PrefixCode | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

A prefix code is a set of words in which no word is a prefix of another word in the set. A word v is said to be a prefix of a word w if w starts with v.

An important property of prefix codes is that they are uniquely decodable. Prefix codes are commonly used - telephone numbers are an everyday example (as you probably don't want a stranger to pick up the phone call you make just because his number is a prefix of the number you intend to dial). Prefix codes are also very popular in computer science, the Huffman code used for data compression being a famous example.

Given a String[] words, return the String "Yes" if that set of words is a prefix code or return the String "No, i" if it is not, where i is replaced by the lowest 0-based index of a String in words that is a prefix of another String in words. (That index should have no extra leading zeros.)

Definition

Class:: PrefixCode
Method:: isOne
Parameters:: String[]
Returns:: String
Method signature:: String isOne(String[] words)
(be sure your method is public)

Notes

Letters are case sensitive (e.g. "No" is not a prefix of "not").
Do not forget the single space between the comma and i in "No, i"

Constraints

words contains between 1 and 50 elements, inclusive.
Each element of words contains between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.
Each element of words consists only of characters '0'-'9', 'A'-'Z' and 'a'-'z', inclusive.
No two elements of words are equal (as the input represents a set).

Examples

```
{"trivial"}
```
```
Returns: "Yes"
```
As there is only one word, no word can be the prefix of another, so this is a trivial example of a prefix code.
```
{"10001", "011", "100", "001", "10"}
```
```
Returns: "No, 2"
```
"100" (at index 2) and "10" (at index 4) are both a prefix of "10001" and "10" is also a prefix of "100", therefore it is no prefix code. "100" is the prefix with the lowest index.

{"no", "nosy", "neighbors", "needed"}

Returns: "No, 0"

{"1010", "11", "100", "0", "1011"}

Returns: "Yes"

```
{"No", "not"}
```
```
Returns: "Yes"
```

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