Since I liked programming in Scala, for my Google interview, I asked them to give me a Scala / functional programming style question. The Scala functional style question that I got was as follows:
You have two strings consisting of alphabetic characters as well as a special character representing the backspace symbol. Let's call this backspace character '/'. When you get to the keyboard, you type this sequence of characters, including the backspace/delete character. The solution you are to implement must check if the two sequences of characters produce the same output. For example, "abc", "aa/bc". "abb/c", "abcc/", "/abc", and "//abc" all produce the same output, "abc". Because this is a Scala / functional programming question, you must implement your solution in idiomatic Scala style.
I wrote the following code (it might not be exactly what I wrote, I'm just going off memory). Basically I just go linearly through the string, prepending characters to a list, and then I compare the lists.
def processString(string: String): List[Char] = {
string.foldLeft(List[Char]()){ case(accumulator: List[Char], char: Char) =>
accumulator match {
case head :: tail => if(char != '/') { char :: head :: tail } else { tail }
case emptyList => if(char != '/') { char :: emptyList } else { emptyList }
}
}
}
def solution(string1: String, string2: String): Boolean = {
processString(string1) == processString(string2)
}
So far so good? He then asked for the time complexity and I responded linear time (because you have to process each character once) and linear space (because you have to copy each element into a list). Then he asked me to do it in linear time, but with constant space. I couldn't think of a way to do it that was purely functional. He said to try using a function in the Scala collections library like "zip" or "map" (I explicitly remember him saying the word "zip").
Here's the thing. I think that it's physically impossible to do it in constant space without having any mutable state or side effects. Like I think that he messed up the question. What do you think?
Can you solve it in linear time, but with constant space?
This code takes O(N) time and needs only three integers of extra space:
def solution(a: String, b: String): Boolean = {
def findNext(str: String, pos: Int): Int = {
#annotation.tailrec
def rec(pos: Int, backspaces: Int): Int = {
if (pos == 0) -1
else {
val c = str(pos - 1)
if (c == '/') rec(pos - 1, backspaces + 1)
else if (backspaces > 0) rec(pos - 1, backspaces - 1)
else pos - 1
}
}
rec(pos, 0)
}
#annotation.tailrec
def rec(aPos: Int, bPos: Int): Boolean = {
val ap = findNext(a, aPos)
val bp = findNext(b, bPos)
(ap < 0 && bp < 0) ||
(ap >= 0 && bp >= 0 && (a(ap) == b(bp)) && rec(ap, bp))
}
rec(a.size, b.size)
}
The problem can be solved in linear time with constant extra space: if you scan from right to left, then you can be sure that the /-symbols to the left of the current position cannot influence the already processed symbols (to the right of the current position) in any way, so there is no need to store them.
At every point, you need to know only two things:
Where are you in the string?
How many symbols do you have to throw away because of the backspaces
That makes two integers for storing the positions, and one additional integer for temporary storing the number of accumulated backspaces during the findNext invocation. That's a total of three integers of space overhead.
Intuition
Here is my attempt to formulate why the right-to-left scan gives you a O(1) algorithm:
The future cannot influence the past, therefore there is no need to remember the future.
The "natural time" in this problem flows from left to right. Therefore, if you scan from right to left, you are moving "from the future into the past", and therefore you don't need to remember the characters to the right of your current position.
Tests
Here is a randomized test, which makes me pretty sure that the solution is actually correct:
val rng = new util.Random(0)
def insertBackspaces(s: String): String = {
val n = s.size
val insPos = rng.nextInt(n)
val (pref, suff) = s.splitAt(insPos)
val c = ('a' + rng.nextInt(26)).toChar
pref + c + "/" + suff
}
def prependBackspaces(s: String): String = {
"/" * rng.nextInt(4) + s
}
def addBackspaces(s: String): String = {
var res = s
for (i <- 0 until 8)
res = insertBackspaces(res)
prependBackspaces(res)
}
for (i <- 1 until 1000) {
val s = "hello, world"
val t = "another string"
val s1 = addBackspaces(s)
val s2 = addBackspaces(s)
val t1 = addBackspaces(t)
val t2 = addBackspaces(t)
assert(solution(s1, s2))
assert(solution(t1, t2))
assert(!solution(s1, t1))
assert(!solution(s1, t2))
assert(!solution(s2, t1))
assert(!solution(s2, t2))
if (i % 100 == 0) {
println(s"Examples:\n$s1\n$s2\n$t1\n$t2")
}
}
A few examples that the test generates:
Examples:
/helly/t/oj/m/, wd/oi/g/x/rld
///e/helx/lc/rg//f/o, wosq//rld
/anotl/p/hhm//ere/t/ strih/nc/g
anotx/hb/er sw/p/tw/l/rip/j/ng
Examples:
//o/a/hellom/, i/wh/oe/q/b/rld
///hpj//est//ldb//y/lok/, world
///q/gd/h//anothi/k/eq/rk/ string
///ac/notherli// stri/ig//ina/n/g
Examples:
//hnn//ello, t/wl/oxnh///o/rld
//helfo//u/le/o, wna//ova//rld
//anolq/l//twl//her n/strinhx//g
/anol/tj/hq/er swi//trrq//d/ing
Examples:
//hy/epe//lx/lo, wr/v/t/orlc/d
f/hk/elv/jj//lz/o,wr// world
/anoto/ho/mfh///eg/r strinbm//g
///ap/b/notk/l/her sm/tq/w/rio/ng
Examples:
///hsm/y//eu/llof/n/, worlq/j/d
///gx//helf/i/lo, wt/g/orn/lq/d
///az/e/notm/hkh//er sm/tb/rio/ng
//b/aen//nother v/sthg/m//riv/ng
Seems to work just fine. So, I'd say that the Google-guy did not mess up, looks like a perfectly valid question.
