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Lexicographically smallest string whose hamming distance from given string is exactly K

Given a lowercase string A of length N and an integer K, find the lexicographically smallest string B of the same length as A such that hamming distance between A and B is exactly K.

Examples: 



Input : A = "pqrs", k = 1.
Output : aqrs
We can differ by at most one
character. So we put 'a' in the
beginning to make the result 
lexicographically smallest.

Input : A = "pqrs", k = 2.
Output : aars

We start from left to right, if the character at the current position of string A is ‘a’, then we assign the current position of string B character ‘a’. This position will not contribute towards the hamming distance. If character at this position in A is not equal to ‘a’, then also we will assign current position of string B character ‘a’, now this will contribute towards hamming distance and this can be done at most k times because Hamming distance has to be equal to K, if this is already done K times, we will assign this position of B same character as A. 

If after the previous step, hamming distance between A and B is K, we are done otherwise we have to make more changes to B. Now we will start from right to left in B, and if character at the current position is equal to the corresponding character of A, change character of B to ‘b’, hence increasing the hamming distance by one, we will do it until hamming distance becomes equal to K.



Below is the implementation of this approach: 




// CPP program to find Lexicographically
// smallest string whose hamming distance
// from given string is exactly K
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
// function to find Lexicographically
// smallest string with hamming distance k
void findString(string str, int n, int k)
{
    // If k is 0, output input string
    if (k == 0) {
        cout << str << endl;
        return;
    }
 
    // Copying input string into output
    // string
    string str2 = str;
    int p = 0;
 
    // Traverse all the character of the
    // string
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
     
        // If current character is not 'a'
        if (str2[i] != 'a') {
     
            // copy character 'a' to
            // output string
            str2[i] = 'a';
            p++;
 
            // If hamming distance became k,
            // break;
            if (p == k)
                break;
        }
    }
 
    // If k is less than p
    if (p < k) {
         
        // Traversing string in reverse
        // order
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            if (str[i] == 'a') {
                str2[i] = 'b';
                p++;
 
                if (p == k)
                    break;
            }
    }
 
    cout << str2 << endl;
}
 
// Driven Program
int main()
{
    string str = "pqrs";
    int n = str.length();
    int k = 2;
 
    findString(str, n, k);
 
    return 0;
}




// Java program to find Lexicographically
// smallest string whose hamming distance
// from given string is exactly K 
 
class GFG {
 
// function to find Lexicographically
// smallest string with hamming distance k
static void findString(String str, int n, int k)
{
    // If k is 0, output input string
    if (k == 0) {
                  System.out.println(str);;
        return;
    }
 
    // Copying input string into output
    // string
    String str2 = str;
    int p = 0;
 
    // Traverse all the character of the
    // string
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
     
        // If current character is not 'a'
        if (str2.charAt(i) != 'a') {
     
            // copy character 'a' to
            // output string
                        str2 = str2.substring(0,i)+'a'+str2.substring(i+1);
            //str2[i] = 'a';
            p++;
 
            // If hamming distance became k,
            // break;
            if (p == k)
                break;
        }
    }
 
    // If k is less than p
    if (p < k) {
         
        // Traversing string in reverse
        // order
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            if (str.charAt(i) == 'a') {
                                str2 = str2.substring(0,i)+'b'+str2.substring(i+1);
                p++;
                if (p == k)
                    break;
            }
    }
 
       System.out.println(str2);
}
 
// Driven Program
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        String str = "pqrs";
    int n = str.length();
    int k = 2;
 
    findString(str, n, k);
 
    }
}
 
// This code is contributed by 29AjayKumar




# Python 3 program to find Lexicographically
# smallest string whose hamming distance
# from the given string is exactly K
 
# function to find Lexicographically
# smallest string with hamming distance k
def findString(str, n, k):
     
    # If k is 0, output input string
    if (k == 0):
        print(str)
        return
     
    # Copying input string into output
    # string
    str2 = str
    p = 0
 
    # Traverse all the character of the
    # string
    for i in range(0, n, 1):
         
        # If current character is not 'a'
        if (str2[i] != 'a'):
             
            # copy character 'a' to
            # output string
            str2 = str2.replace(str2[i], 'a')
            p += 1
 
            # If hamming distance became k,
            # break;
            if (p == k):
                break
     
    # If k is less than p
    if (p < k):
         
        # Traversing string in reverse
        # order
        i = n - 1
        while(i >= 0):
            if (str[i] == 'a'):
                str2 = str2.replace(str2[i], 'b')
                p += 1
 
            if (p == k):
                break
            i -= 1
             
    print(str2)
 
