Interleaving of two given strings with no common characters Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report Given three strings s1, s2 and s3. check whether s3 is an interleaving of s1 and s2. It may be assumed that there is no common character between s1 and s2 A string s3 is said to be interleaving s1 and s2, if it contains all characters of s1 and s2 and order of all characters in individual strings is preserved. Input: s1 = "AB", s2 = "C", s3 = "ACB", Output: trues3 has all characters of s1 and s2 and retains order of characters in both the stringsInput: s1 = "AXY", s2 = "BBZ", s3 = "BBAZXY", Output: trueThe string BBAZXY has all characters of the other two strings and in the same order.Input: s1 = "AB", s2 = "CD", s3 = "ACBG", Output: falseD is missing in s3Please see this for an extended solution that handles common characters also,Since both the input strings have mutually exclusive characters, a character of s3 will either match with a character of s1 or s2.We traverse through s3 and compare its every character with next character in s1 or next in s2. If any one matches, we move ahead in that string. If none of the two match, we return false.We return true if we traversed all characters of s3 and every character matched either s1 or s2 C++ #include <bits/stdc++.h> using namespace std; // Returns true if s3 is an interleaving of s1 and s2 bool isIL(string& s1, string& s2, string& s3) { int i = 0, j = 0; if (s1.size() + s2.size() != s3.size()) return false; // Iterate through all characters of s3 for (int k = 0; k < s3.size(); k++) { // Match the current character of s3 with the // current character of s1. If they match, // move s1 to the next character. if (i < s1.size() && s1[i] == s3[k]) { i++; } // Else match the current character of s3 // with the current character of s2. // If they match, move s2 to the next character. else if (j < s2.size() && s2[j] == s3[k]) { j++; } // If it doesn't match with either s1 or s2, // return false else { return false; } } // If all characters of s3 match with either // s1 or s2. return true; } int main() { string s1 = "AB"; string s2 = "CD"; string s3 = "ACBD"; if (isIL(s1, s2, s3)) { cout << s3 << " is interleaved of " << s1 << " and " << s2; } else { cout << s3 << " is not interleaved of " << s1 << " and " << s2; } return 0; } C // C program to check if given string is an interleaving // of the other two strings #include<stdio.h> // Returns true if C is an interleaving of A and B, // otherwise returns false bool isInterleaved (char *A, char *B, char *C) { // Iterate through all characters of C. while (*C != 0) { // Match first character of C with first character // of A. If matches them move A to next if (*A == *C) A++; // Else Match first character of C with first // character of B. If matches them move B to next else if (*B == *C) B++; // If doesn't match with either A or B, then return // false else return false; // Move C to next for next iteration C++; } // If A or B still have some characters, then length of // C is smaller than sum of lengths of A and B, so // return false if (*A || *B) return false; return true; } // Driver program to test above functions int main() { char *A = "AB"; char *B = "CD"; char *C = "ACBG"; if (isInterleaved(A, B, C) == true) printf("%s is interleaved of %s and %s", C, A, B); else printf("%s is not interleaved of %s and %s", C, A, B); return 0; } // This code is contributed by Venkat Java // Java program to check if the given string is // an interleaving of the other two strings public class GfG{ // Returns true if C is an interleaving // of A and B, otherwise returns false static boolean isInterleaved (String A, String B, String C) { int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0; // Iterate through all characters of C. while (k != C.length()) { // Match first character of C with first character // of A. If matches them move A to next if (i<A.length()&&A.charAt(i) == C.charAt(k)) i++; // Else Match first character of C with first // character of B. If matches them move B to next else if (j<B.length()&&B.charAt(j) == C.charAt(k)) j++; // If doesn't match with either A or B, then return // false else return false; // Move C to next for next iteration k++; } // If A or B still have some characters, // then length of C is smaller than sum // of lengths of A and B, so return false if (i < A.length() || j < B.length()) return false; return true; } public static void main(String []args){ String A = "AB"; String B = "CD"; String C = "ACBG"; if (isInterleaved(A, B, C) == true) System.out.printf("%s is interleaved of %s and %s", C, A, B); else System.out.printf("%s is not interleaved of %s and %s", C, A, B); } } // This code is contributed by Rituraj Jain Python # Python3 program to check if given string is an interleaving of # the other two strings # Returns true if C is an interleaving of A and B, otherwise # returns false def isInterleaved(A, B, C): # Utility variables i = 0 j = 0 k = 0 # Iterate through all characters of C. while k != len(C)-1: # Match first character of C with first character of A, # If matches them move A to next if i<len(A) and A[i] == C[k]: i+=1 # Else Match first character of C with