Find largest word in dictionary by deleting some characters of given string

Difficulty Level : Easy
Last Updated : 06 Nov, 2020

Giving a dictionary and a string ‘str’, find the longest string in dictionary which can be formed by deleting some characters of the given ‘str’.

Examples:

Input : dict = {"ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"}   
        str = "abpcplea"  
Output : apple 

Input  : dict = {"pintu", "geeksfor", "geeksgeeks", 
                                        " forgeek"} 
         str = "geeksforgeeks"
Output : geeksgeeks

Asked In : Google Interview

Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE” first, before moving on to the solution.

This problem reduces to finding if a string is subsequence of another string or not. We traverse all dictionary words and for every word, we check if it is subsequence of given string and is largest of all such words. We finally return the longest word with given string as subsequence.

Below is the implementation of above idea

C++

// C++ program to find largest word in Dictionary 
// by deleting some characters of given string 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
// Returns true if str1[] is a subsequence of str2[]. 
// m is length of str1 and n is length of str2 
bool isSubSequence(string str1, string str2) 
{ 
    int m = str1.length(), n = str2.length(); 
  
    int j = 0; // For index of str1 (or subsequence 
  
    // Traverse str2 and str1, and compare current 
    // character of str2 with first unmatched char 
    // of str1, if matched then move ahead in str1 
    for (int i=0; i<n&&j<m; i++) 
        if (str1[j] == str2[i]) 
            j++; 
  
    // If all characters of str1 were found in str2 
    return (j==m); 
} 
  
// Returns the longest string in dictionary which is a 
// subsequence of str. 
string findLongestString(vector <string > dict, string str) 
{ 
    string result = ""; 
    int length = 0; 
  
    // Traverse through all words of dictionary 
    for (string word : dict) 
    { 
        // If current word is subsequence of str and is largest 
        // such word so far. 
        if (length < word.length() && isSubSequence(word, str)) 
        { 
            result = word; 
            length = word.length(); 
        } 
    } 
  
    // Return longest string 
    return result; 
} 
  
// Driver program to test above function 
int main() 
{ 
    vector <string > dict = {"ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"}; 
    string str = "abpcplea" ; 
    cout << findLongestString(dict, str) << endl; 
    return 0; 
} 

Java

// Java program to find largest 
// word in Dictionary by deleting 
// some characters of given String 
  
import java.util.*; 
  
class GFG 
{ 
  
    // Returns true if str1[] is a  
    // subsequence of str2[]. m is  
    // length of str1 and n is length of str2  
    static boolean isSubSequence(String str1, 
                                String str2)  
    { 
        int m = str1.length(), n = str2.length(); 
  
        int j = 0; // For index of str1 (or subsequence)  
  
        // Traverse str2 and str1, and compare current  
        // character of str2 with first unmatched char  
        // of str1, if matched then move ahead in str1  
        for (int i = 0; i < n && j < m; i++) 
        { 
            if (str1.charAt(j) == str2.charAt(i))  
            { 
                j++; 
            } 
        } 
  
        // If all characters of str1  
        // were found in str2  
        return (j == m); 
    } 
  
// Returns the longest String  
// in dictionary which is a  
// subsequence of str.  
    static String findLongestString(Vector<String> dict,  
                                            String str) 
    { 
        String result = ""; 
        int length = 0; 
  
        // Traverse through all words of dictionary  
        for (String word : dict) 
        { 
              
            // If current word is subsequence of str  
            // and is largest such word so far.  
            if (length < word.length() && 
                isSubSequence(word, str)) 
            { 
                result = word; 
                length = word.length(); 
            } 
        } 
  
        // Return longest String  
        return result; 
    } 
  
    // Driver code 
    public static void main(String[] args)  
    { 
        String[] arr = {"ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"}; 
        Vector dict = new Vector(Arrays.asList(arr)); 
        String str = "abpcplea"; 
        System.out.println(findLongestString(dict, str)); 
    } 
}  
  
// This code is contributed by 29AjayKumar 

Python3

# Python3 program to find largest word in Dictionary 
# by deleting some characters of given string 
  
# Returns true if str1[] is a subsequence of str2[]. 
# m is length of str1 and n is length of str2 
def isSubSequence(str1, str2): 
  
    m = len(str1); 
    n = len(str2); 
  
    j = 0; # For index of str1 (or subsequence 
  
    # Traverse str2 and str1, and compare current 
    # character of str2 with first unmatched char 
    # of str1, if matched then move ahead in str1 
    i = 0; 
    while (i < n and j < m): 
        if (str1[j] == str2[i]): 
            j += 1; 
        i += 1; 
  
