How to compare a string with another where the one has space in between

Question

How do I compare these two string :

val a = \"fit bit versa\"
val b = \"fitbit\"

another example

val a = \"go pro hero 6\"
         


        

Answer 1

I think this is a solution to your problem.

def matchPattern(a: String, b: String): Boolean =
  a
    .split("\\s+")
    .tails
    .flatMap(_.inits)
    .exists(_.mkString("") == b)

This will check for any word or sequence of words in a that exactly matches the word in b. It will reject cases where b is embedded in a longer word or sequence of words.

The split call turns the string into a list of words.

The tails call returns all the possible trailing sub-sequences of a list, and inits returns all the leading sub-sequences. Combining the two generates all possible sub-sequences of the original list.

The exist call joins the words together and compares them with the test word.

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Note that tails and inits are lazy, so they will generate each solution to be tested in turn, and stop as soon as a solution is found. This is in contrast to the solutions using sliding which create every possible combination before checking any of them.