Thursday, March 21, 2013

C String: startsWith, endsWith, indexOf, lastIndexOf in ANSI C


Introduction

This article describe how to implement several function with respect to the index of string, including startsWith, endsWith, indexOf, indexOf with a shift and lastIndexOf.

The Program

startsWith_endsWith_indexOf_lastIndexOf.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
/**
 * 
 * Tested with Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2
 *  
 * Practice of string compare.
 *
 * char * strstr ( const char *, const char * ); 
 *            Locate substring
 *            Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of str2 in str1,
 *            or a null pointer if str2 is not part of str1.
 * bool startsWith (char* base, char* str);
 *            Custom function for detecting whether base is starts with str
 * bool endsWith (char* base, char* str);
 *            Custom function for detecting whether base is ends with str
 * int indexOf (char* base, char* str)
 *            Custom function for getting the first index of str in base
 *            -1 denotes not found
 * int indexOf_shift (char* base, char* str, int startIndex)
 *            Custom function for getting the first index of str in base
 *            after the given startIndex
 *            -1 denotes not found
 * int lastIndexOf (char* base, char* str)
 *            Custom function for getting the last index of str in base
 *            -1 denotes not found
 * References: 
 *        http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstring/strstr/
 * 
 */

bool startsWith (char* base, char* str);
bool endsWith (char* base, char* str);
int indexOf (char* base, char* str);
int indexOf_shift (char* base, char* str, int startIndex);
int lastIndexOf (char* base, char* str);
int main () {
    // a char array without '\0'
    char* chArrOne = "abcdefabcdef";

    printf("chArrOne starts with abc?\n%s\n\n", startsWith(chArrOne, "abc")? "true" : "false");
    printf("chArrOne starts with def?\n%s\n\n", startsWith(chArrOne, "def")? "true" : "false");
    printf("chArrOne ends with def?\n%s\n\n", endsWith(chArrOne, "def")? "true" : "false");
    printf("first index of abc in chArrOne?\n%d\n\n", indexOf(chArrOne, "abc"));
    printf("first index of def in chArrOne?\n%d\n\n", indexOf(chArrOne, "def"));
    printf("first index of abc in chArrOne after index 2?\n%d\n\n", indexOf_shift(chArrOne, "abc", 2));
    printf("first index of def in chArrOne after index 5?\n%d\n\n", indexOf_shift(chArrOne, "def", 5));
    printf("last index of abc in chArrOne?\n%d\n\n", lastIndexOf(chArrOne, "abc"));
    printf("last index of def in chArrOne?\n%d\n\n", lastIndexOf(chArrOne, "def"));
    

    system("PAUSE");
    return 0;
}
/** detecting whether base is starts with str
 */
bool startsWith (char* base, char* str) {
    return (strstr(base, str) - base) == 0;
}
/** detecting whether base is ends with str
 */
bool endsWith (char* base, char* str) {
    int blen = strlen(base);
    int slen = strlen(str);
    return (blen >= slen) && (0 == strcmp(base + blen - slen, str));
}
/** getting the first index of str in base
 */
int indexOf (char* base, char* str) {
    return indexOf_shift(base, str, 0);
}
int indexOf_shift (char* base, char* str, int startIndex) {
    int result;
    int baselen = strlen(base);
    // str should not longer than base
    if (strlen(str) > baselen || startIndex > baselen) {
        result = -1;
    } else {
        if (startIndex < 0 ) {
            startIndex = 0;
        }
        char* pos = strstr(base+startIndex, str);
        if (pos == NULL) {
            result = -1;
        } else {
            result = pos - base;
        }
    }
    return result;
}
/** use two index to search in two part to prevent the worst case
 * (assume search 'aaa' in 'aaaaaaaa', you cannot skip three char each time)
 */
int lastIndexOf (char* base, char* str) {
    int result;
    // str should not longer than base
    if (strlen(str) > strlen(base)) {
        result = -1;
    } else {
        int start = 0;
        int endinit = strlen(base) - strlen(str);
        int end = endinit;
        int endtmp = endinit;
        while(start != end) {
            start = indexOf_shift(base, str, start);
            end = indexOf_shift(base, str, end);

            // not found from start
            if (start == -1) {
                end = -1; // then break;
            } else if (end == -1) {
                // found from start
                // but not found from end
                // move end to middle
                if (endtmp == (start+1)) {
                    end = start; // then break;
                } else {
                    end = endtmp - (endtmp - start) / 2;
                    if (end <= start) {
                        end = start+1;
                    }
                    endtmp = end;
                }
            } else {
                // found from both start and end
                // move start to end and
                // move end to base - strlen(str)
                start = end;
                end = endinit;
            }
        }
        result = start;
    }
    return result;
}


The Result



Reference

strstr
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstring/strstr/

Download

startsWith_endsWith_indexOf_lastIndexOf.c at github
https://github.com/benbai123/C_Cplusplus_Practice/blob/master/C_StringProcessing/utils/startsWith_endsWith_indexOf_lastIndexOf.c

3 comments:

  1. Your endsWith() doesn't work. It finds the first occurrence of str into base, and check if it's at the end. So

    endsWith("defdef", "def") will return false, as it will find pos as 0.

    Here's an alternative:

    bool endsWith(char* base, char* str)
    {
    int blen = strlen(base);
    int slen = strlen(str);
    if (slen <= blen)
    {
    return (0 == strcmp(base + blen - slen, str));
    }
    return false;
    }

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, thanks a lot for your corrections :)

      Fixed.

      Delete
  2. It's very useful blog post! Thanks for sharing it.

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