Sliding Window Algorithm

1. Template:

public class Solution {
    public List<Integer> slidingWindowTemplateByHarryChaoyangHe(String s, String t) {
        //init a collection or int value to save the result according the question.
        List<Integer> result = new LinkedList<>();
        if(t.length()> s.length()) return result;
        
        //create a hashmap to save the Characters of the target substring.
        //(K, V) = (Character, Frequence of the Characters)
        Map<Character, Integer> map = new HashMap<>();
        for(char c : t.toCharArray()){
            map.put(c, map.getOrDefault(c, 0) + 1);
        }
        //maintain a counter to check whether match the target string.
        int counter = map.size();//must be the map size, NOT the string size because the char may be duplicate.
        
        //Two Pointers: begin - left pointer of the window; end - right pointer of the window
        int begin = 0, end = 0;
        
        //the length of the substring which match the target string.
        int len = Integer.MAX_VALUE; 
        
        //loop at the begining of the source string
        while(end < s.length()){
            
            char c = s.charAt(end);//get a character
            
            if( map.containsKey(c) ){
                map.put(c, map.get(c)-1);// plus or minus one
                if(map.get(c) == 0) counter--;//modify the counter according the requirement(different condition).
            }
            end++;
            
            //increase begin pointer to make it invalid/valid again
            while(counter == 0 /* counter condition. different question may have different condition */){
                
                char tempc = s.charAt(begin);//***be careful here: choose the char at begin pointer, NOT the end pointer
                if(map.containsKey(tempc)){
                    map.put(tempc, map.get(tempc) + 1);//plus or minus one
                    if(map.get(tempc) > 0) counter++;//modify the counter according the requirement(different condition).
                }
                
                /* save / update(min/max) the result if find a target*/
                // result collections or result int value
                
                begin++;
            }
        }
        return result;
    }
}

2. Examples

1. Minimum-window-substring

Given a string S and a string T, find the minimum window in S which will contain all the characters in T in complexity O(n).

Example,
S = "ADOBECODEBANC"
T = "ABC"
Minimum window is "BANC".

Note:

• If there is no such window in S that covers all characters in T, return the empty string "".
• If there are multiple such windows, you are guaranteed that there will always be only one unique minimum window in S.

Solution

public class Solution {
    public String minWindow(String s, String t) {
        if(t.length()> s.length()) return "";
        Map<Character, Integer> map = new HashMap<>();
        for(char c : t.toCharArray()){
            map.put(c, map.getOrDefault(c,0) + 1);
        }
        int counter = map.size();
        
        int begin = 0, end = 0;
        int head = 0;
        int len = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
        
        while(end < s.length()){
            char c = s.charAt(end);
            if( map.containsKey(c) ){
                map.put(c, map.get(c)-1);
                if(map.get(c) == 0) counter--;
            }
            end++;
            
            while(counter == 0){
                char tempc = s.charAt(begin);
                if(map.containsKey(tempc)){
                    map.put(tempc, map.get(tempc) + 1);
                    if(map.get(tempc) > 0){
                        counter++;
                    }
                }
                if(end-begin < len){
                    len = end - begin;
                    head = begin;
                }
                begin++;
            }
            
        }
        if(len == Integer.MAX_VALUE) return "";
        return s.substring(head, head+len);
    }
}

2. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Given a string, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters.

Examples:
Given "abcabcbb", the answer is "abc", which the length is 3.

Given "bbbbb", the answer is "b", with the length of 1.

Given "pwwkew", the answer is "wke", with the length of 3. Note that the answer must be a substring, "pwke" is a subsequence and not a substring.

Solution

public class Solution {
    public int lengthOfLongestSubstring(String s) {
        Map<Character, Integer> map = new HashMap<>();
        int begin = 0, end = 0, counter = 0, d = 0;

        while (end < s.length()) {
            // > 0 means repeating character
            //if(map[s.charAt(end++)]-- > 0) counter++;
            char c = s.charAt(end);
            map.put(c, map.getOrDefault(c, 0) + 1);
            if(map.get(c) > 1) counter++;
            end++;
            
            while (counter > 0) {
                //if (map[s.charAt(begin++)]-- > 1) counter--;
                char charTemp = s.charAt(begin);
                if (map.get(charTemp) > 1) counter--;
                map.put(charTemp, map.get(charTemp)-1);
                begin++;
            }
            d = Math.max(d, end - begin);
        }
        return d;
    }
}