Print common characters of two Strings in alphabetical order

Difficulty Level : Easy
Last Updated : 26 Apr, 2021

Given two strings, print all the common characters in lexicographical order. If there are no common letters, print -1. All letters are lower case.

Examples:

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Input : 
string1 : geeks
string2 : forgeeks
Output : eegks
Explanation: The letters that are common between 
the two strings are e(2 times), k(1 time) and 
s(1 time).
Hence the lexicographical output is "eegks"

Input : 
string1 : hhhhhello
string2 : gfghhmh
Output : hhh

The idea is to use character count arrays.
1) Count occurrences of all characters from ‘a’ to ‘z’ in the first and second strings. Store these counts in two arrays a1[] and a2[].
2) Traverse a1[] and a2[] (Note size of both is 26). For every index i, print character ‘a’ + i number of times equal min(a1[i], a2[i]).

Below is the implementation of the above steps.

C++

// C++ program to print common characters
// of two Strings in alphabetical order
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
int main()
{
    string s1 = "geeksforgeeks";
    string s2 = "practiceforgeeks";
     
    // to store the count of
    // letters in the first string
    int a1[26] = {0};
     
    // to store the count of
    // letters in the second string
    int a2[26] = {0};
    int i , j;
    char ch;
    char ch1 = 'a';
    int k = (int)ch1, m;
     
    // for each letter present, increment the count
    for(i = 0 ; i < s1.length() ; i++)
    {
        a1[(int)s1[i] - k]++;
    }
    for(i = 0 ; i < s2.length() ; i++)
    {
        a2[(int)s2[i] - k]++;
    }
 
    for(i = 0 ; i < 26 ; i++)
    {
        // the if condition guarantees that
        // the element is common, that is,
        // a1[i] and a2[i] are both non zero
        // means that the letter has occurred
        // at least once in both the strings
        if (a1[i] != 0 and a2[i] != 0)
        {
            // print the letter for a number
            // of times that is the minimum
            // of its count in s1 and s2
            for(j = 0 ; j < min(a1[i] , a2[i]) ; j++)
            {
                m = k + i;
                ch = (char)(k + i);
                cout << ch;
            }
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Java

// Java program to print common characters
// of two Strings in alphabetical order
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
// Function to find similar characters
public class Simstrings
{
    static final int MAX_CHAR = 26;
 
    static void printCommon(String s1, String s2)
    {
       // two arrays of length 26 to store occurrence
        // of a letters alphabetically for each string
        int[] a1 = new int[MAX_CHAR];
        int[] a2 = new int[MAX_CHAR];
 
        int length1 = s1.length();
        int length2 = s2.length();
 
        for (int i = 0 ; i < length1 ; i++)
           a1[s1.charAt(i) - 'a'] += 1;
 
        for (int i = 0 ; i < length2 ; i++)
           a2[s2.charAt(i) - 'a'] += 1;
 
        // If a common index is non-zero, it means
        // that the letter corresponding to that
        // index is common to both strings
        for (int i = 0 ; i < MAX_CHAR ; i++)
        {
            if (a1[i] != 0 && a2[i] != 0)
            {
                // Find the minimum of the occurrence
                // of the character in both strings and print
                // the letter that many number of times
                for (int j = 0 ; j < Math.min(a1[i], a2[i]) ; j++)
                    System.out.print(((char)(i + 'a')));
            }
        }
    }
 
    // Driver code
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    {
        String s1 = "geeksforgeeks", s2 = "practiceforgeeks";
        printCommon(s1, s2);
    }
}

Python3

# Python3 program to print common characters
# of two Strings in alphabetical order
 
 
# Initializing size of array
MAX_CHAR=26
 
# Function to find similar characters
def printCommon( s1, s2):
    # two arrays of length 26 to store occurrence
    # of a letters alphabetically for each string
    a1 = [0 for i in range(MAX_CHAR)]
    a2 = [0 for i in range(MAX_CHAR)]
 
    length1 = len(s1)
    length2 = len(s2)
 
    for i in range(0,length1):
        a1[ord(s1[i]) - ord('a')] += 1
 
    for i in range(0,length2):
        a2[ord(s2[i]) - ord('a')] += 1
 
    # If a common index is non-zero, it means
    # that the letter corresponding to that
    # index is common to both strings
    for i in range(0,MAX_CHAR):
        if (a1[i] != 0 and a2[i] != 0):
             
            # Find the minimum of the occurrence
            # of the character in both strings and print
            # the letter that many number of times
            for j in range(0,min(a1[i],a2[i])):
                ch = chr(ord('a')+i)
                print (ch, end='')
             
 
# Driver code
if __name__=="__main__":
    s1 = "geeksforgeeks"
    s2 = "practiceforgeeks"
    printCommon(s1, s2);
 
# This Code is contributed by Abhishek Sharma

C#

// C# program to print common characters
// of two Strings in alphabetical order
 
using System;
// Function to find similar characters
public class Simstrings
{
    static int MAX_CHAR = 26;
  
    static void printCommon(string s1, string s2)
    {
       // two arrays of length 26 to store occurrence
        // of a letters alphabetically for each string
        int[] a1 = new int[MAX_CHAR];
        int[] a2 = new int[MAX_CHAR];
  
        int length1 = s1.Length;
        int length2 = s2.Length;
  
        for (int i = 0 ; i < length1 ; i++)
           a1[s1[i] - 'a'] += 1;
  
        for (int i = 0 ; i < length2 ; i++)
           a2[s2[i] - 'a'] += 1;
  
        // If a common index is non-zero, it means
        // that the letter corresponding to that
        // index is common to both strings
        for (int i = 0 ; i < MAX_CHAR ; i++)
        {
            if (a1[i] != 0 && a2[i] != 0)
            {
                // Find the minimum of the occurrence
                // of the character in both strings and print
                // the letter that many number of times
                for (int j = 0 ; j < Math.Min(a1[i], a2[i]) ; j++)
                    Console.Write(((char)(i + 'a')));
            }
        }
    }
  
    // Driver code
    public static void Main()
    {
        string s1 = "geeksforgeeks", s2 = "practiceforgeeks";
        printCommon(s1, s2);
    }
}

Javascript

<script>
// Javascript program to print common characters
// of two Strings in alphabetical order
     
    let MAX_CHAR = 26;
    // Function to find similar characters
    function printCommon(s1,s2)
    {
        // two arrays of length 26 to store occurrence
        // of a letters alphabetically for each string
        let a1 = new Array(MAX_CHAR);
        let a2 = new Array(MAX_CHAR);
        for(let i=0;i<MAX_CHAR;i++)
        {
            a1[i]=0;
            a2[i]=0;
        }
   
        let length1 = s1.length;
        let length2 = s2.length;
   
        for (let i = 0 ; i < length1 ; i++)
           a1[s1[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)] += 1;
   
        for (let i = 0 ; i < length2 ; i++)
           a2[s2[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)] += 1;
   
        // If a common index is non-zero, it means
        // that the letter corresponding to that
        // index is common to both strings
        for (let i = 0 ; i < MAX_CHAR ; i++)
        {
            if (a1[i] != 0 && a2[i] != 0)
            {
                // Find the minimum of the occurrence
                // of the character in both strings and print
                // the letter that many number of times
                for (let j = 0 ; j < Math.min(a1[i], a2[i]) ; j++)
                    document.write((String.fromCharCode(i + 'a'.charCodeAt(0))));
            }
        }
    }
     
    // Driver code
    let s1 = "geeksforgeeks", s2 = "practiceforgeeks";
    printCommon(s1, s2);
     
     
     
    // This code is contributed by avanitrachhadiya2155
</script>