Wildcard matching or regex matching program in Go (Golang)

Table of Contents

Overview

We are given an input regex and an input string. Regex can have two special characters

Star Sign ‘*’ – the star matches zero or more characters.

Question Mark ‘?’ – It matches any character.

The objective is to find whether the given input string matches the regex or not.

Input String: aa
Regex Sring: aa
Output: true

Input String: ab
Regex Sring: a?
Output: true

Input String: aaaa
Regex Sring: *
Output: true


Input String: aa
Regex Sring: a
Output: false

Below is the recursive solution for the same

Recursive Solution

In the recursive solution

If we encounter a star * then we have two cases. We ignore the * character in the pattern and move on to the next character in the pattern. The other case is that we move one character in the input string assuming * matches at least one character. Basically check for a match with (inputIndex, patternIndex+1) and (inputIndex+1, patternIndex). If either of them returns true then the input string matches the regex.

If we encounter a question mark ? then we simple proceed with (inputIndex+1, patternIndex+1)

If we encounter a simple character then we simply proceed in the input string as well as the patter ie. we do proceed with (inputIndex+1, patternIndex+1)

Here is the program

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	output := isMatch("aa", "aa")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("aaaa", "*")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("ab", "a?")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("adceb", "*a*b")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("aa", "a")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("mississippi", "m??*ss*?i*pi")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("acdcb", "a*c?b")
	fmt.Println(output)
}

func isMatch(s string, p string) bool {
	runeInputArray := []rune(s)
	runePatternArray := []rune(p)
	if len(runeInputArray) > 0 && len(runePatternArray) > 0 {
		if runePatternArray[len(runePatternArray)-1] != '*' && runePatternArray[len(runePatternArray)-1] != '?' && runeInputArray[len(runeInputArray)-1] != runePatternArray[len(runePatternArray)-1] {
			return false
		}
	}
	return isMatchUtil([]rune(s), []rune(p), 0, 0, len([]rune(s)), len([]rune(p)))
}

func isMatchUtil(input, pattern []rune, inputIndex, patternIndex int, inputLength, patternLength int) bool {

	if inputIndex == inputLength && patternIndex == patternLength {
		return true
	} else if patternIndex == patternLength {
		return false
	} else if inputIndex == inputLength {
		if pattern[patternIndex] == '*' && restPatternStar(pattern, patternIndex+1, patternLength) {
			return true
		} else {
			return false
		}
	}

	if pattern[patternIndex] == '*' {
		return isMatchUtil(input, pattern, inputIndex, patternIndex+1, inputLength, patternLength) ||
			isMatchUtil(input, pattern, inputIndex+1, patternIndex, inputLength, patternLength)

	}

	if pattern[patternIndex] == '?' {
		return isMatchUtil(input, pattern, inputIndex+1, patternIndex+1, inputLength, patternLength)
	}

	if inputIndex < inputLength {
		if input[inputIndex] == pattern[patternIndex] {
			return isMatchUtil(input, pattern, inputIndex+1, patternIndex+1, inputLength, patternLength)
		} else {
			return false
		}
	}

	return false

}

func restPatternStar(pattern []rune, patternIndex int, patternLength int) bool {
	for patternIndex < patternLength {
		if pattern[patternIndex] != '*' {
			return false
		}
		patternIndex++
	}

	return true

}

Output

true
true
true
true
false
false
false

Dynamic Program Solution

The above program is not an optimized solution as the subproblems are solved again and again. This problem can also be solved with DP.

Create a two-dimensional matrix named isMatchingMatrix where

isMatchingMatrix[i][j] will be true if the first i character in the input string matches the first j character in the pattern

If both input and pattern is empty
isMatchingMatrix[0][0] = true

If pattern is empty 
isMatchingMatrix[i][0] = fasle

If the input string is empty 
isMatchingMatrix[0][j] = isMatchingMatrix[0][j - 1] if pattern[j – 1] is '*'

Below is the program for the same.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	output := isMatch("aa", "aa")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("aaaa", "*")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("ab", "a?")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("adceb", "*a*b")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("aa", "a")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("mississippi", "m??*ss*?i*pi")
	fmt.Println(output)

	output = isMatch("acdcb", "a*c?b")
	fmt.Println(output)
}

func isMatch(s string, p string) bool {

	runeInput := []rune(s)
	runePattern := []rune(p)

	lenInput := len(runeInput)
	lenPattern := len(runePattern)

	isMatchingMatrix := make([][]bool, lenInput+1)

	for i := range isMatchingMatrix {
		isMatchingMatrix[i] = make([]bool, lenPattern+1)
	}

	isMatchingMatrix[0][0] = true
	for i := 1; i < lenInput; i++ {
		isMatchingMatrix[i][0] = false
	}

	if lenPattern > 0 {
		if runePattern[0] == '*' {
			isMatchingMatrix[0][1] = true
		}
	}

	for j := 2; j <= lenPattern; j++ {
		if runePattern[j-1] == '*' {
			isMatchingMatrix[0][j] = isMatchingMatrix[0][j-1]
		}

	}

	for i := 1; i <= lenInput; i++ {
		for j := 1; j <= lenPattern; j++ {

			if runePattern[j-1] == '*' {
				isMatchingMatrix[i][j] = isMatchingMatrix[i-1][j] || isMatchingMatrix[i][j-1]
			}

			if runePattern[j-1] == '?' || runeInput[i-1] == runePattern[j-1] {
				isMatchingMatrix[i][j] = isMatchingMatrix[i-1][j-1]
			}
		}
	}

	return isMatchingMatrix[lenInput][lenPattern]
}

Output

true
true
true
true
false
false
false

Note: Check out our Golang Advanced Tutorial. The tutorials in this series are elaborative and we have tried to cover all concepts with examples. This tutorial is for those who are looking to gain expertise and a solid understanding of golang - Golang Advance Tutorial

Also if you are interested in understanding how all design patterns can be implemented in Golang. If yes, then this post is for you -All Design Patterns Golang

golang