Cover image for Interview Classic 150 Questions P5 Longest Palindromic Substring

Interview Classic 150 Questions P5 Longest Palindromic Substring


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2025-12-15

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dynamic programming

Problem:

Letdp[i][j]dp[i][j]bes[i..j]s[i..j]the length of the palindromic substring, ifs[i..j]s[i..j]is not a palindromic substring, thendp[i][j]=0dp[i][j]=0, otherwise,dp[i][j]=ji+1dp[i][j] = j-i+1; therefore, the substring lengthlen=ji+1len = j-i+1whether it is a palindromic substring depends on the palindromic substring of len-1, so in the loop, iterate by increasing len.

During initialization:

  • When len == 1,dp[i][i]=1dp[i][i] = 1;
  • When len == 2, dp[i][i+1]=2dp[i][i+1] = 2 (ifs[i]==s[i+1]s[i] == s[i+1])
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#include <string>
#include <vector>

using std::string;
using std::vector;

class Solution {
public:
string longestPalindrome(string s)
{
int i, j, len, end_idx, n = s.size();
int max_len = 1, reti = 0;
// dp[i][j] being 0 means s[i..j] is not a palindrome, greater than 0 means j-i+1
vector<vector<int> > dp(n, vector<int>(n, 0));

for (i = 0; i < n; i++) { // len == 1
dp[i][i] = 1;
}

len = 2;
for (i = 0; i + len - 1 < n; i++) { // len == 2
if (s[i] == s[i + len - 1]) {
dp[i][i + len - 1] = 2;
if (dp[i][i + len - 1] > max_len) {
max_len = dp[i][i + len - 1];
reti = i;
}
}
}

for (len = 3; len <= n; len++) {
for (i = 0; i + len - 1 < n; i++) { // s[i..i+len-1]
end_idx = i + len - 1;
if (s[i] == s[end_idx] && dp[i + 1][end_idx - 1] != 0) {
dp[i][end_idx] = dp[i + 1][end_idx - 1] + 2;
if (dp[i][end_idx] > max_len) {
max_len = dp[i][end_idx];
reti = i;
}
}
}
}

return s.substr(reti, max_len);
}
};

leetcode hot 100 rewrite:
Pay attention to the dependency relationship: if the former depends on the latter, then iterate from back to front; otherwise, from front to back.

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#include <string>
#include <vector>

using std::string;
using std::vector;

class Solution {
public:
string longestPalindrome(string s)
{
int i, j, n = s.size();
int max_len = 1, start = 0;
vector<vector<int> > dp(n, vector<int>(n, 0));

for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
dp[i][i] = 1;

for (i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
for (j = i + 1; j < n; j++) {
if (s[j] == s[i]) {
if (j - i == 1)
dp[i][j] = 2;
else if (j - i > 1 && dp[i + 1][j - 1] > 0)
dp[i][j] = dp[i + 1][j - 1] + 2;
else
dp[i][j] = 0;

if (dp[i][j] > max_len) {
max_len = dp[i][j];
start = i;
}

} else {
dp[i][j] = 0;
}
}
}

return s.substr(start, max_len);
}
};