[LeetCode] 1003. Check If Word Is Valid After Substitutions

We are given that the string "abc" is valid.

From any valid string V, we may split V into two pieces X and Y such that X + Y (X concatenated with Y) is equal to V.  (X or Y may be empty.)  Then, X + "abc" + Y is also valid.

If for example S = "abc", then examples of valid strings are: "abc", "aabcbc", "abcabc", "abcabcababcc".  Examples of invalid strings are: "abccba", "ab", "cababc", "bac".

Return true if and only if the given string S is valid.

Example 1:

Input: "aabcbc"
Output: true
Explanation: 
We start with the valid string "abc".
Then we can insert another "abc" between "a" and "bc", resulting in "a" + "abc" + "bc" which is "aabcbc".

Example 2:

Input: "abcabcababcc"
Output: true
Explanation: 
"abcabcabc" is valid after consecutive insertings of "abc".
Then we can insert "abc" before the last letter, resulting in "abcabcab" + "abc" + "c" which is "abcabcababcc".

Example 3:

Input: "abccba"
Output: false

Example 4:

Input: "cababc"
Output: false

Note:

1. 1 <= S.length <= 20000
2. S[i] is 'a', 'b', or 'c'

Brute force solution, O(n^2), scan through the entire string and remove all "abc" patterns, repeat this process until the string is empty or reaches a stable state that no "abc" can be found.

class Solution {
    public boolean isValid(String S) {
        String before = S, after = null;
        while(!before.equals("")) {
            after = before.replaceAll("abc", "");
            if(after.length() == before.length()) {
                return false;
            }
            before = after;
        }
        return true;
    }
}

Optimal solution with Stack, O(n) runtime, O(n) space

Intuition: each time we remove "abc", we need to keep the previously visted characters in the same sequence as before the removal. Each time we see a 'c', we need to check its two closest two predecessors are 'a' and 'b'. This requires LIFO, hence we should use stack.

class Solution {
    public boolean isValid(String S) {
        Stack<Character> stack = new Stack<>();
        for(char c : S.toCharArray()) {
            if(c == 'c') {
                if(stack.size() < 2) {
                    return false;
                }
                char b = stack.pop();
                char a = stack.pop();
                if(a != 'a' || b != 'b') {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            else {
                stack.push(c);
            }
        }
        return stack.size() == 0;
    }
}