Find number of characters mutual between two strings in C#

Question

I am looking for a method that will take two strings and return the number of characters that are common to both e.g.:

"G010" & "G1820A" should return 3 as the G, 0 and 1 chars exist in both.

If a char exists twice in both they should be counted separately as follows:

"G12AA" & "GAA2" should return 4 as the G, A, A and 2 characters exist in both.

Any help with this? Google searches haven't been too helpful thus far.

Answer 1

Okay, how about this, it has the advantage of maximising lazy evaluation and minimising string manipulation.

public int CommonChars(string left, string right)
{
    return left.GroupBy(c => c)
        .Join(
            right.GroupBy(c => c),
            g => g.Key,
            g => g.Key,
            (lg, rg) => lg.Zip(rg, (l, r) => l).Count())
        .Sum(); 
}

essentialy, it groups each side by char, then finds chars which have a group on both sides. The matched groups are counted in tandem, until either runs out. These counts are summed to produce the result.

---

It would be trivial to perform this generically for any two sequences. See below,

public static int CommomCount<T>(
        this IEnumerable<T> source,
        IEnumerable<T> sequence,
        IEqualityComparer<T> comparer = null)
{
    if (sequence == null)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    if (comparer == null)
    {
        comparer = EqualityComparer<T>.Default;
    }

    return source.GroupBy(t => t, comparer)
        .Join(
            sequence.GroupBy(t => t, comparer),
            g => g.Key,
            g => g.Key,
            (lg, rg) => lg.Zip(rg, (l, r) => l).Count(),
            comparer)
        .Sum();
}

Which you would use like this.

"G12AA".CommonCount("GAA2")

The optional comparer parameter may prove useful if you require case insensitivity or other special treatment.

---

In the interest of resuability, I'd be tempted to remove the Sum() and return an IEnumerable<T>, and then add sum to the call, like this,

public static IEnumerable<T> Commom<T>(
        this IEnumerable<T> source,
        IEnumerable<T> sequence,
        IEqualityComparer<T> comparer = null)
{
    if (sequence == null)
    {
        return Enumerable.Empty<T>();
    }

    if (comparer == null)
    {
        comparer = EqualityComparer<T>.Default;
    }

    return source.GroupBy(t => t, comparer)
        .Join(
            sequence.GroupBy(t => t, comparer),
            g => g.Key,
            g => g.Key,
            (lg, rg) => lg.Zip(rg, (l, r) => l),
            comparer)
        .SelectMany(g => g);
}

so you could easily do

Console.WriteLine(new string("G12AA".Common("GAA2").ToArray()));

or just the orgininal

"G12AA".Common("GAA2").Count();

Answer 2

Try this

    public int CommonCharacters(string s1, string s2)
    {
        bool[] matchedFlag = new bool[s2.Length];

        for (int i1 = 0; i1 < s1.Length; i1++)
        {
            for (int i2 = 0; i2 < s2.Length; i2++)
            {
                if (!matchedFlag[i2] && s1.ToCharArray()[i1] == s2.ToCharArray()[i2])
                {
                    matchedFlag[i2] = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }

        return matchedFlag.Count(u => u);
    }

Answer 3

You could use Linq to solve this problem by using something like this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    IEnumerable<char> a = "G010".ToCharArray();
    IEnumerable<char> b = "G1820A".ToCharArray();

    int commonChars = FindCommonElements(a, b).Count();
    Console.WriteLine(commonChars);

    Console.ReadLine();
}

private static T[] FindCommonElements<T>(IEnumerable<T> source, IEnumerable<T> target)
{
    ILookup<T, T> lookup2 = target.ToLookup(i => i);

    return (
      from group1 in source.GroupBy(i => i)
      let group2 = lookup2[group1.Key]
      from i in (group1.Count() < group2.Count() ? group1 : group2)
      select i
    ).ToArray();
}

commonChars will have a value of 3. The FindCommonElements method was inspired by this question: How do I do an integer list intersection while keeping duplicates?

Answer 4

        string s1 = "G12A";
        string s2 = "GAA2";
        List<char> lst1 = s1.ToList();
        List<char> lst2 = s2.ToList();
        int count = 0;
        foreach (char c in lst2)
        {
            if (lst1.Contains(c))
            {
                lst1.Remove(c);
                count++;
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine(count);

Answer 5

Doing it with Linq:

    int MyCount(string s1, string s2)
    {
        return s1.Count(c =>
                            {
                                var i = s2.IndexOf(c);
                                if (i >= 0)
                                {
                                    s2 = s2.Remove(i, 1);
                                    return true;
                                }
                                return false;
                            });
    }

Answer 6

This one would run faster with larger inputs as it doesn't do nesting loops but rather depends on hashed search using the Dictionary. On the other hand it uses more memory.

 public int CommonCharacterCount(string s1, string s2)
            { 
                var r=0;
                Dictionary<char,int> s2Dict = new Dictionary<char,int>();
                foreach (var ch in s2)
                {
                    if (s2Dict.ContainsKey(ch))
                        s2Dict[ch] = s2Dict[ch]+1;
                    else s2Dict.Add(ch,1);
                }

                foreach (var c in s1)
                {
                    if (s2Dict.ContainsKey(c) && s2Dict[c]>0)
                    {
                        r++;
                        s2Dict[c] = s2Dict[c] - 1;
                    }
                }
                return r;
            }

Answer 7

string myname = "1234";
        string yourname = "12";
        char[] sam = new char[] { };
        sam = myname.ToCharArray();
        char[] sam1 = new char[] { };
        sam1 = yourname.ToCharArray();
        int id = 0;
        int id1 = 0;
        List<string> found = new List<string>();
        List<string> found1 = new List<string>();
        foreach (char item in sam)
        {
            if (found.Contains(item.ToString()))
            {
                found.Add(item.ToString() + id);
                id++;
            }
            else
                found.Add(item.ToString());
        }
        foreach (var item in sam1)
        {
            if (found1.Contains(item.ToString()))
            {
                found1.Add(item.ToString() + id);
                id1++;
            }
            else
                found1.Add(item.ToString());
        }
        var final = found.Except(found1);
        var final2 = found1.Except(found);
        var checkingCount = final.Count() + final2.Count();
        Console.Write(checkingCount);
        Console.ReadLine();

check this out, btw not efficient. But got it right.

Answer 8

        string s1 = "aabcc";
        string s2 = "adcaa";
        int x = 0;

        var s1list = s1.ToList();
        var s2list = s2.ToList();
        for (int i=0; i<s1list.Count; i++)
        {
            var check = s1list[i];
            if (s2list.Contains(s1list[i]))
            {
                x++;
                var indexval = s2list.FindIndex(a => a == s1list[i]);
                s2list.RemoveAt(indexval);
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine(x);

Answer 9

Please check following code--> src is first string while chk is second string

var count = 0;var i=0; src.ToList().ForEach((x)=> {
while(chk.Substring(i).IndexOf(x) >= 0) {
count++; i++; if( i > chk.Length) break; }
});