LeetCode – Valid Palindrome (Java)
Given a string, determine if it is a palindrome, considering only alphanumeric characters and ignoring cases.
For example, "Red rum, sir, is murder" is a palindrome, while "Programcreek is awesome" is not.
Note:
Have you consider that the string might be empty? This is a good question to ask during an interview.
For the purpose of this problem, we define empty string as valid palindrome.
Thoughts
From start and end loop though the string, i.e., char array. If it is not alpha or number, increase or decrease pointers. Compare the alpha and numeric characters. The solution below is pretty straightforward.
Java Solution 1 - Naive
public class Solution { public boolean isPalindrome(String s) { if(s == null) return false; if(s.length() < 2) return true; char[] charArray = s.toCharArray(); int len = s.length(); int i=0; int j=len-1; while(i<j){ char left, right; while(i<len-1 && !isAlpha(left) && !isNum(left)){ i++; left = charArray[i]; } while(j>0 && !isAlpha(right) && !isNum(right)){ j--; right = charArray[j]; } if(i >= j) break; left = charArray[i]; right = charArray[j]; if(!isSame(left, right)){ return false; } i++; j--; } return true; } public boolean isAlpha(char a){ if((a >= 'a' && a <= 'z') || (a >= 'A' && a <= 'Z')){ return true; }else{ return false; } } public boolean isNum(char a){ if(a >= '0' && a <= '9'){ return true; }else{ return false; } } public boolean isSame(char a, char b){ if(isNum(a) && isNum(b)){ return a == b; }else if(Character.toLowerCase(a) == Character.toLowerCase(b)){ return true; }else{ return false; } } } |
Java Solution 2 - Using Stack
This solution removes the special characters first. (Thanks to Tia)
public boolean isPalindrome(String s) { s = s.replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z0-9]", "").toLowerCase(); int len = s.length(); if (len < 2) return true; Stack<Character> stack = new Stack<Character>(); int index = 0; while (index < len / 2) { stack.push(s.charAt(index)); index++; } if (len % 2 == 1) index++; while (index < len) { if (stack.empty()) return false; char temp = stack.pop(); if (s.charAt(index) != temp) return false; else index++; } return true; } |
Java Solution 3 - Using Two Pointers
In the discussion below, April and Frank use two pointers to solve this problem. This solution looks really simple.
public class ValidPalindrome { public static boolean isValidPalindrome(String s){ if(s==null||s.length()==0) return false; s = s.replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z0-9]", "").toLowerCase(); System.out.println(s); for(int i = 0; i < s.length() ; i++){ if(s.charAt(i) != s.charAt(s.length() - 1 - i)){ return false; } } return true; } public static void main(String[] args) { String str = "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"; System.out.println(isValidPalindrome(str)); } } |
<pre><code> String foo = "bar"; </code></pre>
Leave a comment
Here is the idea that remove non-letter first
public class Solution {
public boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
s = s.replaceAll(“[^a-zA-Z0-9]”, “”);
s = s.toLowerCase();
int len = s.length();
if(len<2)
return true;
Stack sta = new Stack();
int index = 0;
while(index < len/2){
sta.push(s.charAt(index));
index ++;
}
if (len%2 ==1)
index++;
while(index < len){
if(sta.empty())
return false;
char temp = sta.pop();
if(s.charAt(index) != temp)
return false;
else
index ++;
}
return true;
}
}
Great Solution! Thanks.
Hi, I found that there are two redundant lines in your first solution. These two lines
“left = charArray[i];
right = charArray[j];”
seem to be redundant in the largest while loop, because you have already changed them in the above two while loops.
public class ValidPalindrome {
public static boolean isValidPalindrome(String s){
if(s==null||s.length()==0) return false;
s = s.replaceAll(“[^a-zA-Z0-9]”, “”).toLowerCase();
System.out.println(s);
for(int i = 0; i < s.length() ; i++){
if(s.charAt(i) != s.charAt(s.length() – 1 – i)){
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
String str = "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama";
System.out.println(isValidPalindrome(str));
}
}
this is a great solution, thanks for sharing!
Here is an easier solution using two pointers
public static boolean isPalindrome1(String s) {
s = s.replaceAll(“[^0-9a-zA-Z]”, “”).toLowerCase();
int start = 0;
int end = s.length() – 1;
while (start < end){
if (s.charAt(start) != s.charAt(end)){
return false;
}
start++;
end–;
}
return true;
}
Great, Thanks! It is added!
Right. Thanks for pointing out this problem. I have changed the code.
Solution 3 is the most intuitive one when I think of this problem, but you can easily make its performance split in half by doing the iteration from i=0 to s.length() / 2, because at the moment each character is compared twice, i.e for “abcd” you compare “a” == “d” but at the end also “d” == “a”
I have a question that if the string is empty the statement s.length()==0 would be true, it will return false. Is this wrong?
public static boolean isPolindrome(String s) {
s = s.replaceAll(“[^a-zA-Z]”, “”);
return (s.equalsIgnoreCase(new StringBuilder(s).reverse().toString()));
}
We could use too ():
public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
String pureString = s.replaceAll(“[^A-Za-z0-9]”, “”);
if(pureString.length() == 0)
return false;
return(pureString.toLowerCase().equals(new StringBuilder(pureString.toLowerCase()).reverse().toString()));
}
Cool!
Your solution 1 will throw:
Error:(.. , ..) java: variable left might not have been initialized
Error:(.. , ..) java: variable right might not have been initialized
Your solution 3:
The for loop is not best choice here. You are comparing two times the same character.
When i = 0,
you compare charAt(0) with charAt(s.length() – 1)
When i = s.length() – 1
you compare charAt(s.length() – 1) and charAt(0)
While loop is recommended
how about ?
if (s.Length % 2 != 0)
{
return false;
}
Hey this is my solution, is not a big deal hehe just a simple for and StringBuilder
public boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
s = s.toLowerCase();
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for(int index = 0; index < s.length(); index++) {
Character temp = s.charAt(index);
if(Character.isLetterOrDigit(temp)) {
builder.append(temp.toString());
}
}
String tempString = builder.toString();
String otherString = builder.reverse().toString();
if(tempString.equals(otherString)) return true;
return false;
}
public class Solution {
public boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
s = s.replaceAll(“[^a-zA-Z0-9]”, “”).toLowerCase();
String rev = new StringBuilder(s).reverse().toString();
if(s.equals(rev))
return true;
else return false;
}
}
How is this is as a solution? Any flaws?
I still see this error. Also, is there anything wrong with using the StringBuilder()’s reverse method that a couple people have suggested in the comments?
public class palindrom {
public static boolean isPalindrom(String s){
int end = s.length()-1;
for( int i =0 ; i < s.length()/2 ; i++){
if(s.charAt(i) != s.charAt(end))
return false;
end--;
}
return true;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println(isPalindrom("0madanadam0"));
}
}
static boolean isValidPalidrome(String str) {
int i = 0;
int j = str.length() - 1;
while (i = 'a' && a = 'A' && a <= 'Z')) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
Solution 3 should stop at s.length()/2 :
public boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
s = s.toLowerCase();
s = s.replaceAll("[^a-z0-9]","");
for (int i=0; i < s.length()/2; i++){
if (s.charAt(i) != s.charAt(s.length()-i-1))
return false;
}
return true;
}
Using string buffer ,
import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
class Seventeen
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in);
String str=sc.next();
String reverse = new StringBuffer(str).reverse().toString();
if(str.equals(reverse))
System.out.println(“true”);
else
System.out.println(“false”);
}
}