@Decipher As far as I understand the problem it says "returns the 5 most common occuring strings in a list", and the example u give is of a character array, when u go to a list of strings with len_of_each_string > 1, u wil have to *hash* them, which is when u will run into problems with count sort. So count sort wil not work.
As juver++ said sorting is one option. Going for hashing of each string and using a hashtable is another possible solution. Also building a compressed Trie out of the list and a traversal of it, will give the top 5 counts (but this will be too much work for this task :) ) Programmers should realize their critical importance and responsibility in a world gone digital. They are in many ways similar to the priests and monks of Europe's Dark Ages; they are the only ones with the training and insight to read and interpret the "scripture" of this age. On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 1:59 AM, Decipher <[email protected]> wrote: > We can apply count sort here also and take the range of numbers as > 256 . Example take an array c[256] , where c[i] gives the number of > times i_th ASCII value is repeated . Then after you have obtained > c[256] . Check for maximum 5 nos. in this array (which can be done in > O(n) time and space). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Algorithm Geeks" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<algogeeks%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/algogeeks?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Algorithm Geeks" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/algogeeks?hl=en.
