{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Problem: Implement the function void Reverse(char* str)\n", "\n", "* [Clarifying Questions](#Clarifying-Questions)\n", "* [Test Cases](#Test-Cases)\n", "* [Algorithm](#Algorithm)\n", "* [Code](#Code)\n", "* [Pythonic-Code](#Pythonic-Code)" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Clarifying Questions\n", "\n", "* Based on the function signature, it seems you have to implement this in C/C++?\n", " * Yes\n", "* Can you use additional data structures?\n", " * No" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Test Cases\n", "\n", "* NULL input\n", "* '' -> ''\n", "* 'foo bar' -> 'rab oof'" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Algorithm\n", "\n", "We'll want to keep two pointers:\n", "* i is a pointer to the first char\n", "* j is a pointer to the last char\n", "\n", "To get a pointer to the last char, we need to loop through all characters, take note of null terminator.\n", "\n", "* while i < j\n", " * swap i and j\n", "\n", "Complexity:\n", "* Time: O(n)\n", "* Space: In-place\n", "\n", "Note:\n", "* Instead of using i, you can use str instead, although this might not be as intuitive." ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Code" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": null, "metadata": { "collapsed": false }, "outputs": [], "source": [ "# %load reverse_string.cpp\n", "#include \n", "\n", "void Reverse(char* str) {\n", " if (str) {\n", " char* i = str;\t// first letter\n", " char* j = str;\t// last letter\n", " \n", " // find the end of the string\n", " while (*j) {\n", " j++;\n", " }\n", " \n", " // don't point to the null terminator\n", " j--;\n", " \n", " char tmp;\n", " \n", " // swap chars to reverse the string\n", " while (i < j) {\n", " tmp = *i;\n", " *i++ = *j;\n", " *j-- = tmp;\n", " }\n", " }\n", "}\n", "\n", "int main() {\n", " char test0[] = \"\";\n", " char test1[] = \"foo\";\n", " Reverse(NULL);\n", " Reverse(test0);\n", " Reverse(test1);\n", " printf(\"%s \\n\", test0);\n", " printf(\"%s \\n\", test1);\n", " return 0;\n", "}" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Pythonic Code\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": null, "metadata": { "collapsed": false }, "outputs": [], "source": [ "def reverse_string_alt(string):\n", " return string[::-1]\n", "\n", "def reverse_string_alt2(string):\n", " return ''.join(reversed(string))" ] } ], "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": "2.7.9" } }, "nbformat": 4, "nbformat_minor": 0 }