How to solve Edit Distance Problem?

A Quick Guide

The edit distance problem is the minimum number of insertions, deletions, or replacements required to convert one string to another.

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Edit Distance Problem

Given two strings A & B, find minimum no. of steps required to convert A to B. You have following 3 operations permitted on a word:    - Insert a character   - Delete a character   - Replace a character

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Problem Statement

Example- Input: A = “abad”, B = “abac”  Output: 1  Explanation: Operation 1: Replace d with c.

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To solve the problem, a recursive approach is used. All the characters in both strings are traversed one by one, either from left or right end, & the given operations are applied.

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Approach 1: Recursion

Time Complexity: O(3^(N * M)), where N and M are the lengths of the 1st and 2nd string.  Space Complexity: O(N + M).

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The idea is to use tabulation method to implement dynamic programming, which is the most efficient way to solve this particular problem.

Approach 2: Dynamic Programming

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Time Complexity: O(N * M), where N and M are the lengths of the 1st and 2nd string.  Space Complexity: O(N * M).

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