    # If all characters of str1 were found in str2 
    return (j == m); 
  
# Returns the longest string in dictionary which is a 
# subsequence of str. 
def findLongestString(dict1, str1): 
    result = ""; 
    length = 0; 
  
    # Traverse through all words of dictionary 
    for word in dict1: 
          
        # If current word is subsequence of str and is largest 
        # such word so far. 
        if (length < len(word) and isSubSequence(word, str1)): 
            result = word; 
            length = len(word); 
  
    # Return longest string 
    return result; 
  
# Driver program to test above function 
  
dict1 = ["ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"]; 
str1 = "abpcplea" ; 
print(findLongestString(dict1, str1)); 
      
# This code is conribued by mits 

C#

// C# program to find largest 
// word in Dictionary by deleting 
// some characters of given String 
using System; 
using System.Collections.Generic; 
  
class GFG 
{ 
  
    // Returns true if str1[] is a  
    // subsequence of str2[]. m is  
    // length of str1 and n is length of str2  
    static bool isSubSequence(String str1, 
                                String str2)  
    { 
        int m = str1.Length, n = str2.Length; 
  
        int j = 0; // For index of str1 (or subsequence)  
  
        // Traverse str2 and str1, and compare current  
        // character of str2 with first unmatched char  
        // of str1, if matched then move ahead in str1  
        for (int i = 0; i < n && j < m; i++) 
        { 
            if (str1[j] == str2[i])  
            { 
                j++; 
            } 
        } 
  
        // If all characters of str1  
        // were found in str2  
        return (j == m); 
    } 
  
    // Returns the longest String  
    // in dictionary which is a  
    // subsequence of str.  
    static String findLongestString(List<String> dict,  
                                            String str) 
    { 
        String result = ""; 
        int length = 0; 
  
        // Traverse through all words of dictionary  
        foreach (String word in dict) 
        { 
              
            // If current word is subsequence of str  
            // and is largest such word so far.  
            if (length < word.Length && 
                isSubSequence(word, str)) 
            { 
                result = word; 
                length = word.Length; 
            } 
        } 
  
        // Return longest String  
        return result; 
    } 
  
    // Driver code 
    public static void Main(String[] args)  
    { 
        String[] arr = {"ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"}; 
        List<String> dict = new List<String>(arr); 
        String str = "abpcplea"; 
        Console.WriteLine(findLongestString(dict, str)); 
    } 
}  
  
// This code contributed by Rajput-Ji 

PHP

<?php 
// PHP program to find largest word in Dictionary 
// by deleting some characters of given string 
  
// Returns true if str1[] is a subsequence of str2[]. 
// m is length of str1 and n is length of str2 
function isSubSequence($str1, $str2) 
{ 
    $m = strlen($str1); 
    $n = strlen($str2); 
  
    $j = 0; // For index of str1 (or subsequence 
  
    // Traverse str2 and str1, and compare current 
    // character of str2 with first unmatched char 
    // of str1, if matched then move ahead in str1 
    for ($i = 0; $i < $n && $j < $m; $i++) 
        if ($str1[$j] == $str2[$i]) 
            $j++; 
  
    // If all characters of str1 were found in str2 
    return ($j == $m); 
} 
  
// Returns the longest string in dictionary which is a 
// subsequence of str. 
function findLongestString($dict, $str) 
{ 
    $result = ""; 
    $length = 0; 
  
    // Traverse through all words of dictionary 
    foreach ($dict as $word) 
    { 
        // If current word is subsequence of str and is largest 
        // such word so far. 
        if ($length < strlen($word) && isSubSequence($word, $str)) 
        { 
            $result = $word; 
            $length = strlen($word); 
        } 
    } 
  
    // Return longest string 
    return $result; 
} 
  
// Driver code 
$dict = array("ale", "apple", "monkey", "plea"); 
$str = "abpcplea" ; 
echo findLongestString($dict, $str); 
      
// This code is conribued by mits 
?> 

Output:

apple

Time Complexity : O(N*K*n) Here N is the length of dictionary and n is the length of given string ‘str’ and K – maximum length of words in the dictionary.

Auxiliary Space : O(1)

This article is contributed by Nishant Singh. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

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Recommended: Please solve it on “PRACTICE” first, before moving on to the solution.

C++

Java

Python3

C#

PHP