Checking if a string has balanced parentheses - ruby

Question

I am currently working on a Ruby Problem quiz but I'm not sure if my solution is right. After running the check, it shows that the compilation was successful but i'm just worried it is not the right answer.
The problem:
A string S consisting only of characters '(' and ')' is called properly nested if:
S is empty,
S has the form "(U)" where
U is a properly nested string,
S has
the form "VW" where V and W are
properly nested strings.
For example, "(()(())())" is properly nested and "())" isn't.
Write a function
def nesting(s)
that given a string S returns 1 if S
is properly nested and 0 otherwise.
Assume that the length of S does not
exceed 1,000,000. Assume that S
consists only of characters '(' and
')'.
For example, given S = "(()(())())"
the function should return 1 and given
S = "())" the function should return
0, as explained above.
Solution:
def nesting ( s )
# write your code here
if s == '(()(())())' && s.length <= 1000000
return 1
elsif s == ' ' && s.length <= 1000000
return 1
elsif
s == '())'
return 0
end
end

Answer 1

Here are descriptions of two algorithms that should accomplish the goal. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to turn them into code (unless you explicitly ask for a code solution):
Start with a variable set to 0 and loop through each character in the string: when you see a '(', add one to the variable; when you see a ')', subtract one from the variable. If the variable ever goes negative, you have seen too many ')' and can return 0 immediately. If you finish looping through the characters and the variable is not exactly 0, then you had too many '(' and should return 0.
Remove every occurrence of '()' in the string (replace with ''). Keep doing this until you find that nothing has been replaced (check the return value of gsub!). If the string is empty, the parentheses were matched. If the string is not empty, it was mismatched.

Answer 2

You're not supposed to just enumerate the given examples. You're supposed to solve the problem generally. You're also not supposed to check that the length is below 1000000, you're allowed to assume that.
The most straight forward solution to this problem is to iterate through the string and keep track of how many parentheses are open right now. If you ever see a closing parenthesis when no parentheses are currently open, the string is not well-balanced. If any parentheses are still open when you reach the end, the string is not well-balanced. Otherwise it is.
Alternatively you could also turn the specification directly into a regex pattern using the recursive regex feature of ruby 1.9 if you were so inclined.

Answer 3

My algorithm would use stacks for this purpose. Stacks are meant for solving such problems
Algorithm
Define a hash which holds the list of balanced brackets for
instance {"(" => ")", "{" => "}", and so on...}
Declare a stack (in our case, array) i.e. brackets = []
Loop through the string using each_char and compare each character with keys of the hash and push it to the brackets
Within the same loop compare it with the values of the hash and pop the character from brackets
In the end, if the brackets stack is empty, the brackets are balanced.
def brackets_balanced?(string)
return false if string.length < 2
brackets_hash = {"(" => ")", "{" => "}", "[" => "]"}
brackets = []
string.each_char do |x|
brackets.push(x) if brackets_hash.keys.include?(x)
brackets.pop if brackets_hash.values.include?(x)
end
return brackets.empty?
end

Answer 4

You can solve this problem theoretically. By using a grammar like this:
S ← LSR | LR
L ← (
R ← )
The grammar should be easily solvable by recursive algorithm.
That would be the most elegant solution. Otherwise as already mentioned here count the open parentheses.

Answer 5

Here's a neat way to do it using inject:
class String
def valid_parentheses?
valid = true
self.gsub(/[^\(\)]/, '').split('').inject(0) do |counter, parenthesis|
counter += (parenthesis == '(' ? 1 : -1)
valid = false if counter < 0
counter
end.zero? && valid
end
end
> "(a+b)".valid_parentheses? # => true
> "(a+b)(".valid_parentheses? # => false
> "(a+b))".valid_parentheses? # => false
> "(a+b))(".valid_parentheses? # => false

Answer 6

You're right to be worried; I think you've got the very wrong end of the stick, and you're solving the problem too literally (the info that the string doesn't exceed 1,000,000 characters is just to stop people worrying about how slow their code would run if the length was 100times that, and the examples are just that - examples - not the definitive list of strings you can expect to receive)
I'm not going to do your homework for you (by writing the code), but will give you a pointer to a solution that occurs to me:
The string is correctly nested if every left bracket has a right-bracket to the right of it, or a correctly nested set of brackets between them. So how about a recursive function, or a loop, that removes the string matches "()". When you run out of matches, what are you left with? Nothing? That was a properly nested string then. Something else (like ')' or ')(', etc) would mean it was not correctly nested in the first place.

Answer 7

Define method:
def check_nesting str
pattern = /\(\)/
while str =~ pattern do
str = str.gsub pattern, ''
end
str.length == 0
end
And test it:
>ruby nest.rb (()(())())
true
>ruby nest.rb (()
false
>ruby nest.rb ((((()))))
true
>ruby nest.rb (()
false
>ruby nest.rb (()(((())))())
true
>ruby nest.rb (()(((())))()
false

Answer 8

Your solution only returns the correct answer for the strings "(()(())())" and "())". You surely need a solution that works for any string!
As a start, how about counting the number of occurrences of ( and ), and seeing if they are equal?