Largest 3-Same-Digit Number in String

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By - Aman Pareek

Last Updated - 03/09/2024

Problem Statement

You are given a string num representing a large integer. Your task is to identify the largest integer that satisfies the following conditions:

  1. It is a substring of num with a length of exactly 3 characters.

  2. It consists of the same digit repeated three times (i.e., it is of the form "ddd", where d is a single digit).

Return this largest integer as a string. If no such integer exists, return an empty string.

Example 1

Input: num = "6777133339"

Output: "777"

Example 2

Input: num = "2300019"

Output: "000"

Example 3

Input: num = "42352338"

Output: ""

Constraints

  • 3 <= num.length <= 1000

  • num only contains digits (0 through 9).

Solution 1: Naive Approach

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberNaive(num) {
    let largest = "";
    
    for (let i = 0; i <= num.length - 3; i++) {
        const substring = num.slice(i, i + 3);
        if (substring[0] === substring[1] && substring[1] === substring[2]) {
            if (substring > largest) {
                largest = substring;
            }
        }
    }
    
    return largest;
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberNaive(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberNaive(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberNaive(num3);  //output:  

Solution 2: Regular Expressions

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberRegex(num) {
    const matches = num.match(/(\d)\1{2}/g) || [];
    if (matches.length === 0) return "";

    return matches.reduce((max, current) => (current > max ? current : max), "");
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberRegex(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberRegex(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberRegex(num3);  //output:  

Solution 3: Dynamic Programming

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberDP(num) {
    let max = "";
    let currentDigit = '';
    let count = 0;

    for (const char of num) {
        if (char === currentDigit) {
            count++;
        } else {
            currentDigit = char;
            count = 1;
        }

        if (count === 3) {
            const candidate = char.repeat(3);
            if (candidate > max) {
                max = candidate;
            }
        }
    }

    return max;
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberDP(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberDP(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberDP(num3);  //output:  

Solution 4: Set-Based Approach

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberSet(num) {
    const seen = new Set();

    for (let i = 0; i <= num.length - 3; i++) {
        const substring = num.slice(i, i + 3);
        if (substring[0] === substring[1] && substring[1] === substring[2]) {
            seen.add(substring);
        }
    }

    return seen.size ? Array.from(seen).reduce((max, current) => (current > max ? current : max), "") : "";
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSet(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSet(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSet(num3);  //output:  

Solution 5: Single Pass Check

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberSinglePass(num) {
    let max = "";

    for (let i = 0; i <= num.length - 3; i++) {
        const substring = num.substring(i, i + 3);
        if (substring[0] === substring[1] && substring[1] === substring[2]) {
            if (substring > max) {
                max = substring;
            }
        }
    }

    return max;
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSinglePass(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSinglePass(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberSinglePass(num3);  //output:  

Solution 6: Stack-Based Approach

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberStack(num) {
    const stack = [];
    
    for (const char of num) {
        if (stack.length >= 2 && stack[stack.length - 1] === char && stack[stack.length - 2] === char) {
            return char.repeat(3);
        }
        stack.push(char);
    }
    
    return "";
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberStack(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberStack(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberStack(num3);  //output:  

Solution 7: Prefix Sum Array

function largestThreeSameDigitNumberPrefixSum(num) {
    const prefix = Array(num.length).fill(0);
    
    for (let i = 0; i < num.length; i++) {
        prefix[i] = (i > 0 && num[i] === num[i - 1]) ? prefix[i - 1] + 1 : 1;
        if (prefix[i] >= 3) {
            return num[i].repeat(3);
        }
    }
    
    return "";
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberPrefixSum(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberPrefixSum(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestThreeSameDigitNumberPrefixSum(num3);  //output:  

Solution 8: Two pointers

function largestTwoPointer(num) {
    let maxNum = -1;
    let l = 0;
    let r = l + 1;

    while (r < num.length) {
        if (num[l] !== num[r]) {
            l = r;
            r = l + 1;
        } else {
            if (r - l === 2) {
                maxNum = Math.max(maxNum, parseInt(num[l]));
                l = r + 1;
                r = l + 1;
            } else {
                r += 1;
            }
        }
    }

    return maxNum === -1 ? "" : `${maxNum}`.repeat(3);
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestTwoPointer(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestTwoPointer(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestTwoPointer(num3);  //output:  

Solution 9: Sliding window approach

function largestSlidingWindow(num) {
    let candidate = "";
    let start = 0;

    for (let i = 1; i < num.length; i++) {
        const current = num[i];
        const prev = num[i - 1];

        if (current === prev) {
            if (i - start + 1 === 3) {
                if (candidate === "") {
                    candidate = current;
                } else {
                    candidate = Math.max(parseInt(candidate), parseInt(current)).toString();
                }
            }
        } else {
            start = i;
        }
    }

    return candidate === "" ? "" : candidate.repeat(3);
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestSlidingWindow(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestSlidingWindow(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestSlidingWindow(num3);  //output:  

Solution 10: Iterator Approach

function largestGoodInteger(num) {
    for (let d = 9; d >= 0; d--) {
        const triplet = d.toString().repeat(3);
        if (num.includes(triplet)) {
            return triplet;
        }
    }
    return "";
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
largestGoodInteger(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
largestGoodInteger(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
largestGoodInteger(num3);  //output:  

Solution 11: Using while loop

function findLargestTripleDigit(num) {
    let n = 9;
    while (n >= 0) {
        let s = n === 0 ? "000" : (n * 111).toString();
        if (num.includes(s)) {
            return s;
        }
        n--;
    }
    return "";
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
findLargestTripleDigit(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
findLargestTripleDigit(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
findLargestTripleDigit(num3);  //output:  

Solution 12: method 12

function findLargestTripleDigit12(num) {
    const tripleDigits = ['999', '888', '777', '666', '555', '444', '333', '222', '111', '000'];
    
    for (const digit of tripleDigits) {
        if (num.includes(digit)) {
            return digit;
        }
    }
    
    return '';
} 

const num1 = "6777133339";
findLargestTripleDigit12(num1);  //output: 777 

const num2 = "2300019";
findLargestTripleDigit12(num2);  //output: 000 

const num3 = "42352338";
findLargestTripleDigit12(num3);  //output:  

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