}

private boolean isCommonPrefix(String[] strs, int len){
    String str1 = strs[0].substring(0,len);
    for (int i = 1; i < strs.length; i++)
        if (!strs[i].startsWith(str1))
            return false;
    return true;
}