# Minimum Window Subsequence in C++

C++Server Side ProgrammingProgramming

Suppose we have two strings S and T, we have to find the minimum substring W of S, so that T is a subsequence of W. If there is no such window in S that covers all characters in T, then return empty string. If there are multiple such windows, we have to return the one with the left-most starting index.

So, if the input is like S = "abcdebdde", T = "bde", then the output will be "bcde" as it occurs before "bdde". "deb" is not a smaller window because the elements of T in the window must occur in order.

To solve this, we will follow these steps −

• tidx := 0, tlen := size of T

• n := size of S

• i := 0, length := inf, start := -1

• while i < n, do −

• if S[i] is same as T[tidx], then −

• (increase tidx by 1)

• if tidx is same as tlen, then −

• end := i + 1

• (decrease tidx by 1)

• while tidx >= 0, do −

• if S[i] is same as T[tidx], then −

• (decrease tidx by 1)

• (decrease i by 1)

• (increase i by 1)

• (increase tidx by 1)

• if end - i < length, then −

• length := end - i

• start := i

• (increase i by 1)

• if start is not equal to -1, then −

• for initialize i := start, when i < start + length, update (increase i by 1), do −

• ret := ret + S[i]

• return ret

Let us see the following implementation to get better understanding −

## Example

Live Demo

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
class Solution {
public:
string minWindow(string S, string T) {
int tidx = 0;
int tlen = T.size();
int n = S.size();
int i = 0;
int length = INT_MAX;
int start = -1;
string ret;
while (i < n) {
if (S[i] == T[tidx]) {
tidx++;
if (tidx == tlen) {
int end = i + 1;
tidx--;
while (tidx >= 0) {
if (S[i] == T[tidx]) {
tidx--;
}
i--;
}
i++;
tidx++;
if (end - i < length) {
length = end - i;
start = i;
}
}
}
i++;
}
if (start != -1)
for (int i = start; i < start + length; i++)
ret += S[i];
return ret;
}
};
main(){
Solution ob;
cout << (ob.minWindow("abcdebdde", "bde"));
}

## Input

"abcdebdde", "bde"

## Output

"bcde"
Published on 11-Jul-2020 11:48:55