Checking string has balanced parentheses

Question

I am reading the Algorithm Design Manual Second Edition and this is from an exercise question. Quoting the question

A common problem for compilers and text editors is determining whether the parentheses in a string are balanced and properly nested. For example, the string ((())())() contains properly nested pairs of parentheses, which the strings )()( and ()) do not. Give an algorithm that returns true if a string contains properly nested and balanced parentheses, and false if otherwise. For full credit, identify the position of the first offending parenthesis if the string is not properly nested and balanced.

Question is under stacks,queues and lists category. Here is what I wrote in C#.

const char LeftParenthesis = '(';
const char RightParenthesis = ')';
bool AreParenthesesBalanced(string str, out int errorAt)
{
    var items = new Stack<int>(str.Length);
    errorAt = -1;
    for (int i = 0; i < str.Length; i++)
    {
        char c = str[i];
        if (c == LeftParenthesis)
            items.Push(i);
        else if (c == RightParenthesis)
        {
            if (items.Count == 0)
            {
                errorAt = i + 1;
                return false;
            }
            items.Pop();
        }
    }
    if (items.Count > 0)
    {
        errorAt = items.Peek() + 1;
        return false;
    }
    return true;
}

This works well. But I am not sure that this is the right method to approach this problem. Any better ideas are welcome.

Answer 1

I think this is the intention, but really you just need to decrement and increment a counter if you are only dealing with parenthesis. If you are dealing with the pairings of square brackets, angle brackets, curly braces or whatever character pairing you'd like to use, you'll need a stack like you have done.

You can also use a list, pulling the head element off and on, but really a stack is probably implemented as a list anyway --at least it is in ocaml.

Answer 2

    static public bool CheckForBalancedBracketing(string IncomingString)
    {
    /*******************************************************************
     * The easiest way to check for balanced bracketing is to start    *
     * counting left to right adding one for each opening bracket, '(' *
     * and subtracting 1 for every closing bracket, ')'.  At the end   *
     * the sum total should be zero and at no time should the count    *
     * fall below zero.                                                *
     *                                                                 *
     * Implementation:  The bracket counting variable is an unsigned   *
     * integer and we trap an overflow exception.  This happens if the *
     * unsigned variable ever goes negative.  This allows us to abort  *
     * at the very first imbalance rather than wasting time checking   *
     * the rest of the characters in the string.                       *
     *                                                                 *
     * At the end all we have to do is check to see if the count       *
     * is equal to zero for a "balanced" result.                       *
     *                                                                 *
     *******************************************************************/
        const char LeftParenthesis = '(';
        const char RightParenthesis = ')';
        uint BracketCount = 0;

        try
        {
            checked  // Turns on overflow checking.
            {
                for (int Index = 0; Index < IncomingString.Length; Index++)
                {
                    switch (IncomingString[Index])
                    {
                        case LeftParenthesis:
                            BracketCount++;
                            continue;
                        case RightParenthesis:
                            BracketCount--;
                            continue;
                        default:
                            continue;
                    }  // end of switch()

                }
            }
        }

        catch (OverflowException)
        {
            return false;
        }

        if (BracketCount == 0)
        {
            return true;
        }

        return false;

    }  // end of CheckForBalancedBracketing()