first character # of B. If matches them move B to next elif j< len(B) and B[j] == C[k]: j+=1 # If doesn't match with either A or B, then return false else: return 0 # Move C to next for next iteration k+=1 # If A or B still have some characters, then length of C is # smaller than sum of lengths of A and B, so return false if A[i-1] or B[j-1]: return 0 return 1 # Driver program to test the above function A = "AB" B = "CD" C = "ACBG" if isInterleaved(A, B, C) == 1: print (C + " is interleaved of " + A + " and " + B) else: print (C + " is not interleaved of " + A + " and " + B) # This code is contributed by Bhavya Jain C# // C# program to check if the given string is // an interleaving of the other two strings using System; class GfG { // Returns true if C is an interleaving // of A and B, otherwise returns false static bool isInterleaved (String A, String B, String C) { int i = 0, j = 0, k = 0; // Iterate through all characters of C. while (k != C.Length - 1) { // Match first character of C with first character // of A. If matches them move A to next if (A[i] == C[k]) i++; // Else Match first character of C with first // character of B. If matches them move B to next else if (B[j] == C[k]) j++; // If doesn't match with either A or B, then return // false else return false; // Move C to next for next iteration k++; } // If A or B still have some characters, // then length of C is smaller than sum // of lengths of A and B, so return false if (i < A.Length || j < B.Length) return false; return true; } // Driver code public static void Main(String []args) { String A = "AB"; String B = "CD"; String C = "ACBG"; if (isInterleaved(A, B, C) == true) Console.WriteLine("{0} is interleaved of {1} and {2}", C, A, B); else Console.WriteLine("{0} is not interleaved of {1} and {2}", C, A, B); } } // This code contributed by Rajput-Ji JavaScript <script> // Javascript program to check if the given string is // an interleaving of the other two strings // Returns true if C is an interleaving // of A and B, otherwise returns false function isInterleaved (A,B,C) { let i = 0, j = 0, k = 0; // Iterate through all characters of C. while (k != C.length) { // Match first character of C with first character // of A. If matches them move A to next if (i<A.length && A[i] == C[k]) { i++; } // Else Match first character of C with first // character of B. If matches them move B to next else if (j < B.length && B[j] == C[k]) { j++; } // If doesn't match with either A or B, then return // false else { return false; } // Move C to next for next iteration k++; } // If A or B still have some characters, // then length of C is smaller than sum // of lengths of A and B, so return false if (i < A.length || j < B.length) { return false; } return true; } let A = "AB"; let B = "CD"; let C = "ACBG"; if (isInterleaved(A, B, C) == true) { document.write(C+ " is interleaved of "+ A+" and ", B); } else { document.write(C + " is not interleaved of "+ A +" and ", B); } // This code is contributed by avanitrachhadiya2155 </script> PHP <?php // PHP program to check if given string // is an interleaving of the other two strings // Returns true if C is an interleaving // of A and B, otherwise returns false function isInterleaved ($A, $B, $C) { // Iterate through all characters of C. while ($C != 0) { // Match first character of C with // first character of A. If matches // them move A to next if ($A == $C) $A++; // Else Match first character of C // with first character of B. If // matches them move B to next else if ($B == $C) $B++; // If doesn't match with either // A or B, then return false else return false; // Move C to next for next iteration $C++; } // If A or B still have some characters, // then length of C is smaller than sum // of lengths of A and B, so return false if ($A || $B) return false; return true; } // Driver Code $A = "AB"; $B = "CD"; $C = "ACBG"; if (isInterleaved($A, $B, $C) == true) echo $C . " is interleaved of " . $A . " and " . $B; else echo $C . " is not interleaved of " . $A . " and " . $B; // This code is contributed by ita_c ?> Time Complexity: O(m+n) where m and n are the lengths of strings s1 and s2 respectively.Auxiliary Space : O(1)Note that the above approach doesn't work if s1 and s2 have some characters in common. For example, if string s1 = "AAB", string s2 = "AAC" and string s3 = "AACAAB", then the above method will return false. We have discussed here an extended solution that handles common characters. Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Analysis of Algorithms K kartik Follow Improve Article Tags : Strings DSA Practice Tags : Strings Similar Reads Basics & PrerequisitesLogic Building ProblemsLogic building is about creating clear, step-by-step methods to solve problems using simple rules and principles. Itâs the heart of coding, enabling programmers to think, reason, and arrive at smart solutions just like we do.Here are some tips for improving your programming logic: Understand the pro 2 min read Analysis of AlgorithmsAnalysis of Algorithms is a fundamental aspect of computer science that involves evaluating performance of algorithms and programs. 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