Make a palindromic string from given string

Last Updated : 29 Dec, 2022

Given a string S consisting of lower-case English alphabets only, we have two players playing the game. The rules are as follows:

The player can remove any character from the given string S and write it on paper on any side(left or right) of an empty string.
The player wins the game, if at any move he can get a palindromic string first of length > 1.
If a palindromic string cannot be formed, Player-2 is declared the winner.

Both play optimally with player-1 starting the game. The task is to find the winner of the game.

Examples:

Input: S = “abc”
Output: Player-2
Explanation:
There are all unique characters due to which there
is no way to form a palindromic string of length > 1

Input: S = “abccab”
Output: Player-2
Explanation:
Initially, newString = “” is empty.
Let Player-1 choose character ‘a’ and write it on paper.
Then, S = “bccab” and newString = “a”.
Now Player-2 chooses character ‘a’ from S and writes it on the left side of newString.
Thus, S = “bccb” and newString = “aa”.
Now, newString = “aa” is a palindrome of length 2.
Hence, Player-2 wins.

Approach: The idea is to formulate a condition in which Player-1 is always going to be the winner. If the condition fails, then Player-2 will win the game.

If there is only one unique character occurring once in the given string, and the rest of the characters occurring more than 1, then Player-1 is going to be the winner, else Player-2 will always win.
If we have all characters that are occurring more than once in the given string, then Player-2 can always copy the Player-1 move in his first turn and wins.
Also, if we have more than one character in the string occurring one time only, then a palindrome string can never be formed(in the optimal case). Hence, again, Player-2 wins.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

C++

   // C++ Implementation to find
// which player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
 
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
 
using namespace std;
 
// Function to find 
// winner of the game
int palindromeWinner(string& S)
{
    // Array to Maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    int freq[26];
 
    // Initialise freq array with 0
    memset(freq, 0, sizeof freq);
 
    // Maintain count of all 
    // distinct characters
    int count = 0;
 
    // Finding frequency of each character
    for (int i = 0; i < (int)S.length(); 
                                   ++i) {
        if (freq[S[i] - 'a'] == 0)
            count++;
 
        freq[S[i] - 'a']++;
    }
 
    // Count unique duplicate 
    // characters
    int unique = 0;
    int duplicate = 0;
     
    // Loop to count the unique 
    // duplicate characters 
    for (int i = 0; i < 26; ++i) {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;
        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }
 
    // Condition for Player-1 
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 && 
     (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;
 
    // Else Player-2 is 
    // always winner
    return 2;
}
 
// Driven Code
int main()
{
    string S = "abcbc";
 
    // Function call
    cout << "Player-"
         << palindromeWinner(S) 
         << endl;
 
    return 0;
}
 
  

Java

   // Java implementation to find which 
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG{
     
// Function to find 
// winner of the game
static int palindromeWinner(String S)
{
     
    // Array to maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    int freq[] = new int[26];
 
    // Initialise freq array with 0
    Arrays.fill(freq, 0);
 
    // Maintain count of all 
    // distinct characters
    int count = 0;
 
    // Finding frequency of each character
    for(int i = 0; i < (int)S.length(); ++i)
    {
        if (freq[S.charAt(i) - 'a'] == 0)
            count++;
 
        freq[S.charAt(i) - 'a']++;
    }
 
    // Count unique duplicate 
    // characters
    int unique = 0;
    int duplicate = 0;
     
    // Loop to count the unique 
    // duplicate characters 
    for(int i = 0; i < 26; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;
             
        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }
 
    // Condition for Player-1 
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 && 
       (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;
 
    // Else Player-2 is 
    // always winner
    return 2;
}
     
// Driver Code
public static void main(String s[])
{
    String S = "abcbc";
         
    // Function call
    System.out.println("Player-" + palindromeWinner(S));
} 
}
 
// This code is contributed by rutvik_56
 
  

Python3

   # Python3 implementation to find 
# which player can form a palindromic 
# string first in a game 
 
# Function to find 
# winner of the game 
def palindromeWinner(S):
     
    # Array to Maintain frequency 
    # of the characters in S 
    # initialise freq array with 0 
    freq = [0 for i in range(0, 26)]
 
