1616. Split Two Strings to Make Palindrome

Description

You are given two strings a and b of the same length. Choose an index and split both strings at the same index, splitting a into two strings: aprefix and asuffix where a = aprefix + asuffix, and splitting b into two strings: bprefix and bsuffix where b = bprefix + bsuffix. Check if aprefix + bsuffix or bprefix + asuffix forms a palindrome.

When you split a string s into sprefix and ssuffix, either ssuffix or sprefix is allowed to be empty. For example, if s = "abc", then "" + "abc", "a" + "bc", "ab" + "c" , and "abc" + "" are valid splits.

Return true if it is possible to form a palindrome string, otherwise return false.

Notice that x + y denotes the concatenation of strings x and y.

 

Example 1:

Input: a = "x", b = "y"
Output: true
Explaination: If either a or b are palindromes the answer is true since you can split in the following way:
aprefix = "", asuffix = "x"
bprefix = "", bsuffix = "y"
Then, aprefix + bsuffix = "" + "y" = "y", which is a palindrome.

Example 2:

Input: a = "xbdef", b = "xecab"
Output: false

Example 3:

Input: a = "ulacfd", b = "jizalu"
Output: true
Explaination: Split them at index 3:
aprefix = "ula", asuffix = "cfd"
bprefix = "jiz", bsuffix = "alu"
Then, aprefix + bsuffix = "ula" + "alu" = "ulaalu", which is a palindrome.

 

Constraints:

  • 1 <= a.length, b.length <= 105
  • a.length == b.length
  • a and b consist of lowercase English letters

Solutions

Solution 1

Python Code
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class Solution:
    def checkPalindromeFormation(self, a: str, b: str) -> bool:
        def check1(a: str, b: str) -> bool:
            i, j = 0, len(b) - 1
            while i < j and a[i] == b[j]:
                i, j = i + 1, j - 1
            return i >= j or check2(a, i, j) or check2(b, i, j)

        def check2(a: str, i: int, j: int) -> bool:
            return a[i : j + 1] == a[i : j + 1][::-1]

        return check1(a, b) or check1(b, a)

Java Code
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class Solution {
    public boolean checkPalindromeFormation(String a, String b) {
        return check1(a, b) || check1(b, a);
    }

    private boolean check1(String a, String b) {
        int i = 0;
        int j = b.length() - 1;
        while (i < j && a.charAt(i) == b.charAt(j)) {
            i++;
            j--;
        }
        return i >= j || check2(a, i, j) || check2(b, i, j);
    }

    private boolean check2(String a, int i, int j) {
        while (i < j && a.charAt(i) == a.charAt(j)) {
            i++;
            j--;
        }
        return i >= j;
    }
}

C++ Code
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class Solution {
public:
    bool checkPalindromeFormation(string a, string b) {
        return check1(a, b) || check1(b, a);
    }

private:
    bool check1(string& a, string& b) {
        int i = 0, j = b.size() - 1;
        while (i < j && a[i] == b[j]) {
            ++i;
            --j;
        }
        return i >= j || check2(a, i, j) || check2(b, i, j);
    }

    bool check2(string& a, int i, int j) {
        while (i <= j && a[i] == a[j]) {
            ++i;
            --j;
        }
        return i >= j;
    }
};

Go Code
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func checkPalindromeFormation(a string, b string) bool {
	return check1(a, b) || check1(b, a)
}

func check1(a, b string) bool {
	i, j := 0, len(b)-1
	for i < j && a[i] == b[j] {
		i++
		j--
	}
	return i >= j || check2(a, i, j) || check2(b, i, j)
}

func check2(a string, i, j int) bool {
	for i < j && a[i] == a[j] {
		i++
		j--
	}
	return i >= j
}

TypeScript Code
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function checkPalindromeFormation(a: string, b: string): boolean {
    const check1 = (a: string, b: string) => {
        let i = 0;
        let j = b.length - 1;
        while (i < j && a.charAt(i) === b.charAt(j)) {
            i++;
            j--;
        }
        return i >= j || check2(a, i, j) || check2(b, i, j);
    };

    const check2 = (a: string, i: number, j: number) => {
        while (i < j && a.charAt(i) === a.charAt(j)) {
            i++;
            j--;
        }
        return i >= j;
    };
    return check1(a, b) || check1(b, a);
}

Rust Code
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impl Solution {
    pub fn check_palindrome_formation(a: String, b: String) -> bool {
        fn check1(a: &[u8], b: &[u8]) -> bool {
            let (mut i, mut j) = (0, b.len() - 1);
            while i < j && a[i] == b[j] {
                i += 1;
                j -= 1;
            }
            if i >= j {
                return true;
            }
            check2(a, i, j) || check2(b, i, j)
        }

        fn check2(a: &[u8], mut i: usize, mut j: usize) -> bool {
            while i < j && a[i] == a[j] {
                i += 1;
                j -= 1;
            }
            i >= j
        }

        let a = a.as_bytes();
        let b = b.as_bytes();
        check1(a, b) || check1(b, a)
    }
}