Python | Check order of character in string using OrderedDict( )

Given an input string and a pattern, check if characters in the input string follows the same order as determined by characters present in the pattern. Assume there won’t be any duplicate characters in the pattern.

Examples:

Input: 
string = "engineers rock"
pattern = "er";
Output: true
Explanation: 
All 'e' in the input string are before all 'r'.

Input: 
string = "engineers rock"
pattern = "egr";
Output: false
Explanation: 
There are two 'e' after 'g' in the input string.

Input: 
string = "engineers rock"
pattern = "gsr";
Output: false
Explanation:
There are one 'r' before 's' in the input string.



We have existing solution for this problem, please refer Check if string follows order of characters defined by a pattern or not | Set 1. Here we solve this problem quickly in python using OrderedDict(). Approach is very simple,

  • Create an OrderedDict of input string which contains characters of input strings as Key only.
  • Now set a pointer at the start of pattern string.
  • Now traverse generated OrderedDict and match keys with individual character of pattern string, if key and character matches with each other then increment pointer by 1.
  • If pointer of pattern reaches it’s end that means string follows order of characters defined by a pattern otherwise not.
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# Function to check if string follows order of 
# characters defined by a pattern
from collections import OrderedDict
  
def checkOrder(input, pattern):
      
    # create empty OrderedDict
    # output will be like {'a': None,'b': None, 'c': None}
    dict = OrderedDict.fromkeys(input)
  
    # traverse generated OrderedDict parallel with
    # pattern string to check if order of characters 
    # are same or not
    ptrlen = 0 
    for key,value in dict.iteritems():
        if (key == pattern[ptrlen]):
            ptrlen = ptrlen + 1
          
        # check if we have traverse complete 
        # pattern string
        if (ptrlen == (len(pattern))):
            return 'true'
  
    # if we come out from for loop that means 
    # order was mismatched
    return 'false'
   
# Driver program
if __name__ == "__main__":
    input = 'engineers rock' 
    pattern = 'egr'
    print checkOrder(input,pattern)

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Output:


true



This article is contributed by Shashank Mishra (Gullu). 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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