Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a Stream

Approach 1: Using Queue

In this approach, a queue data structure and a character array are used. The frequency of the characters is stored in the frequencyCount array, and the characters are stored in the queue. If the frequencyCount is greater than 1, the character is removed from the queue as it is repeating. Else, the front element of the queue is displayed. If the queue is empty, i.e., no more non-repeating characters are present, -1 is printed.

Steps

1. Create a character array to store the frequency count of the characters.
2. Create a queue to store the characters.
3. Traverse the string.
4. And the character and increment the frequency count.
5. If the queue contains repeating characters, remove the character from the queue.
6. If the queue contains repeating non-repeating characters, display the front element of the queue and break the while loop.
7. If the queue is empty, i.e., no more non-repeating characters are present, -1 is printed.

Working

Code

• Java

Java

import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Queue;

public class Main {

  public static String firstNonRepeatingCharacter(String str) {
    StringBuilder resultantString = new StringBuilder();
    int[] characterFrequency = new int[26];

    // queue to store the characters
    Queue<Character> queue = new LinkedList<Character>();

    // traverse whole stream of characters
    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
      char ch = str.charAt(i);

      // push the character into the queue
      queue.add(ch);

      // increment the frequency count
      characterFrequency[ch - 'a']++;

      // check for the non repeating character
      while (!queue.isEmpty()) {
        // when the character is repeated
        if (characterFrequency[queue.peek() - 'a'] > 1)
          queue.remove();
        // when the character is not repeating
        else {
          resultantString.append(queue.peek() + " ");
          break;
        }
      }

      // if there is no non-repeating character
      if (queue.isEmpty())
        resultantString.append("-1 ");
    }
    
    return resultantString.toString();
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "aabcbc";
    String result = firstNonRepeatingCharacter(str);
    System.out.println(result);
  }
}

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Output

a -1 b b c -1

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O(n) as the string is traversed once.

Space Complexity: O(n)  as extra space is required to store the characters in the queue.

Where "n" is the number of characters in the string.

Approach 2: Using Doubly Linked List

In this approach, a Doubly Linked List and a hashmap are used. The Doubly Linked List stores the characters, and the hashmap stores the character as the key and the node( storing the character) as the value. If the hashmap does not contain the character, the character is stored in the hashmap and doubly linked list. Else, the value of the character is set to null in the hashmap. 

Steps 

• Create a hashmap to store the character and node.
• Create a doubly linked list to store the characters.
• Traverse the string.
• If the hashmap does not contain the character:
  • Add character to the doubly linked list.
  • Add the node containing character to the hashmap with character as the key.
  • Add the character stored in the head of the doubly linked list to the resultant string.
• If the hashmap contains the character:
  • If the character is repeating and the node is not null, delete the node and store the value as null in the hashmap.
  • If the head is null, add -1 to the resultant string. Else add the character value of the head node.

Working

Code

• Java

Java

import java.util.HashMap;

// node of the doubly linked list
class Node {
  char ch;
  Node previous;
  Node next;

  Node(char ch) {
    this.ch = ch;
  }
}

public class Main {
  // head and tail of the doubly linked list
  Node head = null, tail = null;

  // add node at the end of the doubly linked list
  public void addNode(char ch) {
    Node newNode = new Node(ch);
    
    // if doubly linked list is empty
    if (head == null) {
      head = tail = newNode;
      return;
    }
    
    // if doubly linked list is not empty
    tail.next = newNode;
    newNode.previous = tail;
    tail = newNode;
  }

  // delete the node of the doubly linked list
  void deleteNode(Node del) {
    // if doubly linked list is empty or the node to be deleted is empty
    if (head == null || del == null) {
      return;
    }

    // delete head node
    if (head == del) {
      head = del.next;
    }

    // delete tail node
    if (tail == del)
      tail = tail.previous;

    // change next pointer only if node to be deleted is not the tail node
    if (del.next != null) {
      del.next.previous = del.previous;
    }

    // change previous pointer only if node to be deleted is not the first node
    if (del.previous != null) {
      del.previous.next = del.next;
    }
    
    return;
  }
  
  // function that returns the string of first non repeating characters
  public static String firstNonRepeatingCharacter(String str) {
    StringBuilder resultantString = new StringBuilder();
    // hashmap to store the character and node
    HashMap<Character, Node> hashmap = new HashMap<Character, Node>();
    
    // doubly linked list
    Main dll = new Main();

    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
      char ch = str.charAt(i);
      // if the hashmap does not contain the character
      if (!hashmap.containsKey(ch)) {
        // add the node to the doubly linked list
        dll.addNode(ch);
        // add the character to hashmap
        hashmap.put(ch, dll.tail);
        // add the character to the resultant string
        resultantString.append(dll.head.ch + " ");
      } else {
        // if the character is encountered for the second time
        if (hashmap.get(ch) != null) {
          dll.deleteNode(hashmap.get(ch));
        // replace the node of the respective character with           null
          hashmap.replace(ch, null);
        }
        if (dll.head == null) {
          resultantString.append("-1 ");
        } else {
          resultantString.append(dll.head.ch + " ");
        }
      }
    }

    return resultantString.toString();
  }

  // driver Code
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "aabcbc";
    String result = firstNonRepeatingCharacter(str);
    System.out.println(result);
  }
}

You can also try this code with Online Java Compiler

Run Code

Output:

a -1 b b c -1

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O(n) as the string is traversed once.

