Find word in string buffer/paragraph/text - algorithm

Question

This was asked in Amazon telephonic interview - "Can you write a program (in your preferred language C/C++/etc.) to find a given word in a string buffer of big size ? i.e. number of occurrences "
I am still looking for perfect answer which I should have given to the interviewer.. I tried to write a linear search (char by char comparison) and obviously I was rejected.
Given a 40-45 min time for a telephonic interview, what was the perfect algorithm he/she was looking for ???

Answer 1

The KMP Algorithm is a popular string matching algorithm.
KMP Algorithm
Checking char by char is inefficient. If the string has 1000 characters and the keyword has 100 characters, you don't want to perform unnecessary comparisons. The KMP Algorithm handles many cases which can occur, but I imagine the interviewer was looking for the case where: When you begin (pass 1), the first 99 characters match, but the 100th character doesn't match. Now, for pass 2, instead of performing the entire comparison from character 2, you have enough information to deduce where the next possible match can begin.
// C program for implementation of KMP pattern searching
// algorithm
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
void computeLPSArray(char *pat, int M, int *lps);
void KMPSearch(char *pat, char *txt)
{
int M = strlen(pat);
int N = strlen(txt);
// create lps[] that will hold the longest prefix suffix
// values for pattern
int *lps = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)*M);
int j = 0; // index for pat[]
// Preprocess the pattern (calculate lps[] array)
computeLPSArray(pat, M, lps);
int i = 0; // index for txt[]
while (i < N)
{
if (pat[j] == txt[i])
{
j++;
i++;
}
if (j == M)
{
printf("Found pattern at index %d \n", i-j);
j = lps[j-1];
}
// mismatch after j matches
else if (i < N && pat[j] != txt[i])
{
// Do not match lps[0..lps[j-1]] characters,
// they will match anyway
if (j != 0)
j = lps[j-1];
else
i = i+1;
}
}
free(lps); // to avoid memory leak
}
void computeLPSArray(char *pat, int M, int *lps)
{
int len = 0; // length of the previous longest prefix suffix
int i;
lps[0] = 0; // lps[0] is always 0
i = 1;
// the loop calculates lps[i] for i = 1 to M-1
while (i < M)
{
if (pat[i] == pat[len])
{
len++;
lps[i] = len;
i++;
}
else // (pat[i] != pat[len])
{
if (len != 0)
{
// This is tricky. Consider the example
// AAACAAAA and i = 7.
len = lps[len-1];
// Also, note that we do not increment i here
}
else // if (len == 0)
{
lps[i] = 0;
i++;
}
}
}
}
// Driver program to test above function
int main()
{
char *txt = "ABABDABACDABABCABAB";
char *pat = "ABABCABAB";
KMPSearch(pat, txt);
return 0;
}
This code is taken from a really good site that teaches algorithms:
Geeks for Geeks KMP

Answer 2

Amazon and companies alike expect knowledge of Boyer–Moore string search or / and Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithms.
Those are good if you want to show perfect knowledge. Otherwise, try to be creative and write something relatively elegant and efficient.
Did you ask about delimiters before you wrote anything? It could be that they may simplify your task to provide some extra information about a string buffer.
Even code below could be ok (it's really not) if you provide enough information in advance, properly explain runtime, space requirements, choice of data containers.
int find( std::string & the_word, std::string & text )
{
std::stringstream ss( text ); // !!! could be really bad idea if 'text' is really big
std::string word;
std::unordered_map< std::string, int > umap;
while( ss >> text ) ++umap[text]; // you have to assume that each word separated by white-spaces.
return umap[the_word];
}