finding the number of possible decodings of the given number(dynamic programming) - c++

Question

I am trying to solve a problem where every letter has a respective number such as a-1,b-2....z-26.
Now given a number, in how many ways can the number be decoded is the question. consider an example where 25114 can be decoded as 'BEAN',‘BEAAD’, ‘YAAD’, ‘YAN’, ‘YKD’ and ‘BEKD’. this could be decoded in 6 ways.
I have written code in c++ but I am getting the wrong answer. Please correct my code.
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int total = 0;
int arr[100001];
void func(int start,int end,int factor){
if(start==end)
return;
int j =start;
if(factor==2&&j==end-1)//if j is the last element and factor is 2,accessing j+1 element is illegual
return;
if(factor==2){
if((arr[j]*10+arr[j+1])>26)
return;
else{
total++;
func(start+2,end,1);
func(start+2,end,2);
}
}
else{//factor is 1
total++;
func(start+1,end,1);
func(start+1,end,2);
}
}
int main(){
int n;
cin>>n;
for(int i=0;i<n;i++){
int p;
cin>>p;
arr[i]=p;
}
func(0,n,1);
func(0,n,2);
cout<<total<<endl;
return 0;
}
essentially what my code is doing is that it fixes one number from the given array(using one digit or two digits from the the given array) and recurses until all the combinations are covered. for example considering the above case, I first choose '2' as my first digit and decode it as 'B'(factor = 1) and then choose '25' and decode it as 'E'(factor = 2).
**following are the input and output from the following code
input : 25114
expected output : 6
my output : 15
input : 3333333333(10 digits)
expected output : 1
my output : 10

Answer 1

Based on the original program from the question I suggest to count the encodings when you reach the end only (if(start==end)).
As func will always be called twice with factor=1 and factor=2, I can freely choose either condition for counting.
Here is the modified code:
#include<bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int total = 0;
int arr[100001];
void func(int start,int end,int factor){
if(start==end) {
if(factor == 1) total++; // count once when reaching the end
return;
}
int j =start;
if((factor==2) && (j==end-1))//if j is the last element and factor is 2,accessing j+1 element is illegal
return;
if(factor==2){
if((arr[j]*10+arr[j+1])>26)
return;
else{
//total++;
func(start+2,end,1);
func(start+2,end,2);
}
}
else{//factor is 1
//total++;
func(start+1,end,1);
func(start+1,end,2);
}
return;
}
int main(){
int n;
cin>>n;
for(int i=0;i<n;i++){
int p;
cin>>p;
arr[i]=p;
}
func(0,n,1);
func(0,n,2);
cout<<total<<endl;
return 0;
}
This calculates the expected results from the example input in the question.
$ echo 5 2 5 1 1 4|./program
6
$ echo 10 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3|./program
1
There is room for improvement.
Instead of modifying a global variable I would return the number of combinations from func and add the values in the higher level.
I would also handle the distinction between 2-digit and 1-digit numbers in the called func instead of in the caller.
Something like this pseudo code:
int func(int start, int end)
{
if(remaining length is <2) {
// we reached the end, so this is one combination
return 1;
}
if(two-digit number is >26) {
// only a 1-digit number is possible, count remaining combinations
return func(start+1, end);
}
// both a 1-digit or 2-digit number is possible, add the remaining combinations for both cases
return func(start+1) + func(start+2);
}

Answer 2

Your question is tagged as "dynamic-programming", but it is anything but.
Instead, think about the state space and its boundary conditions:
The empty string has zero encodings;
A single digit has a single encoding;
An n-digit string has as many encodings as an (n-1)-digit substring plus as many encodings as an (n-2)-digit substring if the first two digits are <= 26.
Thus, we can walk the string from back to front and store the intermediate results for reuse:
uint64_t solve(std::vector<int>& digits) {
const int n = digits.size();
std::vector<int> encodings(n+1);
encodings[n] = 1;
for (int i = n-1; i >= 0; i--) {
bool two_digits_fit = (i < n - 1) && (digits[i] * 10 + digits[i+1]) <= 26; // What if digits[i] == 0?
encodings[i] = encodings[i+1] + (two_digits_fit ? encodings[i+2] : 0);
}
return encodings[0];
}