Check if string S can be converted to T by incrementing characters

Last Updated : 16 Dec, 2022

Given strings S and T. The task is to check if S can be converted to T by performing at most K operations. For the i^th operation, select any character in S which has not been selected before, and increment the chosen character i times (i.e., replacing it with the letter i times ahead in the alphabet)

Note: The increment is cyclic (i.e., incrementing ‘z’ by 1 makes the character ‘a’)

Examples:

Input: A = “input”, B = “output”, N = 9
Output: True
Explanation: In the 6th operation, we shift ‘i’ 6 times to get ‘o’. And in the 7th operation, we shift ‘n’ to get ‘u’.

Input: A = “aab”, B = “bbb”, N = 27
Output: True
Explanation: In the 1st move, we shift the first ‘a’ 1 time to get ‘b’. In the 27th move, we shift the second ‘a’ 27 times to get ‘b’.

An approach using Hashing:

One important thing is to notice that we can only shift a letter once, and we cannot change more than one letter by the same number of shifts (i). In other words, if we shift one letter by 1, no other letters can be shifted by 1. If we need to shift by 1 again, you need to use “wrapping” and shift by 27 (which is 1 + 26).

Follow the steps below to implement the above idea:

Check if the size of both strings is not equal
- If true, return false
Initialize an array arr[] of size 26. where, arr[i] = x implies that there are x characters in string A that need an increment of i times to match the characters in string B.
Iterate over the string A.
- Calculate the increment needed to convert A[i] to B[i]
- Calculate the total operation require to shift all the characters that need the same amount of increment.
  - If the total operation required is greater than N, return false
- Increment the frequency of shift in array arr by 1
Finally, return true

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

C++

// C++ code to implement the approach
 
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
// Function to check if conversion is possible
bool canConvert(string A, string B, int N)
{
    // Check if size of both strings are
    // not equal If true, return false;
    if (A.size() != B.size())
        return false;
 
    // Initialize an array of size 26
    // where, arr[i] = x implies that
    // there are x characters in string A
    // that need a shift of i times to
    // match the characters in string B.
    vector<int> arr(26, 0);
 
    // Iterate over the string A.
    for (int i = 0; i < A.size(); i++) {
 
        // Calculate the increment needed to
        // convert A[i] to B[i]
        int shift = (B[i] - A[i] + 26) % 26;
 
        // Calculate the total operations
        // require to increment all elements
        // requiring same number of increment.
        // If total operation required is
        // greater than N, return false
        if (shift != 0 && shift + arr[shift] * 26 > N)
            return false;
 
        // Increment the frequency of
        // shift in array arr
        arr[shift]++;
    }
 
    // Finally, return true
    return true;
}
 
// Driver code
int main()
{
    string A = "abcabc", B;
    int N = 3;
 
    // Function Call
    if (canConvert(A, B, N))
        cout << "True";
    else
        cout << "False";
 
    return 0;
}

Java

// Java code to implement the approach
import java.io.*;
 
class GFG {
    // Function to check if conversion is possible
    public static boolean canConvert(String A, String B,
                                     int N)
    {
        // Check if size of both strings are
        // not equal If true, return false;
        if (A.length() != B.length())
            return false;
 
        // Initialize an array of size 26
        // where, arr[i] = x implies that
        // there are x characters in string A
        // that need a shift of i times to
        // match the characters in string B.
        int arr[] = new int[26];
 
        // Iterate over the string A.
        for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++) {
 
            // Calculate the increment needed to
            // convert A[i] to B[i]
            int shift
                = (B.charAt(i) - A.charAt(i) + 26) % 26;
 
            // Calculate the total operations
            // require to increment all elements
            // requiring same number of increment.
            // If total operation required is
            // greater than N, return false
            if (shift != 0 && shift + arr[shift] * 26 > N)
                return false;
 
            // Increment the frequency of
            // shift in array arr
            arr[shift]++;
        }
 
        // Finally, return true
        return true;
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String A = "abcabc";
        String B = "";
        int N = 3;
 
        // Function Call
        if (canConvert(A, B, N))
            System.out.print("True");
        else
            System.out.print("False");
    }
}
 
