Naming a Company — LeetCode 2306 Python Solution

The problem

You are given an array of strings ideas that represents a list of names to be used in the process of naming a company. The process of naming a company is as follows: Choose 2 distinct names from ideas, call them ideaA and ideaB.

Example

Input

ideas = ["coffee","donuts","time","toffee"]

Output

6

Explanation

The following selections are valid:

Python solution

class Solution:
    def distinctNames(self, ideas: List[str]) -> int:
        s = set(ideas)
        f = [[0] * 26 for _ in range(26)]
        for v in ideas:
            i = ord(v[0]) - ord('a')
            t = list(v)
            for j in range(26):
                t[0] = chr(ord('a') + j)
                if ''.join(t) not in s:
                    f[i][j] += 1
        ans = 0
        for v in ideas:
            i = ord(v[0]) - ord('a')
            t = list(v)
            for j in range(26):
                t[0] = chr(ord('a') + j)
                if ''.join(t) not in s:
                    ans += f[j][i]
        return ans

Complexity

Pattern: Bit Manipulation

Use XOR, masks and the low-bit trick to replace whole data structures with an integer. LeetCode 2306. Naming a Company is filed here because LeetCode tags it Bit Manipulation, which is the vocabulary this hub collects.

The bit manipulation guide has the Python template for the pattern and the 194 LeetCode problems that use it.

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