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--;
    }
}








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