Make a palindromic string from given string

Given a string S consisting of lower-case English alphabets only, we have two players playing the game. The rules are as follows:  

• The player can remove any character from the given string S and write it on paper on any side(left or right) of an empty string.
• The player wins the game, if at any move he can get a palindromic string first of length > 1.
• If a palindromic string cannot be formed, Player-2 is declared the winner.

Both play optimally with player-1 starting the game. The task is to find the winner of the game. 

Examples:

Input: S = “abc” 
Output: Player-2 
Explanation:
There are all unique characters due to which there 
is no way to form a palindromic string of length > 1

Input: S = “abccab” 
Output: Player-2 
Explanation:
Initially, newString = “” is empty. 
Let Player-1 choose character ‘a’ and write it on paper. 
Then, S = “bccab” and newString = “a”. 
Now Player-2 chooses character ‘a’ from S and writes it on the left side of newString. 
Thus, S = “bccb” and newString = “aa”. 
Now, newString = “aa” is a palindrome of length 2. 
Hence, Player-2 wins. 

Approach: The idea is to formulate a condition in which Player-1 is always going to be the winner. If the condition fails, then Player-2 will win the game. 

• If there is only one unique character occurring once in the given string, and the rest of the characters occurring more than 1, then Player-1 is going to be the winner, else Player-2 will always win.
• If we have all characters that are occurring more than once in the given string, then Player-2 can always copy the Player-1 move in his first turn and wins.
• Also, if we have more than one character in the string occurring one time only, then a palindrome string can never be formed(in the optimal case). Hence, again, Player-2 wins.

Below is the implementation of the above approach: 

C++

// C++ Implementation to find
// which player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game

#include <bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;

// Function to find
// winner of the game
int palindromeWinner(string& S)
{
    // Array to Maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    int freq[26];

    // Initialise freq array with 0
    memset(freq, 0, sizeof freq);

    // Maintain count of all
    // distinct characters
    int count = 0;

    // Finding frequency of each character
    for (int i = 0; i < (int)S.length();
                                   ++i) {
        if (freq[S[i] - 'a'] == 0)
            count++;

        freq[S[i] - 'a']++;
    }

    // Count unique duplicate
    // characters
    int unique = 0;
    int duplicate = 0;

    // Loop to count the unique
    // duplicate characters
    for (int i = 0; i < 26; ++i) {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;
        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }

    // Condition for Player-1
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 &&
     (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;

    // Else Player-2 is
    // always winner
    return 2;
}

// Driven Code
int main()
{
    string S = "abcbc";

    // Function call
    cout << "Player-"
         << palindromeWinner(S)
         << endl;

    return 0;
}

Java

// Java implementation to find which
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
import java.util.*;

class GFG{

// Function to find
// winner of the game
static int palindromeWinner(String S)
{

    // Array to maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    int freq[] = new int[26];

    // Initialise freq array with 0
    Arrays.fill(freq, 0);

    // Maintain count of all
    // distinct characters
    int count = 0;

    // Finding frequency of each character
    for(int i = 0; i < (int)S.length(); ++i)
    {
        if (freq[S.charAt(i) - 'a'] == 0)
            count++;

        freq[S.charAt(i) - 'a']++;
    }

    // Count unique duplicate
    // characters
    int unique = 0;
    int duplicate = 0;

    // Loop to count the unique
    // duplicate characters
    for(int i = 0; i < 26; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;

        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }

    // Condition for Player-1
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 &&
       (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;

    // Else Player-2 is
    // always winner
    return 2;
}

// Driver Code
public static void main(String s[])
{
    String S = "abcbc";

    // Function call
    System.out.println("Player-" + palindromeWinner(S));
}
}

// This code is contributed by rutvik_56

Python3

# Python3 implementation to find
# which player can form a palindromic
# string first in a game

# Function to find
# winner of the game
def palindromeWinner(S):

    # Array to Maintain frequency
    # of the characters in S
    # initialise freq array with 0
    freq = [0 for i in range(0, 26)]

    # Maintain count of all
    # distinct characters
    count = 0

    # Finding frequency of each character
    for i in range(0, len(S)):
        if (freq[ord(S[i]) - 97] == 0):
            count += 1

        freq[ord(S[i]) - 97] += 1

    # Count unique duplicate
    # characters
    unique = 0
    duplicate = 0

    # Loop to count the unique
    # duplicate characters
    for i in range(0, 26):
        if (freq[i] == 1):
            unique += 1

        elif (freq[i] >= 2):
            duplicate += 1

    # Condition for Player-1
    # to be winner
    if (unique == 1 and
       (unique + duplicate) == count):
        return 1

    # Else Player-2 is
    # always winner
    return 2

# Driven Code
S = "abcbc";

# Function call
print("Player-", palindromeWinner(S))

# This code is contributed by Sanjit_Prasad

C#

// C# implementation to find which
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
using System;
class GFG{

// Function to find
// winner of the game
static int palindromeWinner(string S)
{
  // Array to maintain frequency
  // of the characters in S
  int[] freq = new int[26];

  // Maintain count of all
  // distinct characters
  int count = 0;

  // Finding frequency of
  // each character
  for (int i = 0;
           i < (int)S.Length; ++i)
  {
    if (freq[S[i] - 'a'] == 0)
      count++;

    freq[S[i] - 'a']++;
  }

  // Count unique duplicate
  // characters
  int unique = 0;
  int duplicate = 0;

  // Loop to count the unique
  // duplicate characters
  for (int i = 0; i < 26; ++i)
  {
    if (freq[i] == 1)
      unique++;

    else if (freq[i] >= 2)
      duplicate++;
  }

  // Condition for Player-1
  // to be winner
  if (unique == 1 &&
     (unique + duplicate) ==
      count)
    return 1;

  // Else Player-2 is
  // always winner
  return 2;
}

// Driver Code
public static void Main(string[] s)
{
  string S = "abcbc";

  // Function call
  Console.Write("Player-" +
                 palindromeWinner(S));
}
}

// This code is contributed by Chitranayal

Javascript

<script>
// Javascript implementation to find which
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game

// Function to find
// winner of the game
function palindromeWinner(S)
{
    // Array to maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    let freq = new Array(26);

    // Initialise freq array with 0
    for(let i=0;i<26;i++)
    {
        freq[i]=0;
    }

    // Maintain count of all
    // distinct characters
    let count = 0;

    // Finding frequency of each character
    for(let i = 0; i < S.length; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[S[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)] == 0)
            count++;

        freq[S[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]++;
    }

    // Count unique duplicate
    // characters
    let unique = 0;
    let duplicate = 0;

    // Loop to count the unique
    // duplicate characters
    for(let i = 0; i < 26; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;

        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }

    // Condition for Player-1
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 &&
       (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;

    // Else Player-2 is
    // always winner
    return 2;
}

// Driver Code
let S = "abcbc";
// Function call
document.write("Player-" + palindromeWinner(S));


// This code is contributed by avanitrachhadiya2155
</script>

Output:

Player-1

Time Complexity: O(N), where N is the length of the given string.
Auxiliary Space: O(1), no extra space is required, so it is a constant.