Check if two Binary Strings can be made equal by doing bitwise XOR of adjacent

Last Updated : 26 Aug, 2022

Given binary strings S1 and S2 of length N, the task is to check if S2 can be made equal to S1 by performing the following operations on S2:

The first operation is S_i= S_i ? S_i+1. ( ? is the XOR operation)
The second operation is S_i+1= S_i+1 ? S_i.

Examples:

Input: S1 = “00100”, S2 = “00011”
Output: Yes
?Explanation: We can apply the following operations on S2 :
1. Select i = 2, So the conversion is 00011 ? 00111
2. Select i = 3. So the conversion is 00111 ? 00100.
Hence it is possible to make S2 equal to S1 by applying the above operation on index 2 and 3.

Input: S1 = “10101”, S2 = “01000”
?Output: No

Approach: The problem can be solved based on the following observation:

The operations have the following effects:

01 becomes 11

10 becomes 11

00 becomes 00

11 becomes 00

Let’s get the easy cases out of the way:

If S2 = S1, the answer is YES

If S2 is 000…00 (i.e S2 does not have a 1), then we can only perform the operation and it will be the third case shown above, which does not change anything. Therefore, the answer is NO if S2 ? S1.

Now, assume S2 ? S1 and S2 has a 1. It is possible to convert S2 to S1 if and only if S1 has at least two consecutive same characters.

Follow the steps mentioned below to implement the above idea:

Check if the strings are already equal to each other. If so, then return true.
Otherwise, check if S2 has at least one ‘1’:
- If it has, then check for the condition that S1 has at least two consecutive same characters.
- If the above condition is satisfied then return true.
- Otherwise, return false.

Below is the implementation of the above approach.

C++

// c++ code to implement the approach
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
// Function to check whether S2 can be made equal
// to S1 after performing given operations
void checkEqual(string S1, string S2, int n)
{
    int c_1 = 0;
    int c_2 = 0;
    if (S2==S1) {
            cout << "Yes";
    }
    for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
        if (S2[j] == '1') {
            c_1++;
        }
        if (S1[j] == '1') {
            c_2++;
        }
    }
    if (c_1 == 0 && c_2 > 0) {
        cout << "No";
    }
    int c = 0;
    for (int k = 0; k < n - 1; k++) {
        if (S1[k] != S1[k + 1]) {
            c++;
        }
    }
    if (c == n - 1) {
        cout << "No";
    }
    else {
        cout << "Yes";
    }
}
int main()
{
    string S1 = "00100";
    string S2 = "00011";
    int N = S1.length();
 
    // Function call
    checkEqual(S1, S2, N);
    return 0;
}
//this code is contributed by aditya942003patil

Java

// Java code to implement the approach
 
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG {
 
    // Function to check whether S2 can be made equal
    // to S1 after performing given operations
    public static void checkEqual(String S1,
                                  String S2, int n)
    {
        char[] a = S2.toCharArray();
        char[] b = S1.toCharArray();
 
        int c_1 = 0;
        int c_2 = 0;
        if (String.valueOf(a).equals(String.valueOf(b))) {
            System.out.println("Yes");
        }
        for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
            if (a[j] == '1') {
                c_1++;
            }
            if (b[j] == '1') {
                c_2++;
            }
        }
        if (c_1 == 0 && c_2 > 0) {
            System.out.println("No");
        }
        int c = 0;
        for (int k = 0; k < n - 1; k++) {
            if (b[k] != b[k + 1]) {
                c++;
            }
        }
        if (c == n - 1) {
            System.out.println("No");
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("Yes");
        }
    }
 
    // Driver code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String S1 = "00100";
        String S2 = "00011";
        int N = S1.length();
 
        // Function call
        checkEqual(S1, S2, N);
    }
}

Python3

# python code to implement the approach
# Function to check whether S2 can be made equal
# to S1 after performing given operations
def checkEqual(S1, S2, n):
  c_1 = 0
  c_2 = 0
  if (S2 == S1):
    print("yes")
  for j in range(n):
    if (S2[j] == '1'):
      c_1 += 1
    if (S1[j] == '1'):
      c_2 += 1
  if (c_1 == 0 and c_2 > 0):
    print("No")
  c = 0
  for k in range(n-1):
    if (S1[k] != S1[k + 1]):
      c += 1
  if (c == n - 1):
    print("No")
  else:
    print("yes")
S1 = "00100"
S2 = "00011"
N = len(S1)
 
# Function call
checkEqual(S1, S2, N);
 
# This code is contributed by Atul_kumar_Shrivastava

C#

// C# code to implement the approach
 
 
using System;
 
public class GFG {
 
    // Function to check whether S2 can be made equal
    // to S1 after performing given operations
    public static void checkEqual(String S1,
                                  String S2, int n)
    {
        char[] a = S2.ToCharArray();
        char[] b = S1.ToCharArray();
 
        int c_1 = 0;
        int c_2 = 0;
        if (String.Join("",a).Equals(String.Join("",b))) {
            Console.WriteLine("Yes");
        }
        for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
            if (a[j] == '1') {
                c_1++;
            }
            if (b[j] == '1') {
                c_2++;
            }
        }
        if (c_1 == 0 && c_2 > 0) {
            Console.WriteLine("No");
        }
        int c = 0;
        for (int k = 0; k < n - 1; k++) {
            if (b[k] != b[k + 1]) {
                c++;
            }
        }
        if (c == n - 1) {
            Console.WriteLine("No");
        }
        else {
            Console.WriteLine("Yes");
        }
    }
 
    // Driver code
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        String S1 = "00100";
        String S2 = "00011";
        int N = S1.Length;
 
        // Function call
        checkEqual(S1, S2, N);
    }
}
 
// This code contributed by shikhasingrajput

Javascript

<script>
    // JavaScript program of above approach.
 
    // Function to check whether S2 can be made equal
    // to S1 after performing given operations
    function checkEqual(S1, S2, n)
    {
        let a = S2.split();
        let b = S1.split();
 
        let c_1 = 0;
        let c_2 = 0;
        if (a == b) {
            document.write("Yes");
        }
        for (let j = 0; j < n; j++) {
            if (a[j] == '1') {
                c_1++;
            }
            if (b[j] == '1') {
                c_2++;
            }
        }
        if (c_1 == 0 && c_2 > 0) {
            document.write("No");
        }
        let c = 0;
        for (let k = 0; k < n - 1; k++) {
            if (b[k] != b[k + 1]) {
                c++;
            }
        }
        if (c == n - 1) {
            document.write("No");
        }
        else {
            document.write("Yes");
        }
    }
 
    // Driver code
 
        let S1 = "00100";
        let S2 = "00011";
        let N = S1.length;
 
        // Function call
        checkEqual(S1, S2, N);
 
// This code is contributed by sanjoy_62.
</script>

Output

Yes

Time Complexity: O(N)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)

Check if two strings can be made equal by swapping pairs of adjacent characters

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Check if two Binary Strings can be made equal by doing bitwise XOR of adjacent

C++

Java

Python3

C#

Javascript

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