Space Complexity: O(n)  as extra space is required to store the doubly linked list and the hashmap.

Where "n" is the number of characters in the string.

Approach 3: Using Hashing

To find the first non-repeating character in a stream using hashing, we can maintain a data structure to store the frequency of each character as it appears in the stream. Additionally, we need to keep track of the order of appearance of characters. A LinkedHashMap, which maintains insertion order, is suitable for this task.

Steps

• Initialize a LinkedHashMap to store the frequency of characters and their order of appearance.
• For each character in the stream:
  • If the character is not present in the LinkedHashMap, add it with a frequency of 1.
  • If the character is already present, increment its frequency.
• Iterate through the LinkedHashMap to find the first character with a frequency of 1. This represents the first non-repeating character.

Code

• Java

Java

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;

class FirstNonRepeatingCharacter {
    public static char findFirstNonRepeatingCharacter(String stream) {
        Map<Character, Integer> frequencyMap = new LinkedHashMap<>();

        for (char ch : stream.toCharArray()) {
            frequencyMap.put(ch, frequencyMap.getOrDefault(ch, 0) + 1);
        }

        for (Map.Entry<Character, Integer> entry : frequencyMap.entrySet()) {
            if (entry.getValue() == 1) {
                return entry.getKey();
            }
        }

        // If no non-repeating character is found, return a placeholder
        return '\0';
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String stream = "aabbcdde";
        char result = findFirstNonRepeatingCharacter(stream);

        System.out.println("First Non-Repeating Character: " + result);
    }
}

You can also try this code with Online Java Compiler

Run Code

Output:

First Non-Repeating Character: c

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O(N) where N is the length of the input stream. We iterate through the stream once.

Space Complexity: O(K) where K is the number of unique characters in the stream. 

Approach 4: Using a Count Array

To find the first non-repeating character in a stream using a count array, we can maintain an array to store the count of each character's occurrence in the stream. Additionally, we need to keep track of the order of appearance of characters. A separate array or data structure can be used to store the order of appearance.

Steps

• Initialize an array to store the count of each character's occurrence (e.g., countArray) and an array to store the order of appearance (e.g., orderArray).
• Initialize an index to keep track of the order.
• For each character in the stream:
  • Update the count of the character in countArray.
  • If the count becomes 1, update the orderArray at the current index with the character and increment the index.
• Iterate through the orderArray to find the first character with a count of 1. This represents the first non-repeating character.

Code

• Java

Java

class FirstNonRepeatingCharacter {
    // Assuming ASCII characters
    static final int CHAR_RANGE = 256; 

    public static char findFirstNonRepeatingCharacter(String stream) {
        int[] countArray = new int[CHAR_RANGE];
        char[] orderArray = new char[stream.length()];
        int index = 0;

        for (char ch : stream.toCharArray()) {
            countArray[ch]++;
            if (countArray[ch] == 1) {
                orderArray[index++] = ch;
            }
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < index; i++) {
            if (countArray[orderArray[i]] == 1) {
                return orderArray[i];
            }
        }

        // If no non-repeating character is found, return a placeholder
        return '\0';
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String stream = "aabccdde";
        char result = findFirstNonRepeatingCharacter(stream);

        System.out.println("First Non-Repeating Character: " + result);
    }
}

You can also try this code with Online Java Compiler

Run Code

Output:

First Non-Repeating Character: b

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O(N) where N is the length of the input stream. We iterate through the stream once.

Space Complexity: O(K) where K is the number of unique characters in the stream.

Frequently Asked Questions

What function finds the first non repeating character?

We can create a function in Java that uses a LinkedHashMap to maintain character counts in the order of appearance. It iterates through the input string, then through the map to find and return the first non-repeating character or a placeholder ('\0').

What is the first non-repeating character in a stream stack?

If the character given is aabccdd. Here the occurrence of a is 2, b is 1, c is 2, and d is 2. The character which is not repeated in the first time is b. So, the first non-repeating character is b.  

How to find first non repeated character in a string using stream?

Scan the string, then save the number of characters in a hashmap. Get a character count for each character in String by traversing the Map. When we are reading a string from start to last, if any character's count is 1, return that character.

What is the program to find the first non repeated character in a word?

In Java, we may locate the first non-repeating character in a string using the indexOf() and lastIndexOf() methods.

public class Main {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
    
       String str ="abbbcccda";
       for(char i :str.toCharArray()){
       if ( str.indexOf(i) == str.lastIndexOf(i)) {
           System.out.println("First non-repeating character is: "+i);
           break;
       }
       }
   }
}

Conclusion

This blog discussed the various methods to find the first non-repeating character in a stream along with their implementation using data structures such as queue, array, hashmaps, and doubly-linked lists.

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