Look-and-Say Sequence - GeeksforGeeks

Find the n’th term in Look-and-say (Or Count and Say) Sequence. The look-and-say sequence is the sequence of below integers:
1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, 13112221, 1113213211, …

How is above sequence generated?
n’th term in generated by reading (n-1)’th term.

The first term is "1"

Second term is "11", generated by reading first term as "One 1" 
(There is one 1 in previous term)

Third term is "21", generated by reading second term as "Two 1"

Fourth term is "1211", generated by reading third term as "One 2 One 1" 

and so on

How to find n’th term?
Example:

Input: n = 3
Output: 21

Input: n = 5
Output: 111221

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

The idea is simple, we generate all terms from 1 to n. First two terms are initialized as “1” and “11”, and all other terms are generated using previous terms. To generate a term using previous term, we scan the previous term. While scanning a term, we simply keep track of count of all consecutive characters. For sequence of same characters, we append the count followed by character to generate the next term.

Below is implementation of above idea.

C++

// C++ program to find n'th term in look and say 
// sequence 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 
  
// Returns n'th term in look-and-say sequence 
string countnndSay(int n) 
{ 
    // Base cases 
    if (n == 1)      return "1"; 
    if (n == 2)      return "11"; 
  
    // Find n'th term by generating all terms from 3 to 
    // n-1.  Every term is generated using previous term 
    string str = "11"; // Initialize previous term 
    for (int i = 3; i<=n; i++) 
    { 
        // In below for loop, previous character 
        // is processed in current iteration. That 
        // is why a dummy character is added to make 
        // sure that loop runs one extra iteration. 
        str += '$'; 
        int len = str.length(); 
  
        int cnt = 1; // Initialize count of matching chars 
        string  tmp = ""; // Initialize i'th term in series 
  
        // Process previous term to find the next term 
        for (int j = 1; j < len; j++) 
        { 
            // If current character does't match 
            if (str[j] != str[j-1]) 
            { 
                // Append count of str[j-1] to temp 
                tmp += cnt + '0'; 
  
                // Append str[j-1] 
                tmp += str[j-1]; 
  
                // Reset count 
                cnt = 1; 
            } 
  
            //  If matches, then increment count of matching 
            // characters 
            else cnt++; 
        } 
  
        // Update str 
        str = tmp; 
    } 
  
    return str; 
} 
  
// Driver program 
int main() 
{ 
    int N = 3; 
    cout << countnndSay(N) << endl; 
    return 0; 
} 

Java

// Java program to find n'th  
// term in look and say sequence 
  
class GFG  
{ 
  
    // Returns n'th term in  
    // look-and-say sequence 
    static String countnndSay(int n) 
    { 
    // Base cases 
    if (n == 1)     return "1"; 
    if (n == 2)     return "11"; 
  
    // Find n'th term by generating  
    // all terms from 3 to n-1.  
    // Every term is generated  
    // using previous term 
      
    // Initialize previous term 
    String str = "11";  
    for (int i = 3; i <= n; i++) 
    { 
        // In below for loop, previous  
        // character is processed in  
        // current iteration. That is 
        // why a dummy character is  
        // added to make sure that loop 
        // runs one extra iteration. 
        str += '$'; 
        int len = str.length(); 
  
        int cnt = 1; // Initialize count  
                     // of matching chars 
        String tmp = ""; // Initialize i'th  
                         // term in series 
        char []arr = str.toCharArray(); 
          
        // Process previous term 
        // to find the next term 
        for (int j = 1; j < len; j++) 
        { 
            // If current character 
            // does't match 
            if (arr[j] != arr[j - 1]) 
            { 
                // Append count of  
                // str[j-1] to temp 
                tmp += cnt + 0; 
  
                // Append str[j-1] 
                tmp += arr[j - 1]; 
  
                // Reset count 
                cnt = 1; 
            } 
  
            // If matches, then increment  
            // count of matching characters 
            else cnt++; 
        } 
  
        // Update str 
        str = tmp; 
    } 
  
    return str; 
    } 
      
    // Driver Code 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        int N = 3; 
        System.out.println(countnndSay(N)); 
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed  
// by ChitraNayal 

C#

// C# program to find n'th  
// term in look and say sequence 
using System; 
  
class GFG  
{ 
  
    // Returns n'th term in  
    // look-and-say sequence 
    static string countnndSay(int n) 
    { 
    // Base cases 
    if (n == 1)     return "1"; 
    if (n == 2)     return "11"; 
  
    // Find n'th term by generating  
    // all terms from 3 to n-1.  
    // Every term is generated using 
    // previous term 
      
