LeetCode #10: Regular Expression Matching (C/C++).

hard

source: https://leetcode.com/problems/regular-expression-matching/
C/C++ Solution to LeetCode problem 10. Regular Expression Matching.

Problem

---

Given an input string s and a pattern p, implement regular expression matching with support for '.' and '*' where:

• '.' Matches any single character.​​​​
• '*' Matches zero or more of the preceding element.

The matching should cover the entire input string (not partial).

Examples

---

Example 1:

Input: s = “aa”, p = “a”
Output: false
Explanation: “a” does not match the entire string “aa”.

Example 2:

Input: s = “aa”, p = “a”
Output: true
Explanation: ‘’ means zero or more of the preceding element, ‘a’. Therefore, by repeating ‘a’ once, it becomes “aa”.

Example 3:

Input: s = “ab”, p = “.”
Output: true
Explanation: “.” means “zero or more (*) of any character (.)”.

Constraints

---

• 1 <= s.length <= 20
• 1 <= p.length <= 20
• s contains only lowercase English letters.
• p contains only lowercase English letters, '.', and '*'.
• It is guaranteed for each appearance of the character '*', there will be a previous valid character to match.

Solution

---

We will use Dynamic Programming:

• We create a helper method that receives two indexes (one for the pattern, one for the string).
• If we find a previous result for this indexes in a hash table, we return that result (so that we don’t process it again).
• If both indexes are outside the size of the pattern and string, then it means it fully matched (return true).
• If only the index for pattern is outside the size, it means the string had extra elements that don’t match (return false).
• We identify if the characters of pattern and string are equal, or if the pattern is a '.' (at their respective indexes).
• If the next character in the pattern is an '*' then we call recursively the method moving the indexes respectively and we compare the results (index_pattern + 2 OR prev_match AND index_string + 1).
• Else if there is match with '.' or equal characters, then we call recursively moving both indexes.
• Else, no match.
• We store the result in a hash table and return that result.

class Solution {
private:
  string *s;
  string *p;
  map<pair<int, int>, bool> c;

public:
  bool compare(int i, int j) {
    if (c.find({i,j}) != c.end())
      return c[{i,j}];

    if (i>=s->size() && j>=p->size())
      return true;
    if (j>=p->size())
      return false;
    
    bool m = i<s->size() && ((*s)[i] == (*p)[j] || (*p)[j] == '.');
    if (j<p->size()-1 && (*p)[j+1] == '*')
      c[{i, j}] = compare(i, j+2) || (m && compare(i+1, j));
    else if (m)
      c[{i, j}] = compare(i+1, j+1);
    else
      c[{i, j}] = false;
      
    return c[{i, j}];
  }

  bool isMatch(string s, string p) {
    this->s = &s;
    this->p = &p;
    
    return compare(0, 0);
  }
};