strStr Question

Implement strStr

Before solving the problem, it’s very important to ask this questions:

Can we use system library (eg. str.substring() or indexOf())

The answer is ‘No’, but asking this question shows that you think deep into questions. Keep in mind the characteristics for a candidate is judged by 4 things:

  1. Code readability - how long does it take to review your code?
  2. Coding convention - do you have the habit to write efficient code?
  3. Testing - it’s good habit to write test case before asked to.
  4. Communication skills

Solution of this question is double for-loop. It’s not linear time complexity, but it’s OK. After getting the code correct, it’s best to tell the O(n) time KMP solution. However, it’s most probably not required to implement.

my code

public String strStr(String haystack, String needle) {
    if (haystack == null || needle == null) {
        return null;
    }
    int len1 = haystack.length();
    int len2 = needle.length();
    for (int i = 0; i <= len1 - len2; i ++) {
        // start from i, match chars
        boolean match = true;
        for (int j = 0; j < len2; j ++) {
            if (haystack.charAt(i + j) != needle.charAt(j)) {
                match = false;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (match) {
            return haystack.substring(i);
        }
    }
    return null;
}

alternative code from ninechap

public String strStr(String haystack, String needle) {
    if(haystack == null || needle == null) {
        return null;
    }
    int i, j;
    for(i = 0; i < haystack.length() - needle.length() + 1; i++) {
        for(j = 0; j < needle.length(); j++) {
            if(haystack.charAt(i + j) != needle.charAt(j)) {
                break;
            }
        }
        if(j == needle.length()) {
            return haystack.substring(i);
        }
    }
    return null;
}

Google Coding Style

if … else …

if (condition) {
    statements;
} else if (condition) {
    statements;
} else {
    statements;
}

自增/自减

while （d++ = s++） {
    n++;
}

To be continued.