271. Encode and Decode Strings
Problem:
Design an algorithm to encode a list of strings to a string. The encoded string is then sent over the network and is decoded back to the original list of strings.
Machine 1 (sender) has the function:
string encode(vector strs) {
// ... your code
return encoded_string;
}
Machine 2 (receiver) has the function:
vector decode(string s) {
//... your code
return strs;
}
So Machine 1 does:
string encoded_string = encode(strs);
and Machine 2 does:
vector strs2 = decode(encoded_string);
strs2 in Machine 2 should be the same as strs in Machine 1.
Implement the encode and decode methods.
Note:
The string may contain any possible characters out of 256 valid ascii characters. Your algorithm should be generalized enough to work on any possible characters.
Do not use class member/global/static variables to store states. Your encode and decode algorithms should be stateless.
Do not rely on any library method such as eval or serialize methods. You should implement your own encode/decode algorithm.
Solutions:
public class Codec {
public String encode(List<String> strs) {
int numOfStr = strs.size();
List<Integer> lengths = new LinkedList<Integer>();
for (String s:strs) {
lengths.add(s.length());
}
String result = numOfStr + "";
for (Integer i:lengths) {
result +=":" + i;
}
result += ":";
for (String s:strs) {
result +=s;
}
return result;
}
public List<String> decode(String s) {
List<String> result = new LinkedList<String>();
int i = 0;
int numOfStr = 0;
while (s.charAt(i) != ':') {
numOfStr = numOfStr * 10 + (s.charAt(i) - '0');
i ++;
}
List<Integer> lengths = new LinkedList<Integer>();
i ++;
for (int j = 0; j < numOfStr; j ++) {
int leng = 0;
while (s.charAt(i) != ':') {
leng = leng * 10 + (s.charAt(i) - '0');
i ++;
}
lengths.add(leng);
i ++;
}
for (Integer l:lengths) {
String tmp = "";
for (int j = 0; j < l; j ++) {
tmp +=s.charAt(i);
i ++;
}
result.add(tmp);
}
return result;
}
}