    // Initialize previous term 
    string str = "11";  
    for (int i = 3; i <= n; i++) 
    { 
        // In below for loop, previous  
        // character is processed in  
        // current iteration. That is  
        // why a dummy character is  
        // added to make sure that loop 
        // runs one extra iteration. 
        str += '$'; 
        int len = str.Length; 
  
        int cnt = 1; // Initialize count of 
                     // matching chars 
        string tmp = ""; // Initialize i'th  
                         // term in series 
        char []arr = str.ToCharArray(); 
          
        // Process previous term  
        // to find the next term 
        for (int j = 1; j < len; j++) 
        { 
            // If current character 
            // does't match 
            if (arr[j] != arr[j - 1]) 
            { 
                 // Append count of  
                // str[j-1] to temp 
                tmp += cnt + 0; 
  
                // Append str[j-1] 
                tmp += arr[j - 1]; 
  
                // Reset count 
                cnt = 1; 
            } 
  
            // If matches, then increment  
            // count of matching characters 
            else cnt++; 
        } 
  
        // Update str 
        str = tmp; 
    } 
  
    return str; 
    } 
      
    // Driver Code 
    public static void Main()  
    { 
        int N = 3; 
        Console.Write(countnndSay(N)); 
    } 
} 
  
// This code is contributed 
// by ChitraNayal 

Python 3

# Python 3 program to find  
# n'th term in look and  
# say sequence 
  
# Returns n'th term in 
# look-and-say sequence 
def countnndSay(n): 
      
    # Base cases 
    if (n == 1): 
        return "1"
    if (n == 2): 
        return "11"
  
    # Find n'th term by generating  
    # all terms from 3 to n-1.  
    # Every term is generated using 
    # previous term 
      
    # Initialize previous term 
    s = "11" 
    for i in range(3, n + 1): 
          
        # In below for loop,  
        # previous character is  
        # processed in current  
        # iteration. That is why 
        # a dummy character is  
        # added to make sure that  
        # loop runs one extra iteration. 
        s += '$'
        l = len(s) 
  
        cnt = 1 # Initialize count  
                # of matching chars 
        tmp = "" # Initialize i'th  
                 # term in series 
  
        # Process previous term to 
        # find the next term 
        for j in range(1 , l): 
              
            # If current character 
            # does't match 
            if (s[j] != s[j - 1]): 
                  
                # Append count of  
                # str[j-1] to temp 
                tmp += str(cnt + 0) 
  
                # Append str[j-1] 
                tmp += s[j - 1] 
  
                # Reset count 
                cnt = 1
              
            # If matches, then increment  
            # count of matching characters 
            else: 
                cnt += 1
  
        # Update str 
        s = tmp 
    return s; 
  
# Driver Code 
N = 3
print(countnndSay(N)) 
  
# This code is contributed 
# by ChitraNayal 

PHP

<?php  
// PHP program to find  
// n'th term in look  
// and say sequence 
  
// Returns n'th term in 
// look-and-say sequence 
function countnndSay($n) 
{ 
    // Base cases 
    if ($n == 1)      
        return "1"; 
    if ($n == 2)      
        return "11"; 
  
    // Find n'th term by generating  
    // all terms from 3 to n-1.  
    // Every term is generated  
    // using previous term 
      
    // Initialize previous term 
    $str = "11";  
    for ($i = 3;  
         $i <= $n; $i++) 
    { 
        // In below for loop,  
        // previous character is  
        // processed in current  
        // iteration. That is why  
        // a dummy character is  
        // added to make sure that  
        // loop runs one extra iteration. 
        $str = $str.'$'; 
        $len = strlen($str); 
  
        $cnt = 1; // Initialize count of 
                  // matching chars 
        $tmp = ""; // Initialize i'th  
                   // term in series 
  
        // Process previous term  
        // to find the next term 
        for ($j = 1; $j < $len; $j++) 
        { 
            // If current character 
            // does't match 
            if ($str[$j] != $str[$j - 1]) 
            { 
                // Append count of 
                // str[j-1] to temp 
                $tmp = $tmp.$cnt + 0; 
  
                // Append str[j-1] 
                $tmp = $tmp. $str[$j - 1]; 
  
                // Reset count 
                $cnt = 1; 
            } 
  
            // If matches, then increment  
            // count of matching characters 
            else $cnt++; 
        } 
  
        // Update str 
        $str = $tmp; 
    } 
  
    return $str; 
} 
  
// Driver Code 
$N = 3; 
echo countnndSay($N); 
return 0; 
  
// This code is contributed  
// by ChitraNayal 
?> 

Output:

Thanks to Utkarsh for suggesting the above solution.

Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above

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My Personal Notes

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

C++

Java

C#

Python 3

PHP

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