Rust Merge Strings Alternately
This posts comes from the real project scenario. Later, I surprisedly find there is one problem in Leetcode. Personally I not a fan of solving Leetcode problems. Let's write a post here since they provide detailed descriptions.
The problem is easy-level one and not complicated. So, just make it become onf of my cheatseets then.
Table of Contents
Description
Source：Click Me: Leetcode-1768
Description:
You are given two strings word1 and word2. Merge the strings by adding letters in alternating order, starting with word1. If a string is longer than the other, append the additional letters onto the end of the merged string.
Return the merged string.
Example 1:
Input: word1 = "abc", word2 = "pqr"
Output: "apbqcr"
Explanation: The merged string will be merged as so:
word1: a b c
word2: p q r
merged: a p b q c r
Example 2:
Input: word1 = "ab", word2 = "pqrs"
Output: "apbqrs"
Explanation: Notice that as word2 is longer, "rs" is appended to the end.
word1: a b
word2: p q r s
merged: a p b q r s
Example 3:
Input: word1 = "abcd", word2 = "pq"
Output: "apbqcd"
Explanation: Notice that as word1 is longer, "cd" is appended to the end.
word1: a b c d
word2: p q
merged: a p b q c d
Solution
The algorithm itself is quite simple so I won’t repeat this in here. Let’s show the code directly:
fn main() {
assert_eq!(
"a1b2c3def",
merge_alternately("abcdef".to_string(), "123".to_string())
);
assert_eq!(
"a1b2c3456",
merge_alternately("abc".to_string(), "123456".to_string())
);
}
pub fn merge_alternately(word1: String, word2: String) -> String {
let mut ans = String::new();
let mut i = 0;
let mut j = 0;
while i < word1.len() || j < word2.len() {
if let Some(c) = word1.chars().nth(i) {
ans.push(c);
}
if let Some(c) = word2.chars().nth(i) {
ans.push(c);
}
i += 1;
j += 1;
}
ans
}
Updates
20210520 Updates：
Later, I suddenly find a crate named itertools, which is quite convenient for us to release heavy lifting work.
For example, we are able to merge, ordering-style merge(kmerge), create an iterator over the “cartesian product” of iterators, as well as interleaving.
No more talking! Let’s check the code below:
use itertools::Itertools;
fn main() {
assert_eq!(
"a1b2c3def",
merge_alternately_itertools("abcdef".to_string(), "123".to_string())
);
assert_eq!(
"a1b2c3456",
merge_alternately_itertools("abc".to_string(), "123456".to_string())
);
}
// I know I can simplify code below but I insist this.
pub fn merge_alternately_itertools(word1: String, word2: String) -> String {
let mut ans = String::new();
ans = word1.chars().interleave(word2.chars()).collect();
ans
}
The End