In-place replace multiple occurrences of a pattern

Given a string and a pattern, replace multiple occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’. The conversion should be in-place and the solution should replace multiple consecutive (and non-overlapping) occurrences of a pattern by a single ‘X’.

String – GeeksForGeeks
Pattern – Geeks
Output: XforX
 
String – GeeksGeeks
Pattern – Geeks
Output: X

String – aaaa
Pattern – aa
Output: X

String – aaaaa
Pattern – aa
Output: Xa

The idea is to maintain two index i and j for in-place replacement. Index i always points to next character in the output string. Index j traverses the string and searches for one or more pattern match. If a match is found, we put character ‘X’ at index i and increment index i by 1 and index j by length of the pattern. Index i is increment only once if we find multiple consecutive occurrences of the pattern. If the pattern is not found, we copy current character at index j to index i and increment both i and j by 1. Since pattern length is always more than equal to 1 and replacement is only 1 character long, we would never overwrite unprocessed characters i.e j >= i is invariant.

Implementation:

C++

// C++ program to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

// returns true if pattern is prefix of str
bool compare(char* str, char* pattern)
{
    for (int i = 0; pattern[i]; i++)
        if (str[i] != pattern[i])
            return false;
    return true;
}

// Function to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
void replacePattern(char* str, char* pattern)
{
    // If pattern is null or empty string,
    // nothing needs to be done
    if (pattern == NULL)
        return;

    int len = strlen(pattern);
    if (len == 0)
        return;

    int i = 0, j = 0;
    int count;

    // for each character
    while (str[j]) {
        count = 0;

        // compare str[j..j+len] with pattern
        while (compare(str + j, pattern)) {
            // increment j by length of pattern
            j = j + len;
            count++;
        }

        // If single or multiple occurrences of pattern
        // is found, replace it by character 'X'
        if (count > 0)
            str[i++] = 'X';

        // copy character at current position j
        // to position i and increment i and j
        if (str[j])
            str[i++] = str[j++];
    }

    // add a null character to terminate string
    str[i] = '\0';
}

// Driver code
int main()
{
    char str[] = "GeeksforGeeks";
    char pattern[] = "Geeks";

    replacePattern(str, pattern);
    cout << str;

    return 0;
}

Python3

# Python3 program to in-place replace multiple
# occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’

# returns true if pattern is prefix of Str
def compare(Str, pattern):

    if(len(Str) != len(pattern)):
        return False

    for i in range(len(pattern)):
        if (Str[i] != pattern[i]):
            return False

    return True

# Function to in-place replace multiple
# occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
def replacePattern(Str,pattern):

    # If pattern is null or empty String,
    # nothing needs to be done
    if (pattern == ""):
        return

    Len = len(pattern)

    if (Len == 0):
        return

    i, j = 0, 0

    # for each character
    while (j < len(Str)):

        count = 0

        # compare Str[j..j+len] with pattern
        while (compare(Str[j:j+Len], pattern)):
            # increment j by length of pattern
            j = j + Len
            count += 1

        # If single or multiple occurrences of pattern
        # is found, replace it by character 'X'
        if (count > 0):
            Str = Str[0:i] + 'X' + Str[i+1:]
            i += 1


        # copy character at current position j
        # to position i and increment i and j
        if (j<len(Str)):
            Str = Str[0:i] + Str[j] + Str[i+1:]
            i += 1
            j += 1

    # add a null character to terminate String
    Str = Str[0:i]
    return Str

# Driver code
Str = "GeeksforGeeks"
pattern = "Geeks"

Str = replacePattern(Str, pattern)
print(Str)

# This code is contributed by shinjanpatra

Javascript

<script>

// JavaScript program to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’

// returns true if pattern is prefix of str
function compare(str, pattern)
{
    for (let i = 0; i<pattern.length; i++)
        if (str[i] != pattern[i])
            return false;
    return true;
}

// Function to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
function replacePattern(str,pattern)
{
    // If pattern is null or empty string,
    // nothing needs to be done
    if (pattern == "")
        return;

    let len = pattern.length;
    if (len == 0)
        return;

    let i = 0, j = 0;
    let count;

    // for each character
    while (j<str.length) {

        count = 0;

        // compare str[j..j+len] with pattern
        while (compare(str.substring(j,j+len), pattern)) {
            // increment j by length of pattern
            j = j + len;
            count++;
        }

        // If single or multiple occurrences of pattern
        // is found, replace it by character 'X'
        if (count > 0){
            str = str.substring(0,i) + 'X' + str.substring(i+1,)
            i++
        }

        // copy character at current position j
        // to position i and increment i and j
        if (j<str.length){
            str = str.substring(0,i) + str[j] + str.substring(i+1,)
            i++;j++
        }
    }

    // add a null character to terminate string
    str = str.substring(0,i);
    return str;
}

// Driver code
let str = "GeeksforGeeks";
let pattern = "Geeks";

str = replacePattern(str, pattern);
document.write(str,"</br>");

// This code is contributed by shinjanpatra

</script>

Output

XforX

Time complexity: O(n*m) where n is length of string and m is length of the pattern.

Auxiliary Space: O(1) 

Implementation using STL

The idea of this implementation is to use the STL in-built functions 
to search for pattern string in main string and then erasing it 
from the main string

C++

// C++ program to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

// Function to in-place replace multiple
// occurrences of a pattern by character ‘X’
void replacePattern(string str, string pattern)
{

    // making an iterator for string str
    string::iterator it = str.begin();
    // run this loop until iterator reaches end of string
    while (it != str.end()) {
        // searching the first index in string str where
        // the first occurrence of string pattern occurs
        it = search(str.begin(), str.end(), pattern.begin(), pattern.end());
        // checking if iterator is not pointing to end of the
        // string str
        if (it != str.end()) {
            // erasing the full pattern string from that iterator
            // position in string str
            str.erase(it, it + pattern.size());
            // inserting 'X' at that iterator position
            str.insert(it, 'X');
        }
    }

    // this loop removes consecutive 'X' in string s
    // Example: GeeksGeeksforGeeks was changed to 'XXforX'
    // running this loop will change it to 'XforX'
    for (int i = 0; i < str.size() - 1; i++) {
        if (str[i] == 'X' && str[i + 1] == 'X') {
            // removing 'X' at position i in string str
            str.erase(str.begin() + i);
            i--; // i-- because one character was deleted
            // so repositioning i
        }
    }
    cout << str;
}

// Driver code
int main()
{
    string str = "GeeksforGeeks";
    string pattern = "Geeks";

    replacePattern(str, pattern);

    return 0;
}

Output

XforX

Time Complexity: O(n*m)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)

This article is contributed by Aditya Goel. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article and mail your article to review-team@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.