You don't have to create the output to find the answer. You can iterate the two sequences at the same time and stop on the first difference. If you find no difference and both sequences terminate at the same time, they're equal, otherwise they're different.
But now consider sequences such as this one: aaaa/// to compare with a. You need to consume 6 elements from the left sequence and one element from the right sequence before you can assert that they're equal. That means that you would need to keep at least 5 elements in memory until you can verify that they're all deleted. But what if you iterated elements from the end? You would then just need to count the number of backspaces and then just ignoring as many elements as necessary in the left sequence without requiring to keep them in memory since you know they won't be present in the final output. You can achieve O(1) memory using these two tips.
I tried it and it seems to work:
def areEqual(s1: String, s2: String) = {
def charAt(s: String, index: Int) = if (index < 0) '#' else s(index)
#tailrec
def recSol(i1: Int, backspaces1: Int, i2: Int, backspaces2: Int): Boolean = (charAt(s1, i1), charAt(s2, i2)) match {
case ('/', _) => recSol(i1 - 1, backspaces1 + 1, i2, backspaces2)
case (_, '/') => recSol(i1, backspaces1, i2 - 1, backspaces2 + 1)
case ('#' , '#') => true
case (ch1, ch2) =>
if (backspaces1 > 0) recSol(i1 - 1, backspaces1 - 1, i2 , backspaces2 )
else if (backspaces2 > 0) recSol(i1 , backspaces1 , i2 - 1, backspaces2 - 1)
else ch1 == ch2 && recSol(i1 - 1, backspaces1 , i2 - 1, backspaces2 )
}
recSol(s1.length - 1, 0, s2.length - 1, 0)
}
Some tests (all pass, let me know if you have more edge cases in mind):
// examples from the question
val inputs = Array("abc", "aa/bc", "abb/c", "abcc/", "/abc", "//abc")
for (i <- 0 until inputs.length; j <- 0 until inputs.length) {
assert(areEqual(inputs(i), inputs(j)))
}
// more deletions than required
assert(areEqual("a///////b/c/d/e/b/b", "b"))
assert(areEqual("aa/a/a//a//a///b", "b"))
assert(areEqual("a/aa///a/b", "b"))
// not enough deletions
assert(!areEqual("aa/a/a//a//ab", "b"))
// too many deletions
assert(!areEqual("a", "a/"))
PS: just a few notes on the code itself:
Scala type inference is good enough so that you can drop types in the partial function inside your foldLeft
Nil is the idiomatic way to refer to the empty list case
Bonus:
I had something like Tim's soltion in mind before implementing my idea, but I started early with pattern matching on characters only and it didn't fit well because some cases require the number of backspaces. In the end, I think a neater way to write it is a mix of pattern matching and if conditions. Below is my longer original solution, the one I gave above was refactored laater:
def areEqual(s1: String, s2: String) = {
#tailrec
def recSol(c1: Cursor, c2: Cursor): Boolean = (c1.char, c2.char) match {
case ('/', '/') => recSol(c1.next, c2.next)
case ('/' , _) => recSol(c1.next, c2 )
case (_ , '/') => recSol(c1 , c2.next)
case ('#' , '#') => true
case (a , b) if (a == b) => recSol(c1.next, c2.next)
case _ => false
}
recSol(Cursor(s1, s1.length - 1), Cursor(s2, s2.length - 1))
}
private case class Cursor(s: String, index: Int) {
val char = if (index < 0) '#' else s(index)
def next = {
#tailrec
def recSol(index: Int, backspaces: Int): Cursor = {
if (index < 0 ) Cursor(s, index)
else if (s(index) == '/') recSol(index - 1, backspaces + 1)
else if (backspaces > 1) recSol(index - 1, backspaces - 1)
else Cursor(s, index - 1)
}
recSol(index, 0)
}
}
If the goal is minimal memory footprint, it's hard to argue against iterators.
