010--Regular Expression Matching.md

Given an input string (s) and a pattern (p), implement regular expression matching with support for '.' and '*'.

'.' Matches any single character.
'*' Matches zero or more of the preceding element.
The matching should cover the entire input string (not partial).

Note:

s could be empty and contains only lowercase letters a-z.
p could be empty and contains only lowercase letters a-z, and characters like . or *.
Example 1:

Input:
s = "aa"
p = "a"
Output: false
Explanation: "a" does not match the entire string "aa".
Example 2:

Input:
s = "aa"
p = "a*"
Output: true
Explanation: '*' means zero or more of the precedeng element, 'a'. Therefore, by repeating 'a' once, it becomes "aa".
Example 3:

Input:
s = "ab"
p = ".*"
Output: true
Explanation: ".*" means "zero or more (*) of any character (.)".
Example 4:

Input:
s = "aab"
p = "c*a*b"
Output: true
Explanation: c can be repeated 0 times, a can be repeated 1 time. Therefore it matches "aab".
Example 5:

Input:
s = "mississippi"
p = "mis*is*p*."
Output: false

class Solution(object):
    def isMatch(self, s, p):
        """
        :type s: str
        :type p: str
        :rtype: bool
        """
        
        if not p:
            return not s
        first_match = bool(s) and p[0] in {s[0], '.'}
        
        if len(p) >= 2 and p[1] == '*':
            return self.isMatch(s, p[2:]) or first_match and self.isMatch(s[1:], p)
        else:
            return first_match and self.isMatch(s[1:], p[1:])

class Solution(object):
    def isMatch(self, s, p):
        """
        :type s: str
        :type p: str
        :rtype: bool
        """
       
        # The DP table and the string s and p use the same indexes i and j, but
        # table[i][j] means the match status between p[:i] and s[:j], i.e.
        # table[0][0] means the match status of two empty strings, and
        # table[1][1] means the match status of p[0] and s[0]. Therefore, when
        # refering to the i-th and the j-th characters of p and s for updating
        # table[i][j], we use p[i - 1] and s[j - 1].

        # Initialize the table with False. The first row is satisfied.
        table = [[False] * (len(s) + 1) for _ in range(len(p) + 1)]

        # Update the corner case of matching two empty strings.
        table[0][0] = True

        # Update the corner case of when s is an empty string but p is not.
        # Since each '*' can eliminate the charter before it, the table is
        # vertically updated by the one before previous. [test_symbol_0]
        for i in range(2, len(p) + 1):
            table[i][0] = table[i - 2][0] and p[i - 1] == '*'

        for i in range(1, len(p) + 1):
            for j in range(1, len(s) + 1):
                if p[i - 1] != "*":
                    # Update the table by referring the diagonal element.
                    table[i][j] = table[i - 1][j - 1] and \
                                  (p[i - 1] == s[j - 1] or p[i - 1] == '.')
                else:
                    # Eliminations (referring to the vertical element)
                    # Either refer to the one before previous or the previous.
                    # I.e. * eliminate the previous or count the previous.
                    # [test_symbol_1]
                    table[i][j] = table[i - 2][j] or table[i - 1][j]

                    # Propagations (referring to the horizontal element)
                    # If p's previous one is equal to the current s, with
                    # helps of *, the status can be propagated from the left.
                    # [test_symbol_2]
                    if p[i - 2] == s[j - 1] or p[i - 2] == '.':
                        table[i][j] |= table[i][j - 1]

        return table[-1][-1]