Check if a string can be transformed to another by sorting substrings Last Updated : 27 Jun, 2021 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report Given two strings str1 and str2, each of length N and consisting of lowercase English alphabets only, the task is to check if string str1 can be transformed to string str2 by performing the following operations any number of times. Choose a non-empty substring in str1 and sort it in-place lexicographically, to arrange the characters of the substring in non-decreasing order. Examples : Input: str1 = "hdecb", str2 = "cdheb"Output: YesExplanation:Sorting the substring "ec" in str1 modifies the string to "hdceb"Sorting the substring "hdc" in str1 modifies the string to "cdheb". Since, the modified string is same as str2, the answer is Yes. Input: str1 = "abcdef", str2 = "dacbfe"Output: No Approach: Follow the steps below to solve the problem: Observe that, in the string str1, if there are two characters str1[i] and str2[j] such that str1[i] < str1[j], then these characters can be swapped.In other words, it is possible to move a character freely to the left, until it encounters a smaller character. For example, "acdb" can be converted to either "acbd", "abcd" as 'b' can be moved freely to the left until 'a' occurs.Therefore, check if it is possible to move the required characters to the left, to their respective positions in the string str2.Store the indices of every character of string str1 in an array.Traverse the string str2, and for each character, check if the same character in str1 can be shifted to that position or not. Below is the implementation of the above approach: C++ // C++ Program to implement // the above approach #include <bits/stdc++.h> using namespace std; // Function to check if str1 can be // transformed to t by sorting substrings void canTransform(string& s, string& t) { int n = s.length(); // Occur[i] stores the indices // of char ('a'+i) in string s vector<int> occur[26]; for (int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = s[x] - 'a'; occur[ch].push_back(x); } // idx[i] stores the next available // index of char ('a'+i) in occur[i] vector<int> idx(26, 0); bool poss = true; for (int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = t[x] - 'a'; // If this char is not available // anymore if (idx[ch] >= occur[ch].size()) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } for (int small = 0; small < ch; small++) { // If one of the smaller characters // is available and occurs before if (idx[small] < occur[small].size() && occur[small][idx[small]] < occur[ch][idx[ch]]) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } } idx[ch]++; } // Print the answer if (poss) { cout << "Yes" << endl; } else { cout << "No" << endl; } } // Driver Code int main() { string s, t; s = "hdecb"; t = "cdheb"; canTransform(s, t); return 0; } Java // Java Program to implement // the above approach import java.util.*; class GFG{ // Function to check if str1 // can be transformed to t by // sorting subStrings static void canTransform(String s, String t) { int n = s.length(); // Occur[i] stores the indices // of char ('a'+i) in String s Vector<Integer> occur[] = new Vector[26]; for (int i = 0; i < occur.length; i++) occur[i] = new Vector<Integer>(); for (int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = (char)(s.charAt(x) - 'a'); occur[ch].add(x); } // idx[i] stores the next available // index of char ('a'+i) in occur[i] int []idx = new int[26]; boolean poss = true; for (int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = (char)(t.charAt(x) - 'a'); // If this char is // not available anymore if (idx[ch] >= occur[ch].size()) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } for (int small = 0; small < ch; small++) { // If one of the smaller characters // is available and occurs before if (idx[small] < occur[small].size() && occur[small].get(idx[small]) < occur[ch].get(idx[ch])) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } } idx[ch]++; } // Print the answer if (poss) { System.out.print("Yes" + "\n"); } else { System.out.print("No" + "\n"); } } // Driver Code public static void main(String[] args) { String s, t; s = "hdecb"; t = "cdheb"; canTransform(s, t); } } // This code is contributed by Rajput-Ji Python3 # Python3 program to implement # the above approach # Function to check if str1 can be # transformed to t by sorting substrings def canTransform(s, t): n = len(s) # Occur[i] stores the indices # of ('a'+i) in string s occur = [[] for i in range(26)] for x in range(n): ch = ord(s[x]) - ord('a') occur[ch].append(x) # idx[i] stores the next available # index of ('a'+i) in occur[i] idx = [0] * (26) poss = True for x in range(n): ch = ord(t[x]) - ord('a') # If this is not available # anymore if (idx[ch] >= len(occur[ch])): # Conversion not possible poss = False break for small in range(ch): # If one of the smaller characters # is available and occurs before if (idx[small] < len(occur[small]) and occur[small][idx[small]] < occur[ch][idx[ch]]): # Conversion not possible poss = False break idx[ch] += 1 # Print the answer if (poss): print("Yes") else: print("No") # Driver Code if __name__ == '__main__': s = "hdecb" t = "cdheb" canTransform(s, t) # This code is contributed by mohit kumar 29 C# // C# program to implement // the above approach using System; using System.Collections.Generic; class GFG{ // Function to check if str1 // can be transformed to t by // sorting subStrings static void canTransform(String s, String t) { int n = s.Length; // Occur[i] stores the indices // of char ('a'+i) in String s List<int> []occur = new List<int>[26]; for(int i = 0; i < occur.Length; i++) occur[i] = new List<int>(); for(int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = (char)(s[x] - 'a'); occur[ch].Add(x); } // idx[i] stores the next available // index of char ('a'+i) in occur[i] int []idx = new int[26]; bool poss = true; for(int x = 0; x < n; x++) { char ch = (char)(t[x] - 'a'); // If this char is // not available anymore if (idx[ch] >= occur[ch].Count) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } for(int small = 0; small < ch; small++) { // If one of the smaller characters // is available and occurs before if (idx[small] < occur[small].Count && occur[small][idx[small]] < occur[ch][idx[ch]]) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } } idx[ch]++; } // Print the answer if (poss) { Console.Write("Yes" + "\n"); } else { Console.Write("No" + "\n"); } } // Driver Code public static void Main(String[] args) { String s, t; s = "hdecb"; t = "cdheb"; canTransform(s, t); } } // This code is contributed by Amit Katiyar JavaScript <script> // JavaScript Program to implement // the above approach // Function to check if str1 can be // transformed to t by sorting substrings function canTransform(s, t) { var n = s.length; // Occur[i] stores the indices // of char ('a'+i) in string s var occur = Array.from(Array(26), ()=>new Array()); for (var x = 0; x < n; x++) { var ch = s[x].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0); occur[ch].push(x); } // idx[i] stores the next available // index of char ('a'+i) in occur[i] var idx = Array(26).fill(0); var poss = true; for (var x = 0; x < n; x++) { var ch = t[x].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0); // If this char is not available // anymore if (idx[ch] >= occur[ch].length) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } for (var small = 0; small < ch; small++) { // If one of the smaller characters // is available and occurs before if (idx[small] < occur[small].length && occur[small][idx[small]] < occur[ch][idx[ch]]) { // Conversion not possible poss = false; break; } } idx[ch]++; } // Print the answer if (poss) { document.write( "Yes" ); } else { document.write( "No" ); } } // Driver Code var s, t; s = "hdecb"; t = "cdheb"; canTransform(s, t); </script> Output: Yes Time Complexity: O(N)Auxiliary Space: O(N) Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Check if a string can be transformed to another by sorting substrings S shobhitgupta907 Follow Improve Article Tags : Strings Sorting Hash DSA strings +1 More Practice Tags : HashSortingStringsStrings Similar Reads Check if a string can be converted to another given string by removal of a substring Given two strings S and T of length N and M respectively, the task is to check if the string S can be converted to the string T by removing at most one substring of the string S. 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