    # Maintain count of all 
    # distinct characters 
    count = 0
 
    # Finding frequency of each character 
    for i in range(0, len(S)): 
        if (freq[ord(S[i]) - 97] == 0):
            count += 1
 
        freq[ord(S[i]) - 97] += 1
 
    # Count unique duplicate 
    # characters 
    unique = 0
    duplicate = 0
     
    # Loop to count the unique 
    # duplicate characters 
    for i in range(0, 26): 
        if (freq[i] == 1): 
            unique += 1
             
        elif (freq[i] >= 2):
            duplicate += 1
 
    # Condition for Player-1 
    # to be winner 
    if (unique == 1 and
       (unique + duplicate) == count):
        return 1
 
    # Else Player-2 is 
    # always winner 
    return 2
 
# Driven Code 
S = "abcbc"; 
 
# Function call 
print("Player-", palindromeWinner(S))
 
# This code is contributed by Sanjit_Prasad
 
  

C#

   // C# implementation to find which
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
using System;
class GFG{
 
// Function to find
// winner of the game
static int palindromeWinner(string S)
{
  // Array to maintain frequency
  // of the characters in S
  int[] freq = new int[26];
 
  // Maintain count of all
  // distinct characters
  int count = 0;
 
  // Finding frequency of 
  // each character
  for (int i = 0; 
           i < (int)S.Length; ++i)
  {
    if (freq[S[i] - 'a'] == 0)
      count++;
 
    freq[S[i] - 'a']++;
  }
 
  // Count unique duplicate
  // characters
  int unique = 0;
  int duplicate = 0;
 
  // Loop to count the unique
  // duplicate characters
  for (int i = 0; i < 26; ++i) 
  {
    if (freq[i] == 1)
      unique++;
 
    else if (freq[i] >= 2)
      duplicate++;
  }
 
  // Condition for Player-1
  // to be winner
  if (unique == 1 && 
     (unique + duplicate) == 
      count)
    return 1;
 
  // Else Player-2 is
  // always winner
  return 2;
}
 
// Driver Code
public static void Main(string[] s)
{
  string S = "abcbc";
 
  // Function call
  Console.Write("Player-" + 
                 palindromeWinner(S));
}
}
 
// This code is contributed by Chitranayal
 
  

Javascript

   <script>
// Javascript implementation to find which
// player can form a palindromic
// string first in a game
 
// Function to find
// winner of the game
function palindromeWinner(S)
{
    // Array to maintain frequency
    // of the characters in S
    let freq = new Array(26);
  
    // Initialise freq array with 0
    for(let i=0;i<26;i++)
    {
        freq[i]=0;
    }
  
    // Maintain count of all
    // distinct characters
    let count = 0;
  
    // Finding frequency of each character
    for(let i = 0; i < S.length; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[S[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)] == 0)
            count++;
  
        freq[S[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]++;
    }
  
    // Count unique duplicate
    // characters
    let unique = 0;
    let duplicate = 0;
      
    // Loop to count the unique
    // duplicate characters
    for(let i = 0; i < 26; ++i)
    {
        if (freq[i] == 1)
            unique++;
              
        else if (freq[i] >= 2)
            duplicate++;
    }
  
    // Condition for Player-1
    // to be winner
    if (unique == 1 &&
       (unique + duplicate) == count)
        return 1;
  
    // Else Player-2 is
    // always winner
    return 2;
}
 
// Driver Code
let S = "abcbc";
// Function call
document.write("Player-" + palindromeWinner(S));
 
 
// This code is contributed by avanitrachhadiya2155
</script>
 
  

Output:

Player-1

Time Complexity: O(N), where N is the length of the given string.
Auxiliary Space: O(1), no extra space is required, so it is a constant.

Given two strings check which string makes a palindrome first

Sanjit_Prasad

Improve

Article Tags :

Practice Tags :

Make a palindromic string from given string

C++

Java

Python3

C#

Javascript

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