def areSame(a :String, b :String) :Boolean = {
def getNext(ci :Iterator[Char], ignore :Int = 0) : Option[Char] =
if (ci.hasNext) {
val c = ci.next()
if (c == '/') getNext(ci, ignore+1)
else if (ignore > 0) getNext(ci, ignore-1)
else Some(c)
} else None
val ari = a.reverseIterator
val bri = b.reverseIterator
1 to a.length.max(b.length) forall(_ => getNext(ari) == getNext(bri))
}
On the other hand, when arguing FP principals it's hard to defend iterators, since they're all about maintaining state.
Here is a version with a single recursive function and no additional classes or libraries. This is linear time and constant memory.
def compare(a: String, b: String): Boolean = {
#tailrec
def loop(aIndex: Int, aDeletes: Int, bIndex: Int, bDeletes: Int): Boolean = {
val aVal = if (aIndex < 0) None else Some(a(aIndex))
val bVal = if (bIndex < 0) None else Some(b(bIndex))
if (aVal.contains('/')) {
loop(aIndex - 1, aDeletes + 1, bIndex, bDeletes)
} else if (aDeletes > 0) {
loop(aIndex - 1, aDeletes - 1, bIndex, bDeletes)
} else if (bVal.contains('/')) {
loop(aIndex, 0, bIndex - 1, bDeletes + 1)
} else if (bDeletes > 0) {
loop(aIndex, 0, bIndex - 1, bDeletes - 1)
} else {
aVal == bVal && (aVal.isEmpty || loop(aIndex - 1, 0, bIndex - 1, 0))
}
}
loop(a.length - 1, 0, b.length - 1, 0)
}
for (i <- marker to cursor - 1 ){
if (buffer.charAt(i).isUpper){
buffer.charAt(i).toString.toLowerCase
} else if (buffer.charAt(i).isLower) {
buffer.charAt(i).toString.toUpperCase
}
}
I've tried multiple methods to achieve but can't figure a solution and this is where I'm at. While trying other methods I used slice but couldn't get it to return a Bool for an if statement (Converted to a string but isUpper doesn't work on strings). Currently this does nothing to the strings, for context marker/cursor just highlight a selection on a sentence to invert.
Here is a one liner:
val s = "mixedUpperLower"
s.toUpperCase.zip (s).map {case (a, b) => if (a == b) a.toLower else a}.mkString ("")
res3: String = MIXEDuPPERlOWER
Maybe a short method is better readable:
scala> def invertCase (c: Char) : Char = if (c.isLower) c.toUpper else c.toLower
invertCase: (c: Char)Char
scala> s.map (invertCase)
res4: String = MIXEDuPPERlOWER
"aBcDef".map(x => if(x.isLower) x.toUpper else x.toLower)
prints
AbCdEF
I'm new to scala and i'm trying to implement a do while loop but I cannot seem to get it to stop. Im not sure what i'm doing wrong. If someone could help me out that would be great. Its not the best loop I know that but I am new to the language.
Here is my code below:
def mnuQuestionLast(f: (String) => (String, Int)) ={
var dataInput = true
do {
print("Enter 1 to Add Another 0 to Exit > ")
var dataInput1 = f(readLine)
if (dataInput1 == 0){
dataInput == false
} else {
println{"Do the work"}
}
} while(dataInput == true)
}
You're comparing a tuple type (Tuple2[String, Int] in this case) to 0, which works because == is defined on AnyRef, but doesn't make much sense when you think about it. You should be looking at the second element of the tuple:
if (dataInput1._2 == 0)
Or if you want to enhance readability a bit, you can deconstruct the tuple:
val (line, num) = f(readLine)
if (num == 0)
Also, you're comparing dataInput with false (dataInput == false) instead of assigning false:
dataInput = false
Your code did not pass the functional conventions.
The value that the f returns is a tuple and you should check it's second value of your tuple by dataInput1._2==0
so you should change your if to if(dataInput1._2==0)
You can reconstruct your code in a better way:
import util.control.Breaks._
def mnuQuestionLast(f: (String) => (String, Int)) = {
breakable {
while (true) {
print("Enter 1 to Add Another 0 to Exit > ")
f(readLine) match {
case (_, 0) => break()
case (_,1) => println( the work"
case _ => throw new IllegalArgumentException
}
}
}
}
I was trying my hand at writing an IP generator given a string of numbers. The generator would take as an input a string of number such as "17234" and will return all possible list of ips as follows:
1.7.2.34
1.7.23.4
1.72.3.4
17.2.3.4
I attempted to write a snippet to do the generation as follows:
def genip(ip:String):Unit = {
def legal(ip:String):Boolean = (ip.size == 1) || (ip.size == 2) || (ip.size == 3)
def genips(ip:String,portion:Int,accum:String):Unit = portion match {
case 1 if legal(ip) => println(accum+ip)
case _ if portion > 1 => {
genips(ip.drop(1),portion-1,if(accum.size == 0) ip.take(1)+"." else accum+ip.take(1)+".")
genips(ip.drop(2),portion-1,if(accum.size == 0) ip.take(2)+"." else accum+ip.take(2)+".")
genips(ip.drop(3),portion-1,if(accum.size == 0) ip.take(3)+"." else accum+ip.take(3)+".")
