722. Remove Comments

Problem Description

The problem requires us to write a function that removes comments from a given C++ program. The source code of the program is provided as an array of strings where each string represents a single line of code. The objective is to eliminate two types of comments from the code:

• Line comments, which start with // and continue until the end of the line.
• Block comments, which start with /* and end with */. Block comments can span multiple lines and the block is closed only when a non-overlapping */ is found.

A few important points to consider while solving this problem:

• The first occurrence of either type of comment takes precedence.
• Comments within comments are ignored (e.g., // within /*...*/ or /* within another /*...*/ or //).
• Lines that become empty after removal of comments should not be included in the output.
• Control characters, single or double quotes will not interfere with the comments.
• It is guaranteed that all block comments will be closed.

After processing the source code and removing the comments, the function should return the processed source code as an array of strings, with each string representing a non-empty line of the processed code.

Intuition

To solve this problem, we iterate through each line of the source code and use markers to identify the presence of a block comment. If we are inside a block comment, we check for the closing */ sequence. If found, we ignore everything up to this point and mark that we've exited the block comment. If we are not in a block comment, we check for the start of a block comment /* or a line comment //. Upon finding a //, we can ignore the rest of the line. For a /*, we set the marker indicating we are inside a block comment, and continue scanning from there. The key is to process characters based on the current context (inside a block comment or not).

Here's the approach broken down:

1. Initialize a list ans to collect the processed lines and a temporary list t that will hold the characters for the current line being processed.
2. Use a boolean block_comment to track whether we are inside a block comment.
3. Iterate through each line in the source code.
4. For each line, iterate through all characters in the line.
5. If we're inside a block comment (block_comment is True), we look for the closing */. Once found, we set block_comment to False and continue scanning the rest of the line.
6. If we're not inside a block comment, we look for either /* to start a block comment, // to skip the rest of the line, or any other character to add to our temporary list t.
7. After we've processed a line, if we are not in a block comment and t is not empty, join t into a string and add it to ans. Then, clear t for the next line of code.
8. Once all lines are processed, return ans.

By following this approach, we systematically scan through the source code, correctly handling both line and block comments, and accumulating only the non-commented parts of the code.

Solution Approach

The Reference Solution Approach involves using a simple state machine with two states: inside a block comment, and outside of a block comment. The implementation leverages basic string manipulation techniques and a simple control flow to parse the lines of code and remove comments.

Here is a walk-through of the implementation step-by-step:

1. Initialize Tracking Variables: We create a list ans to hold our output strings, and a list t to accumulate the characters for the current line. In addition, we have a boolean flag block_comment to keep track of whether we are currently inside a block comment.

2. Iterate Over Each Line: We loop over each line s in the input source. For each line, we process characters sequentially.

3. Iterate Over Characters in Line: Inside the line, we use a while loop to iterate over each character by index i. The index i is increased when processing characters, and if certain conditions are met (like the end of a block comment), it may be increased by additional amounts to skip over comment markers.

4. Process Inside Block Comment: If we're inside a block comment (when block_comment is True), we check if the current and next characters form the */ sequence. If they do, we set block_comment to False and skip the */ by incrementing i by 2. Otherwise, we move on to the next character.

5. Process Outside Block Comment: When we're not in a block comment, we look for either the start of a new block comment /* or a line comment //. If we find /*, we set block_comment to True and skip the characters /* by incrementing i. If we find //, we break out of the loop as the rest of the line is a comment and should be ignored.

6. Accumulate Non-Comment Characters: If the character doesn't signal the beginning of a comment, we append it to the temporary list t.

7. Handle the End of Line: Once we reach the end of a line, if we are not inside a block comment and t is not empty, we convert t into a string and add it to ans. We then clear t to start processing the next line.

8. Return the Result: After processing all lines, ans will contain the source code with all comments removed. We return ans.

By using this approach, we avoid the complexities of regex parsing or other more sophisticated text processing libraries and directly implement a context-sensitive parser. The focus is on correctly adjusting the state (block_comment) and efficiently building the output while iterating through the source code.

Example Walkthrough

Let's illustrate the solution approach with a simple example. Suppose our source input is the following array of strings, representing a C++ program:

1[
2    "int main() {",              // Line 1
3    "  /* This is a",            // Line 2
4    "  multiline comment */",    // Line 3
5    "  int a = 0; // variable",  // Line 4
6    "  cout << a;",              // Line 5
7    "}"
8]

Following the Reference Solution Approach, this is how the function will work:

1. Initialize Tracking Variables:

   • ans is initialized to an empty list [].
   • t is initialized to an empty list [].
   • block_comment is initialized to False.

2. Iterate Over Each Line:

   • We start with the first line "int main() {". Since there are no comments, each character is added to t.

3. Iterate Over Characters in Line:

   • Moving to Line 2, we begin to iterate over the characters. Upon encountering /*, we recognize the start of a block comment and set block_comment to True.

4. Process Inside Block Comment:

   • We continue to Line 3 while still inside the block comment. We find the ending */ sequence and set block_comment back to False after incrementing the index to skip it.

5. Process Outside Block Comment:

   • On Line 4, we are not in a block comment. We process characters until the line comment // is found. At this point, we skip the rest of the line.

6. Accumulate Non-Comment Characters:

   • For lines 5 and 6, since there are no comments, all characters go into t.

7. Handle the End of Line:

   • At the end of each line (except for lines 2 and 3, which are inside the block comment), we check t:
     • After Line 1, t contains "int main() {". We add it to ans and clear t.
     • After Line 4, t contains " int a = 0; ". This is added to ans.
     • After Line 5, t contains " cout << a;". This too is added to ans.
     • Line 6 is just the closing brace, so it's added similarly.

8. Return the Result:

   • After all lines are processed, we have ans as ["int main() {", " int a = 0; ", " cout << a;", "}"].
   • We return ans.

Here, we've successfully removed all comments (both line and block) from the C++ source code. The code now accurately reflects the logical part of the program without any comments.

Solution Implementation

Time and Space Complexity

The provided Python code defines a method to remove both line comments (starting with //) and block comments (enclosed between /* and */) from a list of source code strings.

Time Complexity:

The time complexity of the function is primarily determined by the number of characters in the input source array and the operations performed for each character. Here's the breakdown:

• The function loops through each string s in the source array.
• For each string, a nested loop scans each character to identify and handle comments, with each iteration checking pairs of characters for comment patterns (// or /*, */).

Considering n to be the total number of characters across all the strings in the source array:

• The worst-case scenario occurs when there are no comments or only at the end, so we check every character pair, resulting in O(n) time complexity.
• Each character is assessed at most twice (for opening and closing block comments), maintaining the linear relationship.

Hence, the overall time complexity of the function is O(n).

Space Complexity:

For space complexity, we consider any additional memory used by the algorithm besides the input itself:

• A list t is maintained to construct the strings after removing comments, which in the worst case, will contain all characters that are not within comments. In the worst case, this is linear to the input, adding up to O(n).
• The variable block_comment uses a constant amount of space, contributing an additional O(1) complexity.
• The list ans is used to store the final output strings. In the worst-case scenario where no comments are present, it will contain a copy of all the individual strings from the source, resulting in O(n) space.

Therefore, the total space complexity is O(n) as the function stores intermediate and final results proportional to the input size.

Learn more about how to find time and space complexity quickly using problem constraints.