This notebook was prepared by Donne Martin. Source and license info is on GitHub.

Challenge Notebook¶

Problem: Implement an algorithm to determine if a string has all unique characters.¶

Constraints¶

Can we assume the string is ASCII?
- Yes
- Note: Unicode strings could require special handling depending on your language
Can we assume this is case sensitive?
- Yes
Can we use additional data structures?
- Yes
Can we assume this fits in memory?
- Yes

Test Cases¶

None -> False
'' -> True
'foo' -> False
'bar' -> True

Algorithm¶

Refer to the Solution Notebook. If you are stuck and need a hint, the solution notebook's algorithm discussion might be a good place to start.

Code¶

In [ ]:

class UniqueChars(object):

    def has_unique_chars(self, string):
        # TODO: Implement me
        pass

Unit Test¶

The following unit test is expected to fail until you solve the challenge.

In [ ]:

# %load test_unique_chars.py
import unittest


class TestUniqueChars(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_unique_chars(self, func):
        self.assertEqual(func(None), False)
        self.assertEqual(func(''), True)
        self.assertEqual(func('foo'), False)
        self.assertEqual(func('bar'), True)
        print('Success: test_unique_chars')


def main():
    test = TestUniqueChars()
    unique_chars = UniqueChars()
    test.test_unique_chars(unique_chars.has_unique_chars)
    try:
        unique_chars_set = UniqueCharsSet()
        test.test_unique_chars(unique_chars_set.has_unique_chars)
        unique_chars_in_place = UniqueCharsInPlace()
        test.test_unique_chars(unique_chars_in_place.has_unique_chars)
    except NameError:
        # Alternate solutions are only defined
        # in the solutions file
        pass


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Solution Notebook¶

Review the Solution Notebook for a discussion on algorithms and code solutions.