Minimum count of Inversion Pairs possible by concatenating N binary strings in any order

Last Updated : 06 Oct, 2022

Given N strings in the form of array str, each of length M and containing only characters ‘a‘ and ‘b‘. The task is to find the count of minimum number of Inversion Pairs possible in the resultant strings formed by concatenating all N strings in any order, without changing the order of any individual string.

An Inversion Pair in a string S is a pair of indices (i,j) such that i<j and Si = ‘b’, Sj = ‘a’.

For example, the string S= “abababbbb” contains 3 inversions : (2,3), (2,5), (4,5).

Examples:

Input: N = 3 , M = 2, str = {“ba” , “aa” , “ab”}
Output: 2
Explanation: If we concatenate the strings in order s2 + s1 + s3 = “aabaab” , then the inversion pair will be at (3, 4) and (3 , 5)

Input: N = 2 , M = 2, str = {“b” , “b”}
Output: 0

Approach: This question can be solved by the Greedy Algorithm and the approach should be to keep the string with a higher count of character ‘b‘ at the right end.

Follow the below steps to solve the problem:

Take a vector of strings of size n to receive the input.
Sort the vector of strings using the comparators based on the count of ‘b‘ in a particular string.
Take an empty string, Let us say res = “”.
After that traverse, the sorted vector, add the current string to the string res.
Traverse the string res and keep the count of occurrences of ‘b’ and whenever you encounter the character ‘a’ add the number of ‘b’ seen so far to the ans variable because with that ‘a’ you can make pairs up to a number of ‘b’ seen so far.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

C++

// C++ program for the above approach
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
// Comparator function to sort the vectors
// of strings
bool cmp(string& s1, string& s2)
{
    return count(s1.begin(), s1.end(), 'b')
           < count(s2.begin(), s2.end(), 'b');
}
 
// Function to find the inversion pairs
int findInversion(vector<string> arr, int N, int M)
{
    // Sort the vector
    sort(arr.begin(), arr.end(), cmp);
    string res = "";
 
    // Concatenate the strings
    for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
        res = res + arr[i];
    }
 
    // Count number of 'b'
    int cnt = 0;
 
    // Count the total number of
    // inversion pairs in the entire
    int inversionPairs = 0;
 
    // N*M =  new size of the concatenated string
    for (int i = 0; i < N * M; i++) {
        // If the current character is 'b'
        // then increase the count of cnt
        if (res[i] == 'b') {
 
            cnt += 1;
            continue;
        }
        // Add the cnt because that number of
        // pairs can be formed to that 'a'
        else {
            inversionPairs = inversionPairs + cnt;
        }
    }
    return inversionPairs;
}
 
// Driver Function
int main()
{
 
    int N = 3, M = 2;
    vector<string> arr = { "ba" , "aa" , "ab" };
 
    // Calling the function
    int ans = findInversion(arr, N, M);
 
    // Printing the answer
    cout << ans << "\n";
 
    return 0;
}

Java

/*package whatever //do not write package name here */
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG {
 
  // Function to find the inversion pairs
  public static int findInversion(List<String> arr, int N,
                                  int M)
  {
    String res = "";
 
    // Concatenate the strings
    for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
      res = res + arr.get(i);
    }
 
    // Count number of 'b'
    int cnt = 0;
 
    // Count the total number of
    // inversion pairs in the entire
    int inversionPairs = 0;
 
    // N*M =  new size of the concatenated string
    for (int i = 0; i < N * M; i++) {
      // If the current character is 'b'
      // then increase the count of cnt
      if (res.charAt(i) == 'b') {
 
        cnt += 1;
        continue;
      }
      // Add the cnt because that number of
      // pairs can be formed to that 'a'
      else {
        inversionPairs = inversionPairs + cnt;
      }
    }
    return inversionPairs;
  }
 
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    int N = 3, M = 2;
    List<String> arr = new ArrayList<String>();
    arr.add("ba");
    arr.add("aa");
    arr.add("ab");
 
    // Calling sort with Comparator function to sort the
    // vectors of strings
    Collections.sort(arr, new Comparator<String>() {
      @Override
      public int compare(final String s1, String s2)
      {
        int cnts1 = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < s1.length(); i++) {
          if ('b' == s1.charAt(i)) {
            cnts1++;
          }
        }
 
        int cnts2 = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < s2.length(); i++) {
          if ('b' == s2.charAt(i)) {
            cnts2++;
          }
        }
        int ans = -1;
        if (cnts1 > cnts2)
          ans = 1;
        return ans;
      }
    });
 
    // Calling the function and passing the sorted array
    // in it
    int ans = findInversion(arr, N, M);
 