# Driver Code
if __name__ == '__main__':
    str = "pqrs"
    n = len(str)
    k = 2
 
    findString(str, n, k)
 
# This code is contributed by
# Surendra_Gangwar




// C# program to find Lexicographically
// smallest string whose hamming distance
// from given string is exactly K
using System;
 
class GFG
{
 
// function to find Lexicographically
// smallest string with hamming distance k
static void findString(String str,
                       int n, int k)
{
    // If k is 0, output input string
    if (k == 0)
    {
        Console.Write(str);;
        return;
    }
 
    // Copying input string into 
    // output string
    String str2 = str;
    int p = 0;
 
    // Traverse all the character 
    // of the string
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
    {
     
        // If current character is not 'a'
        if (str2[i] != 'a')
        {
     
            // copy character 'a' to
            // output string
            str2 = str2.Substring(0, i) + 'a' +
                   str2.Substring(i + 1);
            //str2[i] = 'a';
            p++;
 
            // If hamming distance became k,
            // break;
            if (p == k)
                break;
        }
    }
 
    // If k is less than p
    if (p < k)
    {
         
        // Traversing string in reverse
        // order
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            if (str[i] == 'a')
            {
                str2 = str2.Substring(0, i) + 'b' +
                       str2.Substring(i + 1);
                p++;
                if (p == k)
                break;
            }
        }
 
    Console.Write(str2);
}
 
// Driver Code
public static void Main()
{
    String str = "pqrs";
    int n = str.Length;
    int k = 2;
 
    findString(str, n, k);
}
}
 
// This code is contributed by 29AjayKumar




<?php
// PHP program to find Lexicographically
// smallest string whose hamming distance
// from given string is exactly K
 
// function to find Lexicographically
// smallest string with hamming distance k
function findString($str, $n, $k)
{
    // If k is 0, output input string
    if ($k == 0)
    {
        echo $str . "\n";
        return;
    }
 
    // Copying input string into
    // output string
    $str2 = $str;
    $p = 0;
 
    // Traverse all the character
    // of the string
    for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++)
    {
     
        // If current character is not 'a'
        if ($str2[$i] != 'a')
        {
     
            // copy character 'a' to
            // output string
            $str2[$i] = 'a';
            $p++;
 
            // If hamming distance became k,
            // break;
            if ($p == $k)
                break;
        }
    }
 
    // If k is less than p
    if ($p < $k)
    {
         
        // Traversing string in reverse
        // order
        for ($i = $n - 1; $i >= 0; $i--)
            if ($str[$i] == 'a')
            {
                $str2[$i] = 'b';
                $p++;
 
                if ($p == $k)
                    break;
            }
    }
 
    echo $str2 . "\n";
}
 
// Driver Code
$str = "pqrs";
$n = strlen($str);
$k = 2;
 
findString($str, $n, $k);
 
// This code is contributed
// by Akanksha Rai
?>




<script>
// javascript program to find Lexicographically
// smallest string whose hamming distance
// from given string is exactly K 
// function to find Lexicographically
// smallest string with hamming distance k
function findString(str , n , k)
{
    // If k is 0, output input string
    if (k == 0) {
                  document.write(str);;
        return;
    }
 
    // Copying input string into output
    // string
    var str2 = str;
    var p = 0;
 
    // Traverse all the character of the
    // string
    for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
     
        // If current character is not 'a'
        if (str2.charAt(i) != 'a') {
     
            // copy character 'a' to
            // output string
                        str2 = str2.substring(0,i)+'a'+str2.substring(i+1);
            //str2[i] = 'a';
            p++;
 
            // If hamming distance became k,
            // break;
            if (p == k)
                break;
        }
    }
 
    // If k is less than p
    if (p < k) {
         
        // Traversing string in reverse
        // order
        for (i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            if (str.charAt(i) == 'a') {
                                str2 = str2.substring(0,i)+'b'+str2.substring(i+1);
                p++;
                if (p == k)
                    break;
            }
    }
 
       document.write(str2);
}
 
// Driven Program
  
 
var str = "pqrs";
var n = str.length;
var k = 2;
 
findString(str, n, k);
 
// This code is contributed by 29AjayKumar
</script>

Output
aars

Time Complexity: O(n)
Auxiliary Space: O(n)

 


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