Firstly here is the problem:
A positive integer is called a palindrome if its representation in the decimal system is the same when read from left to right and from right to left. For a given positive integer K of not more than 1000000 digits, write the value of the smallest palindrome larger than K to output. Numbers are always displayed without leading zeros.
Input: The first line contains integer t, the number of test cases. Integers K are given in the next t lines.
Output: For each K, output the smallest palindrome larger than K. Example
Input:
2
808
2133
Output:
818
2222
Secondly here is my code:
// I know it is bad practice to not cater for erroneous input,
// however for the purpose of the execise it is omitted
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.lang.Exception;
import java.math.BigInteger;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String [] args){
try{
Main instance = new Main(); // create an instance to access non-static
// variables
// Use java.util.Scanner to scan the get the input and initialise the
// variable
Scanner sc=null;
BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String input = "";
int numberOfTests = 0;
String k; // declare any other variables here
if((input = r.readLine()) != null){
sc = new Scanner(input);
numberOfTests = sc.nextInt();
}
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfTests; i++){
if((input = r.readLine()) != null){
sc = new Scanner(input);
k=sc.next(); // initialise the remainder of the variables sc.next()
instance.palindrome(k);
} //if
}// for
}// try
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}// main
public void palindrome(String number){
StringBuffer theNumber = new StringBuffer(number);
int length = theNumber.length();
int left, right, leftPos, rightPos;
// if incresing a value to more than 9 the value to left (offset) need incrementing
int offset, offsetPos;
boolean offsetUpdated;
// To update the string with new values
String insert;
boolean hasAltered = false;
for(int i = 0; i < length/2; i++){
leftPos = i;
rightPos = (length-1) - i;
offsetPos = rightPos -1; offsetUpdated = false;
// set values at opposite indices and offset
left = Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(theNumber.charAt(leftPos)));
right = Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(theNumber.charAt(rightPos)));
offset = Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(theNumber.charAt(offsetPos)));
if(left != right){
// if r > l then offest needs updating
if(right > left){
// update and replace
right = left;
insert = Integer.toString(right);
theNumber.replace(rightPos, rightPos + 1, insert);
offset++; if (offset == 10) offset = 0;
insert = Integer.toString(offset);
theNumber.replace(offsetPos, offsetPos + 1, insert);
offsetUpdated = true;
// then we need to update the value to left again
while (offset == 0 && offsetUpdated){
offsetPos--;
offset =
Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(theNumber.charAt(offsetPos)));
offset++; if (offset == 10) offset = 0;
// replace
insert = Integer.toString(offset);
theNumber.replace(offsetPos, offsetPos + 1, insert);
}
// finally incase right and offset are the two middle values
left = Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(theNumber.charAt(leftPos)));
if (right != left){
right = left;
insert = Integer.toString(right);
theNumber.replace(rightPos, rightPos + 1, insert);
}
}// if r > l
else
// update and replace
right = left;
insert = Integer.toString(right);
theNumber.replace(rightPos, rightPos + 1, insert);
}// if l != r
}// for i
System.out.println(theNumber.toString());
}// palindrome
}
Finally my explaination and question.
My code compares either end and then moves in
if left and right are not equal
if right is greater than left
(increasing right past 9 should increase the digit
to its left i.e 09 ---- > 10) and continue to do
so if require as for 89999, increasing the right
most 9 makes the value 90000
before updating my string we check that the right
and left are equal, because in the middle e.g 78849887
we set the 9 --> 4 and increase 4 --> 5, so we must cater for this.
The problem is from spoj.pl an online judge system. My code works for all the test can provide but when I submit it, I get a time limit exceeded error and my answer is not accepted.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve my algorithm. While writing this question i thought that instead of my while (offset == 0 && offsetUpdated) loop i could use a boolean to to make sure i increment the offset on my next [i] iteration. Confirmation of my chang or any suggestion would be appreciated, also let me know if i need to make my question clearer.
