Strong password checker #hacktoberfest2022

Strong Password Checker.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+//Strong Password Checker
+//Link : https://leetcode.com/problems/strong-password-checker/
+//
+//A password is considered strong if the below conditions are all met:
+//
+//It has at least 6 characters and at most 20 characters.
+//It contains at least one lowercase letter, at least one uppercase letter, and at least one digit.
+//It does not contain three repeating characters in a row (i.e., "...aaa..." is weak, but "...aa...a..." is 
+//strong, assuming other conditions are met).
+//Given a string password, return the minimum number of steps required to make password strong. if password is already 
+//strong, return 0.
+//
+//In one step, you can:
+//
+//Insert one character to password,
+//Delete one character from password, or
+//Replace one character of password with another character.
+//
+//Example 1:
+//Input: password = "a"
+//Output: 5
+//
+//Example 2:
+//Input: password = "aA1"
+//Output: 3
+//
+//Example 3:
+//Input: password = "1337C0d3"
+//Output: 0
+//
+//Constraints:
+//1 <= password.length <= 50
+//password consists of letters, digits, dot '.' or exclamation mark '!'.
+//
+//**************************************************************************************************************************
+//
+//Let's look at case (1) first. If s.length() < 6, we know we have room to insert some more letters into s. Question is how to 
+//use the insertions effectively to reduce the number of potential replacements. I'm using a greedy approach for this one: I'm 
+//inserting one char between the second and third chars whenever I see a repetition of 3 letters as substring.
+//
+//e.g. Say we have room to insert some chars in string and we see a substring of "aaaa". I'll insert a 'B' to make it "aaBaa" to 
+//break the 3-char repetition, thus reducing potential replacement by 1. And we'll do this until we can't insert any more chars 
+//into s. When we reach this point, we'll start dealing with case (2)
+//
+//For case (2), I still follow a greedy approach. I'm simply searching for 3-char repetitions, and replacing one of the chars to 
+//break the repetition.
+//e.g. If we see a substring of "aaaa", we'll make it "aaBa".
+//
+//My code deals with (1) and (2) together as s.length() <= 20.
+//
+//Case (3) is a little bit tricky because simple greedy doesn't work any more.
+//When s.length() > 20, we want to delete some chars instead of inserting chars to reduce potential replacements. Question is the 
+//same: how to do it effectively? Let's do some observations here:
+//
+//Say len is the length of each repetition.
+//(a) len % 3 only has three possible values, namely 0, 1 and 2.
+//(b) Minimum number of replacements needed to break each repetition is len / 3.
+//(c) Based on (a) and (b), we know that deletion can reduce replacements only if the deletion can change the value of len / 3
+//(d) Based on (c), we know if we want to reduce 1 replacement, we need 1 deletion for len % 3 == 0, and 2 deletions for 
+//len % 3 == 1, and 3 deletions for len % 3 == 2.
+//
+//Given above observations, I simply implemented the solution to do (d).
+//
+//Also note that missing of upper case char, lower case char, or digit can always be resolved by insertion or replacement.
+//
+//CODE
+
+class Solution {
+public:
+    int strongPasswordChecker(string s) {
+        int deleteTarget = max(0, (int)s.length() - 20), addTarget = max(0, 6 - (int)s.length());
+        int toDelete = 0, toAdd = 0, toReplace = 0, needUpper = 1, needLower = 1, needDigit = 1;
+
+        ///////////////////////////////////
+        // For cases of s.length() <= 20 //
+        ///////////////////////////////////
+        for (int l = 0, r = 0; r < s.length(); r++) {
+            if (isupper(s[r])) { needUpper = 0; }               
+            if (islower(s[r])) { needLower = 0; }
+            if (isdigit(s[r])) { needDigit = 0; }
+
+            if (r - l == 2) {                                   // if it's a three-letter window
+                if (s[l] == s[l + 1] && s[l + 1] == s[r]) {     // found a three-repeating substr
+                    if (toAdd < addTarget) { toAdd++, l = r; }  // insert letter to break repetition if possible
+                    else { toReplace++, l = r + 1; }            // replace current word to avoid three repeating chars
+                } else { l++; }                                 // keep the window with no more than 3 letters
+            }
+        }
+        if (s.length() <= 20) { return max(addTarget + toReplace, needUpper + needLower + needDigit); }
+
+        //////////////////////////////////
+        // For cases of s.length() > 20 //
+        //////////////////////////////////
+        toReplace = 0;                                          // reset toReplace
+        vector<unordered_map<int, int>> lenCnts(3);             // to record repetitions with (length % 3) == 0, 1 or 2
+        for (int l = 0, r = 0, len; r <= s.length(); r++) {     // record all repetion frequencies
+            if (r == s.length() || s[l] != s[r]) {
+                if ((len = r - l) > 2) { lenCnts[len % 3][len]++; } // we only care about repetions with length >= 3
+                l = r;
+            }
+        }
+
+        /*
+            Use deletions to minimize replacements, following below orders:
+            (1) Try to delete one letter from repetitions with (length % 3) == 0. Each deletion decreases replacement by 1
+            (2) Try to delete two letters from repetitions with (length % 3) == 1. Each deletion decreases repalcement by 1
+            (3) Try to delete multiple of three letters from repetions with (length % 3) == 2. Each deletion (of three 
+            letters) decreases repalcements by 1
+        */
+        for (int i = 0, numLetters, dec; i < 3; i++) {                
+            for (auto it = lenCnts[i].begin(); it != lenCnts[i].end(); it++) {
+                if (i < 2) {
+                    numLetters = i + 1, dec = min(it->second, (deleteTarget - toDelete) / numLetters);
+                    toDelete += dec * numLetters;               // dec is the number of repetitions we'll delete from
+                    it->second -= dec;                          // update number of repetitions left
+
+                    // after letters deleted, it fits in the group where (length % 3) == 2
+                    if (it->first - numLetters > 2) { lenCnts[2][it->first - numLetters] += dec; }   
+                }
+
+                // record number of replacements needed
+                // note if len is the length of repetition, we need (len / 3) number of replacements
+                toReplace += (it->second) * ((it->first) / 3);  
+            }    
+        }
+
+        int dec = (deleteTarget - toDelete) / 3;                // try to delete multiple of three letters as many as possible
+        toReplace -= dec, toDelete -= dec * 3;
+        return deleteTarget + max(toReplace, needUpper + needLower + needDigit);
+    }
+};
+