LeetCode 439. Ternary Expression Parser

Given a string representing arbitrarily nested ternary expressions, calculate the result of the expression. You can always assume that the given expression is valid and only consists of digits 0-9, ?, :, T and F (T and Frepresent True and False respectively).

Note:

• The length of the given string is ≤ 10000.
• Each number will contain only one digit.
• The conditional expressions group right-to-left (as usual in most languages).
• The condition will always be either T or F. That is, the condition will never be a digit. The result of the expression will always evaluate to either a digit 0-9, T or F.

Example 1:

Input: “T?2:3”
Output: “2”
Explanation: If true, then result is 2; otherwise result is 3.

Example 2:
Input: “F?1:T?4:5”
Output: “4”
Explanation: The conditional expressions group right-to-left. Using parenthesis, it is read/evaluated as:

         "(F ? 1 : (T ? 4 : 5))"                   "(F ? 1 : (T ? 4 : 5))"
      -> "(F ? 1 : 4)"                 or       -> "(T ? 4 : 5)"
      -> "4"                                    -> "4"

Example 3:
Input: “T?T?F:5:3”
Output: “F”
Explanation: The conditional expressions group right-to-left. Using parenthesis, it is read/evaluated as:

         "(T ? (T ? F : 5) : 3)"                   "(T ? (T ? F : 5) : 3)"
      -> "(T ? F : 3)"                 or       -> "(T ? F : 5)"
      -> "F"                                    -> "F"

思路：

1. 用stack来做，对string从右往左遍历：遇到？，则根据？前的T/F从stack顶上两个数选一个保留；遇到数字或者F/T,直接push；遇到：不用操作！

2. 为什么从右往左遍历string？因为对每个“？”,选取“？”右边的两个数中的一个，而每个数又可以包含”?”。考虑string是嵌套的，因此需要先得到？右边的两个数的值，再根据？从两个数中选一个，所以需要对string从右往左遍历！更简单的说法：同样是?,位于左边的?优先级低，需要后处理；位于右边的?优先级高，需要先处理。即:表面看都是问号，但位置不同，优先级不同，这是所有嵌套类问题的通解！

3. 知识点：把char转换成string，string(1,’x’); 1表示重复次数！

string parseTernary(string expression) {
    stack<char> ss;

    for(int i=expression.size()-1;i>=0;i--){
        if(expression[i]==':') continue;
        if(expression[i]=='?'){
            if(expression[i-1]=='T'){
                char tmp=ss.top();
                ss.pop();
                ss.pop();
                ss.push(tmp);
            }else
                ss.pop();
        }else 
            ss.push(expression[i]);

    }
    return string(1,ss.top());
}