String containing first letter of every word in a given string with spaces

Difficulty Level : Easy
Last Updated : 25 Jan, 2021

A String str is given which contains lowercase English letters and spaces. It may contain multiple spaces. Get the first letter of every word and return the result as a string. The result should not contain any space.
Examples:

Input : str = "geeks for geeks"
Output : gfg

Input : str = "happy   coding"
Output : hc

Source : https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/amazon-interview-set-8-2/

The idea is to traverse each character of string str and maintain a boolean variable, which was initially set as true. Whenever we encounter space we set the boolean variable as true. And if we encounter any character other than space, we will check boolean variable, if it was set as true then copy that charter to output string and set the boolean variable as false. If the boolean variable is set false, do nothing.
Algorithm:

1. Traverse string str. And initialize a variable v as true.
2. If str[i] == ' '. Set v as true.
3. If str[i] != ' '. Check if v is true or not.
   a) If true, copy str[i] to output string and set v as false.
   b) If false, do nothing.

C++

// C++ program to find the string which contain
// the first character of each word of another
// string.
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
// Function to find string which has first
// character of each word.
string firstLetterWord(string str)
{
    string result = "";
 
    // Traverse the string.
    bool v = true;
    for (int i=0; i<str.length(); i++)
    {
        // If it is space, set v as true.
        if (str[i] == ' ')
            v = true;
 
        // Else check if v is true or not.
        // If true, copy character in output
        // string and set v as false.
        else if (str[i] != ' ' && v == true)
        {
            result.push_back(str[i]);
            v = false;
        }
    }
 
    return result;
}
 
// Driver cpde
int main()
{
    string str = "geeks for geeks";
    cout << firstLetterWord(str);
    return 0;
}

Java

// Java program to find the string which 
// contain the first character of each word  
// of another string. 
 
class GFG 
{
     
    // Function to find string which has first 
    // character of each word. 
    static String firstLetterWord(String str) 
    {
        String result = "";
 
        // Traverse the string. 
        boolean v = true;
        for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) 
        {
            // If it is space, set v as true. 
            if (str.charAt(i) == ' ') 
            {
                v = true;
            } 
             
            // Else check if v is true or not. 
            // If true, copy character in output 
            // string and set v as false. 
            else if (str.charAt(i) != ' ' && v == true) 
            {
                result += (str.charAt(i));
                v = false;
            }
        }
 
        return result;
    }
 
    // Driver code 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        String str = "geeks for geeks";
        System.out.println(firstLetterWord(str));
    }
}
 
// This code is contributed by 
// 29AjayKumar

Python 3

# Python 3 program to find the string which 
# contain the first character of each word 
# of another string.
 
# Function to find string which has first
# character of each word.
def firstLetterWord(str):
 
    result = ""
 
    # Traverse the string.
    v = True
    for i in range(len(str)):
         
        # If it is space, set v as true.
        if (str[i] == ' '):
            v = True
 
        # Else check if v is true or not.
        # If true, copy character in output
        # string and set v as false.
        elif (str[i] != ' ' and v == True):
            result += (str[i])
            v = False
 
    return result
 
# Driver Code
if __name__ == "__main__":
     
    str = "geeks for geeks"
    print(firstLetterWord(str))
 
# This code is contributed by ita_c

C#

// C# program to find the string which 
// contain the first character of each word 
// of another string. 
using System;
 
class GFG 
{ 
     
    // Function to find string which has first 
    // character of each word. 
    static String firstLetterWord(String str) 
    { 
        String result = ""; 
 
        // Traverse the string. 
        bool v = true; 
        for (int i = 0; i < str.Length; i++) 
        { 
            // If it is space, set v as true. 
            if (str[i] == ' ') 
            { 
                v = true; 
            } 
             
            // Else check if v is true or not. 
            // If true, copy character in output 
            // string and set v as false. 
            else if (str[i] != ' ' && v == true) 
            { 
                result += (str[i]); 
                v = false; 
            } 
        } 
        return result; 
    } 
 
    // Driver code 
    public static void Main() 
    { 
        String str = "geeks for geeks"; 
        Console.WriteLine(firstLetterWord(str)); 
    } 
} 
 
// This code is contributed by PrinciRaj1992

Output:

gfg

Time Complexity: O(n)
Another Approach 1:
This approach uses the StringBuilder class of Java. In this approach, we will first split the input string based on the spaces. The spaces in the strings can be matched using a regular expression. The splitted strings are stored in an array of string. Then we can simply append the first character of each splitted string in the String Builder object.

C++

// C++ implementation of the above approach
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
string processWords(char *input)
{
    /* we are splitting the input based on 
    spaces (s)+ : this regular expression 
    will handle scenarios where we have words 
    separated by multiple spaces */
    char *p;
    vector<string> s;
 
    p = strtok(input, " ");
    while (p != NULL)
    {
        s.push_back(p);
        p = strtok(NULL, " ");
    }
 
    string charBuffer;
 
    for (string values : s)
 
        /* charAt(0) will pick only the first character 
        from the string and append to buffer */
        charBuffer += values[0];
 
    return charBuffer;
}
 
// Driver code
int main()
{
    char input[] = "geeks for geeks";
    cout << processWords(input);
    return 0;
}
 
// This code is contributed by
// sanjeev2552

Java

// Java implementation of the above approach
 
class GFG 
{
   private static StringBuilder charBuffer = new StringBuilder();
     
   public static String processWords(String input) 
   {
        /* we are splitting the input based on 
           spaces (s)+ : this regular expression 
           will handle scenarios where we have words 
           separated by multiple spaces */
        String s[] = input.split("(\\s)+");
         
        for(String values : s) 
        {
           /* charAt(0) will pick only the first character 
              from the string and append to buffer */
            charBuffer.append(values.charAt(0));
        }
         
      return charBuffer.toString();
   }
    
   // main function
   public static void main (String[] args) 
   {
      String input = "geeks for       geeks geeks      for geeks";
      System.out.println(processWords(input));
   }
}
 
// This code is contributed by Goutam Das

Python3


# An efficient Python3 implementation 
# of above approach 
charBuffer = []

def processWords(input):
    
    """ we are splitting the input based on 
    spaces (s)+ : this regular expression 
    will handle scenarios where we have words 
    separated by multiple spaces """
    s = input.split(" ") 
    
    for values in s:
        
        """ charAt(0) will pick only the first
            character from the string and append
            to buffer """
        charBuffer.append(values[0])
    return charBuffer 
    
# Driver Code
if __name__ == '__main__':
    input = "geeks for geeks"
    print(*processWords(input), sep = "") 
    
# This code is contributed 
# by SHUBHAMSINGH10

C#

// C# implementation of above approach
using System; 
using System.Text;
 
class GFG 
{
 
private static StringBuilder charBuffer = new StringBuilder();
     
public static String processWords(String input) 
{
        /* we are splitting the input based on 
        spaces (s)+ : this regular expression 
        will handle scenarios where we have words 
        separated by multiple spaces */
        String []s = input.Split(' ');
         
        foreach(String values in s) 
        {
             
            /* charAt(0) will pick only the first character 
            from the string and append to buffer */
            charBuffer.Append(values[0]);
        }
         
    return charBuffer.ToString();
}
     
// Driver code
public static void Main() 
{
    String input = "geeks for geeks";
    Console.WriteLine(processWords(input));
}
}
 
// This code is contributed by Rajput-Ji

Output:

gfg

Another Approach 2:Using boundary checker, refer https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/get-first-letter-word-string-using-regex-java/
This article is contributed by Anuj Chauhan. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.
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