Java tutorial
/* * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at * * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 * * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and * limitations under the License. */ public class Main { /** * <p>Compares all Strings in an array and returns the index at which the * Strings begin to differ.</p> * * <p>For example, * <code>indexOfDifference(new String[] {"i am a machine", "i am a robot"}) -> 7</code></p> * * <pre> * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(null) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {}) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abc"}) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {null, null}) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"", ""}) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"", null}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abc", null, null}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {null, null, "abc"}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"", "abc"}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abc", ""}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abc", "abc"}) = -1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abc", "a"}) = 1 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"ab", "abxyz"}) = 2 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abcde", "abxyz"}) = 2 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"abcde", "xyz"}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"xyz", "abcde"}) = 0 * StringUtils.indexOfDifference(new String[] {"i am a machine", "i am a robot"}) = 7 * </pre> * * @param strs array of strings, entries may be null * @return the index where the strings begin to differ; -1 if they are all equal * @since 2.4 */ public static int indexOfDifference(String[] strs) { if (strs == null || strs.length <= 1) { return -1; } boolean anyStringNull = false; boolean allStringsNull = true; int arrayLen = strs.length; int shortestStrLen = Integer.MAX_VALUE; int longestStrLen = 0; // find the min and max string lengths; this avoids checking to make // sure we are not exceeding the length of the string each time through // the bottom loop. for (int i = 0; i < arrayLen; i++) { if (strs[i] == null) { anyStringNull = true; shortestStrLen = 0; } else { allStringsNull = false; shortestStrLen = Math.min(strs[i].length(), shortestStrLen); longestStrLen = Math.max(strs[i].length(), longestStrLen); } } // handle lists containing all nulls or all empty strings if (allStringsNull || (longestStrLen == 0 && !anyStringNull)) { return -1; } // handle lists containing some nulls or some empty strings if (shortestStrLen == 0) { return 0; } // find the position with the first difference across all strings int firstDiff = -1; for (int stringPos = 0; stringPos < shortestStrLen; stringPos++) { char comparisonChar = strs[0].charAt(stringPos); for (int arrayPos = 1; arrayPos < arrayLen; arrayPos++) { if (strs[arrayPos].charAt(stringPos) != comparisonChar) { firstDiff = stringPos; break; } } if (firstDiff != -1) { break; } } if (firstDiff == -1 && shortestStrLen != longestStrLen) { // we compared all of the characters up to the length of the // shortest string and didn't find a match, but the string lengths // vary, so return the length of the shortest string. return shortestStrLen; } return firstDiff; } }