{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "This notebook was prepared by [Donne Martin](http://donnemartin.com). Source and license info is on [GitHub](https://bit.ly/code-notes)." ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Problem: Given a string, replace in-place all spaces with '%20'\n", "\n", "* [Constraints](#Constraints)\n", "* [Test Cases](#Test-Cases)\n", "* [Algorithm](#Algorithm)\n", "* [Code](#Code)\n", "* [Pythonic-Code: Not In-Place](#Pythonic-Code:-Not-In-Place)\n", "* [Unit Test](#Unit-Test)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Constraints\n", "\n", "*Problem statements are often intentionally ambiguous. Identifying constraints and stating assumptions can help to ensure you code the intended solution.*\n", "\n", "* Can I assume the string is ASCII?\n", " * Yes\n", " * Note: Unicode strings could require special handling depending on your language\n", "* Is there enough space in the data structure for this operation?\n", " * Yes" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Test Cases\n", "\n", "* NULL->NULL\n", "* ' ' -> '%20'\n", "* ' foo bar ' -> '%20foo%20bar%20'\n", "* 'foo' -> 'foo'" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Algorithm\n", "\n", "Since Python strings are immutable, we'll use a bytearray instead to exercise in-place string manipulation as you would get with a C string (which is null terminated, as seen in the diagram below). Python does not use a null-terminator.\n", "\n", "![alt text](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/donnemartin/algorithms-data-structures/master/images/replace_string.jpg)\n", "\n", "* Count the number of spaces in the bytearray\n", "* Determine the new bytearray length\n", "* For each character code in the bytearray, starting from the end of the string\n", " * If the character code is a space\n", " * bytearray[new length] = '0',\n", " * bytearray[new length - 1] = '2',\n", " * bytearray[new length - 2] = '%',\n", " * new length -= 3\n", " * Else\n", " * bytearray[new length] = character code,\n", " * new length -= 1\n", "\n", "Complexity:\n", "* Time: O(n)\n", "* Space: In-place" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Code" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 1, "metadata": { "collapsed": false }, "outputs": [], "source": [ "def encode_spaces(string, length):\n", " if string is None:\n", " return\n", " num_spaces = string.count(' ')\n", " new_length = length + 2 * num_spaces - 1\n", " for i in xrange(length-1, -1, -1):\n", " if chr(string[i]) == ' ':\n", " string[new_length] = '0'\n", " string[new_length-1] = '2'\n", " string[new_length-2] = '%'\n", " new_length -= 3\n", " else:\n", " string[new_length] = string[i]\n", " new_length -= 1" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Pythonic-Code: Not In-Place\n", "\n", "The following code is Pythonic, but requires using additional data structures as Python strings are immutable. You could use a bytearray or a list instead of a string to simulate manipulating an array of characters." ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 2, "metadata": { "collapsed": false }, "outputs": [], "source": [ "import re\n", "\n", "def encode_spaces_alt(string):\n", " return re.sub(' ', '%20', string)\n", "\n", "def encode_spaces_alt2(string):\n", " return string.replace(' ', '%20')" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Unit Test" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "*It is important to identify and run through general and edge cases from the [Test Cases](#Test-Cases) section by hand. You generally will not be asked to write a unit test like what is shown below.*" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 3, "metadata": { "collapsed": false }, "outputs": [ { "name": "stdout", "output_type": "stream", "text": [ "Success: test_replace_char\n" ] } ], "source": [ "from nose.tools import assert_equal\n", "\n", "class Test(object):\n", " def test_replace_char(self, func):\n", " str0 = None\n", " str1 = bytearray(' ||')\n", " str2 = bytearray(' foo bar ||||||')\n", " str3 = bytearray('foo')\n", " func(str0, 0)\n", " func(str1, 1)\n", " func(str2, 9)\n", " func(str3, 3)\n", " assert_equal(str0, None)\n", " assert_equal(str1, '%20')\n", " assert_equal(str2, '%20foo%20bar%20')\n", " assert_equal(str3, 'foo')\n", " print('Success: test_replace_char')\n", "\n", "if __name__ == '__main__':\n", " test = Test()\n", " test.test_replace_char(encode_spaces)" ] } ], "metadata": { "kernelspec": { "display_name": "Python 2", "language": "python", "name": "python2" }, "language_info": { "codemirror_mode": { "name": "ipython", "version": 2 }, "file_extension": ".py", "mimetype": "text/x-python", "name": "python", "nbconvert_exporter": "python", "pygments_lexer": "ipython2", "version": "2.7.10" } }, "nbformat": 4, "nbformat_minor": 0 }