678. Valid Parenthesis String

Given a string containing only three types of characters: ‘(’, ‘)’ and ‘*’, write a function to check whether this string is valid. We define the validity of a string by these rules:

Any left parenthesis ‘(’ must have a corresponding right parenthesis ‘)’.
Any right parenthesis ‘)’ must have a corresponding left parenthesis ‘(’.
Left parenthesis ‘(’ must go before the corresponding right parenthesis ‘)’.
‘*’ could be treated as a single right parenthesis ‘)’ or a single left parenthesis ‘(’ or an empty string.
An empty string is also valid.
Example 1:

Input: "()"
Output: True

Example 2:

Input: "(*)"
Output: True

Example 3:

Input: "(*))"
Output: True

Note:

1. The string size will be in the range [1, 100].

方法1: two stacks

思路：

用一个栈来维护左括号，另一个维护* 的index， 如果栈空时可以启用count来用迄今为止累计的来继续抵消右括号，接替栈的作用。遍历至结尾需要连续pop出所有还剩下的左括号，用剩下的来match，并保证（出现在 *左边。最后*可以剩下但left不能剩。

class Solution {
public:
    bool checkValidString(string s) {
        stack<int> st_left;
        stack<int> st_ast;
        for (int i = 0; i < s.size(); i++) {
            char c = s[i];
            if (c == '(') {
                st_left.push(i);
            }
            else if (c == '*') {
                st_ast.push(i);
            }
            else if (c == ')') {
                if (!st_left.empty()) {
                    st_left.pop();
                }
                else if (!st_ast.empty()){
                    st_ast.pop();
                }
                else return false;
            }
        }
        
        while (!st_left.empty() && !st_ast.empty()) {
            int left = st_left.top(); st_left.pop();
            int ast = st_ast.top(); st_ast.pop();
            if (ast < left) return false;
        }
        return st_left.empty();
    }
};

方法2:

discussion: https://leetcode.com/problems/valid-parenthesis-string/discuss/107577/Short-Java-O(n)-time-O(1)-space-one-pass
grandyang：https://www.cnblogs.com/grandyang/p/7617017.html

思路：

discussion的高票答案，只需要 O(1) 空间。思路是每次遇到*，我们记录3中可能的岔路下可以达到的low和high，其中high表示* 被当成（继续累加，low表示被当成）用来抵消，保持最后我们只需要知道在众多支路的combination中有没有一条能够使得low和high的range covers 0. 那么对于high，每次遇到*不断累计，keep track of 上限，但是low没有必要取真的track下限，observe这个range始终是连续的，只需要知道能不能达到0，做了一些剪枝。每一次循环只要high<0了，说明即使全部变成“（”也比“）“要少的情况，立刻返回false。

class Solution {
public:
    bool checkValidString(string s) {
        int low = 0, high = 0;
        for (char c: s) {
            if (c == '(') {
                high++;
                low++;
            }
            else if (c == ')') {
                if (low > 0) low--;
                high --;
            }
            else if (c == '*') {
                if (low > 0) low--;
                high++;
            }
            if (high < 0) return false;
        }
        return low == 0;
    }
};