Sorting Array of Strings C


Problem Statement :


To sort a given array of strings into lexicographically increasing order or into an order in which the string with the lowest length appears first, a sorting function with a flag indicating the type of comparison strategy can be written. The disadvantage with doing so is having to rewrite the function for every new comparison strategy.

A better implementation would be to write a sorting function that accepts a pointer to the function that compares each pair of strings. Doing this will mean only passing a pointer to the sorting function with every new comparison strategy.

Given an array of strings, you need to implement a string_sort function which sorts the strings according to a comparison function, i.e, you need to implement the function :

void string_sort(const char **arr,const int cnt, int (*cmp_func)(const char* a, const char* b)){
    
}

The arguments passed to this function are: 

    1.  an array of strings :  arr
    2.  length of string array: count
    3.  pointer to the string comparison function: You also need to implement the following four string comparison functions:  camp_fun

Input Format

You just need to complete the function string\_sort and implement the four string comparison functions.

Constraints

    1 <= No. of Strings  <= 50
    1<=  Total Length of all the strings  <= 2500 
    You have to write your own sorting function and you cannot use the inbuilt qsort function
    The strings consists of lower-case English Alphabets only. 

Output Format

The locked code-stub will check the logic of your code. The output consists of the strings sorted according to the four comparsion functions in the order mentioned in the problem statement.


Solution :



title-img 


                            Solution in C :

int lexicographic_sort(const char* a, const char* b) {
    return strcmp(a, b);
}

int lexicographic_sort_reverse(const char* a, const char* b) {
    return strcmp(b, a);
}

#define CHARS   26
int distinct_chars(const char *a)
{
    int dist = 0;
    int chars[CHARS] = {0};

    while (*a != '\0') {
        int chr = (*a++) - 'a';
        if (chr < CHARS)
            chars[chr]++;
    }
    
    for (int i = 0; i < CHARS; i++)
        if (chars[i])
            dist++;

    return dist;
}

int sort_by_number_of_distinct_characters(const char* a, const char* b) {
    int res = distinct_chars(a) - distinct_chars(b);
    return (res) ? res : lexicographic_sort(a, b);
}

int sort_by_length(const char* a, const char* b) {
    int res = strlen(a) - strlen(b);
    return (res) ? res : lexicographic_sort(a, b);
}

/* simple bubble sort :) */
void string_sort(char** arr, const int len,int (*cmp_func)(const char* a, const char* b)) {
    int sorted = 0;
    int top = len - 1;
    while (!sorted) {
        sorted = 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < top; i++) {
            if (cmp_func(arr[i], arr[i + 1]) > 0) {
                char *tmp = arr[i];
                arr[i] = arr[i + 1];
                arr[i + 1] = tmp;
                sorted = 0;
            }
        }
        top--;
    }
}








View More Similar Problems

Self Balancing Tree

An AVL tree (Georgy Adelson-Velsky and Landis' tree, named after the inventors) is a self-balancing binary search tree. In an AVL tree, the heights of the two child subtrees of any node differ by at most one; if at any time they differ by more than one, rebalancing is done to restore this property. We define balance factor for each node as : balanceFactor = height(left subtree) - height(righ

View Solution →

Array and simple queries

Given two numbers N and M. N indicates the number of elements in the array A[](1-indexed) and M indicates number of queries. You need to perform two types of queries on the array A[] . You are given queries. Queries can be of two types, type 1 and type 2. Type 1 queries are represented as 1 i j : Modify the given array by removing elements from i to j and adding them to the front. Ty

View Solution →

Median Updates

The median M of numbers is defined as the middle number after sorting them in order if M is odd. Or it is the average of the middle two numbers if M is even. You start with an empty number list. Then, you can add numbers to the list, or remove existing numbers from it. After each add or remove operation, output the median. Input: The first line is an integer, N , that indicates the number o

View Solution →

Maximum Element

You have an empty sequence, and you will be given N queries. Each query is one of these three types: 1 x -Push the element x into the stack. 2 -Delete the element present at the top of the stack. 3 -Print the maximum element in the stack. Input Format The first line of input contains an integer, N . The next N lines each contain an above mentioned query. (It is guaranteed that each

View Solution →

Balanced Brackets

A bracket is considered to be any one of the following characters: (, ), {, }, [, or ]. Two brackets are considered to be a matched pair if the an opening bracket (i.e., (, [, or {) occurs to the left of a closing bracket (i.e., ), ], or }) of the exact same type. There are three types of matched pairs of brackets: [], {}, and (). A matching pair of brackets is not balanced if the set of bra

View Solution →

Equal Stacks

ou have three stacks of cylinders where each cylinder has the same diameter, but they may vary in height. You can change the height of a stack by removing and discarding its topmost cylinder any number of times. Find the maximum possible height of the stacks such that all of the stacks are exactly the same height. This means you must remove zero or more cylinders from the top of zero or more of

View Solution →