// This code is contributed by Rohit Pradhan

Python3

# python code to implement the approach
 
# Function to check if conversion is possible
def canConvert(A, B, N):
   
    # Check if size of both s are
    # not equal If true, return false
    if (len(A) != len(B)):
        return False
       
    # ilize an array of size 26
    # where, arr[i] = x implies that
    # there are x characters in  A
    # that need a shift of i times to
    # match the characters in  B.
    arr = [0]*26  # (26, 0)
 
    # Iterate over the  A.
    for i in range(0, len(A)):
       
        # Calculate the increment needed to
        # convert A[i] to B[i]
        shift = (ord(B[i]) - ord(A[i]) + 26) % 26
         
        # Calculate the total operations
        # require to increment all elements
        # requiring same number of increment.
        # If total operation required is
        # greater than N, return false
        if(shift != 0 and shift + arr[shift] * 26 > N):
            return False
           
        # Increment the frequency of
        # shift in array arr
        arr[shift] += 1
 
    # Finally, return true
    return True
 
# Driver code
A = "abcabc"
B = ""
N = 3
 
# Function Call
if (canConvert(A, B, N)):
    print("True")
else:
    print("False")
     
# This code is contributed by Pushpesh Raj.

C#

// C# code to implement the approach
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
 
class GFG
{
 
  // Function to check if conversion is possible
  public static bool canConvert(string A, string B, int N)
  {
 
    // Check if size of both strings are
    // not equal If true, return false;
    if (A.Length != B.Length)
      return false;
 
    // Initialize an array of size 26
    // where, arr[i] = x implies that
    // there are x characters in string A
    // that need a shift of i times to
    // match the characters in string B.
    int[] arr = new int[26];
 
    // Iterate over the string A.
    for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++) {
 
      // Calculate the increment needed to
      // convert A[i] to B[i]
      int shift = (B[i] - A[i] + 26) % 26;
 
      // Calculate the total operations
      // require to increment all elements
      // requiring same number of increment.
      // If total operation required is
      // greater than N, return false
      if (shift != 0 && shift + arr[shift] * 26 > N)
        return false;
 
      // Increment the frequency of
      // shift in array arr
      arr[shift]++;
    }
 
    // Finally, return true
    return true;
  }
 
  // Driver Code
  public static void Main()
  {
    string A = "abcabc";
    string B = "";
    int N = 3;
 
    // Function Call
    if (canConvert(A, B, N))
      Console.WriteLine("True");
    else
      Console.WriteLine("False");
  }
}
 
// This code is contributed by Samim Hossain Mondal.

Javascript

   // JavaScript code for the above approach
 
   // Function to check if conversion is possible
   function canConvert(A, B, N) 
   {
    
     // Check if size of both strings are
     // not equal If true, return false;
     if (A.length != B.length)
       return false;
 
     // initialize an array of size 26
     // where, arr[i] = x implies that
     // there are x characters in string A
     // that need a shift of i times to
     // match the characters in string B.
     let arr = new Array(26).fill(0);
 
     // Iterate over the string A.
     for (let i = 0; i < A.length; i++) {
 
       // Calculate the increment needed to
       // convert A[i] to B[i]
       let shift = (B[i].charCodeAt(0) - A[i].charCodeAt(0) + 26) % 26;
 
       // Calculate the total operations
       // require to increment all elements
       // requiring same number of increment.
       // If total operation required is
       // greater than N, return false
       if (shift != 0 && shift + arr[shift] * 26 > N)
         return false;
 
       // Increment the frequency of
       // shift in array arr
       arr[shift]++;
     }
 
     // Finally, return true
     return true;
   }
 
   // Driver code
   let A = "abcabc", B = "";
   let N = 3;
 
   // Function Call
   if (canConvert(A, B, N))
     console.log("True");
   else
     console.log("False");
 
// This code is contributed by Potta Lokesh

Output

False

Time Complexity: O(size(A))
Auxiliary Space: O(1)

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Check if string S can be converted to T by incrementing characters

An approach using Hashing:

C++

Java

Python3

C#

Javascript

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