20. Valid Parentheses

Problem:

Given a string containing just the characters '(', ')', '{', '}', '[' and ']', determine if the input string is valid.

An input string is valid if:

  1. Open brackets must be closed by the same type of brackets.
  2. Open brackets must be closed in the correct order.

Note that an empty string is also considered valid.

Example 1:

Input: "()"
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: "()[]{}"
Output: true

Example 3:

Input: "(]"
Output: false

Example 4:

Input: "([)]"
Output: false

Example 5:

Input: "{[]}"
Output: true

Solution:

Stack 101.

Whenever we meet a close bracket, we want to compare it to the last open bracket.

That is why we use stack to store open brackets: first in, last out.

And since there is only bracket characters, the last open bracket happens to be the last character.

/**
 * @param {string} s
 * @return {boolean}
 */
let isValid = function (s) {
    const stack = [];
    const pairs = {
        '}': '{',
        ']': '[',
        ')': '('
    };
    for (const c of s) {
        const open = pairs[c];
        if (open) {
            if (stack.pop() !== open) {
                return false;
            }
        } else {
            stack.push(c);
        }
    }
    return stack.length <= 0;
};

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