}
case _ => return
}
genips(ip,4,"")
}
The idea is to partition the string into four octets and then further partition the octet into strings of size "1","2" and "3" and then recursively descend into the remaining string.
I am not sure if I am on the right track but it would be great if somebody could suggest a more functional way of accomplishing the same.
Thanks
Here is an alternative version of the attached code:
def generateIPs(digits : String) : Seq[String] = generateIPs(digits, 4)
private def generateIPs(digits : String, partsLeft : Int) : Seq[String] = {
if ( digits.size < partsLeft || digits.size > partsLeft * 3) {
Nil
} else if(partsLeft == 1) {
Seq(digits)
} else {
(1 to 3).map(n => generateIPs(digits.drop(n), partsLeft - 1)
.map(digits.take(n) + "." + _)
).flatten
}
}
println("Results:\n" + generateIPs("17234").mkString("\n"))
Major changes:
Methods now return the collection of strings (rather than Unit), so they are proper functions (rather than working of side effects) and can be easily tested;
Avoiding repeating the same code 3 times depending on the size of the bunch of numbers we take;
Not passing accumulated interim result as a method parameter - in this case it doesn't have sense since you'll have at most 4 recursive calls and it's easier to read without it, though as you're loosing the tail recursion in many case it might be reasonable to leave it.
Note: The last map statement is a good candidate to be replaced by for comprehension, which many developers find easier to read and reason about, though I will leave it as an exercise :)
You code is the right idea; I'm not sure making it functional really helps anything, but I'll show both functional and side-effecting ways to do what you want. First, we'd like a good routine to chunk off some of the numbers, making sure an okay number are left for the rest of the chunking, and making sure they're in range for IPs:
def validSize(i: Int, len: Int, more: Int) = i + more <= len && i + 3*more >= len
def chunk(s: String, more: Int) = {
val parts = for (i <- 1 to 3 if validSize(i, s.length, more)) yield s.splitAt(i)
parts.filter(_._1.toInt < 256)
}
Now we need to use chunk recursively four times to generate the possibilities. Here's a solution that is mutable internally and iterative:
def genIPs(digits: String) = {
var parts = List(("", digits))
for (i <- 1 to 4) {
parts = parts.flatMap{ case (pre, post) =>
chunk(post, 4-i).map{ case (x,y) => (pre+x+".", y) }
}
}
parts.map(_._1.dropRight(1))
}
Here's one that recurses using Iterator:
def genIPs(digits: String) = Iterator.iterate(List((3,"",digits))){ _.flatMap{
case(j, pre, post) => chunk(post, j).map{ case(x,y) => (j-1, pre+x+".", y) }
}}.dropWhile(_.head._1 >= 0).next.map(_._2.dropRight(1))
The logic is the same either way. Here it is working:
scala> genIPs("1238516")
res2: List[String] = List(1.23.85.16, 1.238.5.16, 1.238.51.6,
12.3.85.16, 12.38.5.16, 12.38.51.6,
123.8.5.16, 123.8.51.6, 123.85.1.6)
Below is a simple 'repeat' method I am trying to write using tail recursion. The sole purpose of this function is to just repeat the giving string back to back 'n' amount of times.
I.e. repeat("Hello",3) = "HelloHelloHello"
But for whatever reason I am getting a 'java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException' and I am not sure why.
P.S. This is a homework assignment so if I could just be pointed in the right direction instead of a straight answer that would be cool!
def repeat(s: String, n: Int): String = {
def tailRepeat(str: String, x: Int): String = x match {
case `n` => str
case _ => val repeatString = s + str
tailRepeat(repeatString, (x + 1))
}
tailRepeat(s, 0)
}
I think you are making this a little too complex. For one thing you don't really need pattern matching at all, you have a counting variable that tells you how many times to repeat your string, using that would simplify your code greatly. Also it is usually more straightforward to count down and not up:
def repeat(s: String, n: Int): String = {
def tailRepeat(str: String, x: Int): String = {
if(x == 0) str
else tailRepeat(str + s, x - 1)
}
tailRepeat(s, n - 1)
}
println( repeat("hello", 3) );
// hellohellohello