three ways to check for anagrams

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0100

problem

Given 2 strings, check that they are anagrams.

solutions

worst

Perhaps the most intuitive approach: look at each character in the first string and check it’s in the second string by iterating through its characters. If a character in the first string isn’t present in the first, return False. Otherwise, remove the matched character from the second string so it isn’t matched again going forward.

def are_anagrams(s1: str, s2: str) -> bool:
    # no point proceeding if the strings aren't even of the same length
    if len(s1) != len(s2):
        return False
    for ch1 in s1:
        in_s2 = False
        for i, ch2 in enumerate(s2):
            if ch1 == ch2:
                in_s2 = True
                break
        if in_s2:
            # remove matched char from s2
            s2 = s2[:i] + s2[i+1:]
        else:
            return False
    return True
x = 'fried'
y = 'fired'
z = 'fixed'
print(are_anagrams(x,y))
print(are_anagrams(x,z))

True
False

While straightforward, it’s the worst approach because its \(O(n^{2})\).

ignoramus on jonah vairon

three ways to check for anagrams

problem

solutions

worst