    // Printing the answer
    System.out.println(ans);
  }
}
 
// This code is contributed by akashish__

Python3

# Python program for the above approach
 
# Comparator function to sort the vectors
# of strings
def cmp(s):
    s1 = s[0]
    s2 = s[1]
    b_in_s1 = 0
    b_in_s2 = 0
 
    for i in s1:
        if (i == 'b'):
            b_in_s1 += 1
    for i in s2:
        if (i == 'b'):
            b_in_s2 += 1
 
    if(b_in_s1 == b_in_s2):
        return 0
    return 1 if b_in_s1 - b_in_s2 else -1;
 
# Function to find the inversion pairs
def findInversion(arr, N, M):
 
    # Sort the vector
    #arr.sort(key=cmp);
    arr.sort(key=cmp)
    res = "";
 
    # Concatenate the strings
    for i in range(N):
        res = res + arr[i];
     
    # Count number of 'b'
    cnt = 0;
 
    # Count the total number of
    # inversion pairs in the entire
    inversionPairs = 0;
 
    # N*M =  new size of the concatenated string
    for i in range(N * M):
       
        # If the current character is 'b'
        # then increase the count of cnt
        if (res[i] == 'b'):
 
            cnt += 1;
            continue;
         
        # Add the cnt because that number of
        # pairs can be formed to that 'a'
        else:
            inversionPairs = inversionPairs + cnt;
    return inversionPairs;
 
# Driver Function
N = 3
M = 2;
arr = ["ba", "aa", "ab"];
 
# Calling the function
ans = findInversion(arr, N, M);
 
# Printing the answer
print(ans);
 
# This code is contributed by saurabh_jaiswal.

C#

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
 
public class GFG {
 
  // Comparator function to sort the vectors
  // of strings
  public static int cmp(string s1, string s2)
  {
    int cnts1 = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < s1.Length; i++) {
      if ('b' == s1[i]) {
        cnts1++;
      }
    }
 
    int cnts2 = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < s2.Length; i++) {
      if ('b' == s2[i]) {
        cnts2++;
      }
    }
    int ans = 0;
    if (cnts1 > cnts2)
      ans = 1;
    return ans;
  }
 
  // Function to find the inversion pairs
  public static int findInversion(List<string> arr, int N,
                                  int M)
  {
    // Sort the vector
    arr.Sort(cmp);
    string res = "";
 
    // Concatenate the strings
    for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
      res = res + arr[i];
    }
 
    // Count number of 'b'
    int cnt = 0;
 
    // Count the total number of
    // inversion pairs in the entire
    int inversionPairs = 0;
 
    // N*M =  new size of the concatenated string
    for (int i = 0; i < N * M; i++) {
      // If the current character is 'b'
      // then increase the count of cnt
      if (res[i] == 'b') {
 
        cnt += 1;
        continue;
      }
      // Add the cnt because that number of
      // pairs can be formed to that 'a'
      else {
        inversionPairs = inversionPairs + cnt;
      }
    }
    return inversionPairs;
  }
 
  static public void Main()
  {
 
    int N = 3, M = 2;
    List<string> arr = new List<string>();
    arr.Add("ba");
    arr.Add("aa");
    arr.Add("ab");
 
    // Calling the function
    int ans = findInversion(arr, N, M);
 
    // Printing the answer
    Console.WriteLine(ans);
  }
}
 
// This code is contributed by akashish__

Javascript

<script>
// Javascript program for the above approach
 
// Comparator function to sort the vectors
// of strings
function cmp(s1, s2) {
    let b_in_s1 = 0
    let b_in_s2 = 0
 
    for (i of s1)
        if (i == 'b')
            b_in_s1++;
    for (i of s2)
        if (i == 'b')
            b_in_s2++;
 
    return b_in_s1 - b_in_s2;
}
 
// Function to find the inversion pairs
function findInversion(arr, N, M)
{
 
    // Sort the vector
    arr.sort(cmp);
    let res = "";
 
    // Concatenate the strings
    for (let i = 0; i < N; i++) {
        res = res + arr[i];
    }
 
    // Count number of 'b'
    let cnt = 0;
 
    // Count the total number of
    // inversion pairs in the entire
    let inversionPairs = 0;
 
    // N*M =  new size of the concatenated string
    for (let i = 0; i < N * M; i++) {
        // If the current character is 'b'
        // then increase the count of cnt
        if (res[i] == 'b') {
 
            cnt += 1;
            continue;
        }
        // Add the cnt because that number of
        // pairs can be formed to that 'a'
        else {
            inversionPairs = inversionPairs + cnt;
        }
    }
    return inversionPairs;
}
 
// Driver Function
let N = 3, M = 2;
let arr = ["ba", "aa", "ab"];
 
// Calling the function
let ans = findInversion(arr, N, M);
 
// Printing the answer
document.write(ans);
 
// This code is contributed by saurabh_jaiswal.
</script>

Output

Time Complexity: O(NlogN)
Auxiliary Space: O(N*M)

C++ program for Complex Number Calculator

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Minimum count of Inversion Pairs possible by concatenating N binary strings in any order

C++

Java

Python3

C#

Javascript

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