Find the longest common starting substring in a set of strings [closed]
It's a matter of taste, but this is a simple javascript version:It sorts the array, and then looks just at the first and last items.
//longest common starting substring in an array
function sharedStart(array){ var A= array.concat().sort(), a1= A[0], a2= A[A.length-1], L= a1.length, i= 0; while(i<L && a1.charAt(i)=== a2.charAt(i)) i++; return a1.substring(0, i);}DEMOS
sharedStart(['interspecies', 'interstelar', 'interstate']) //=> 'inters'sharedStart(['throne', 'throne']) //=> 'throne'sharedStart(['throne', 'dungeon']) //=> ''sharedStart(['cheese']) //=> 'cheese'sharedStart([]) //=> ''sharedStart(['prefix', 'suffix']) //=> ''
In Python:
>>> from os.path import commonprefix>>> commonprefix('interspecies interstelar interstate'.split())'inters'
Ruby one-liner:
l=strings.inject{|l,s| l=l.chop while l!=s[0...l.length];l}