String Merging Algorithm

Initialization

• Initialize an empty string ret to store the merged result.
• Determine the lengths of input strings word1 and word2 and store them in length1 and length2.
• Initialize two indexes, i and j, both set to zero, to track the current position in word1 and word2.

Merging Alternately

• Use a while loop to merge characters from word1 and word2 alternately.
• The loop runs as long as there are characters left in both strings.
• Append the current character from word1 to ret and increment the index i.
• Append the current character from word2 to ret and increment the index j.
• This process adds one character from each string alternately to the result string ret.

Handling Remaining Characters

• After the first while loop, one of the strings might still have remaining characters if it is longer than the other.
• Use two additional while loops to append the remaining characters to ret.
• The first while loop appends remaining characters from word1 to ret, incrementing the index i each time.
• The second while loop appends remaining characters from word2 to ret, incrementing the index j each time.

Returning the Result

• After all characters from both strings have been merged and any remaining characters have been appended, return the merged string ret.
• The resulting string ret contains characters from word1 and word2 in an alternating order, with any extra characters from the longer string appended at the end.

Example Walkthroughs

• Example 1: Merging "abc" and "pqr" results in "apbqcr".
• Example 2: Merging "ab" and "pqrs" results in "apbqrs".
• Example 3: Merging "abcd" and "pq" results in "apbqcd".

Initialization

• Initialize an empty string ret to store the merged result.
• Determine the lengths of input strings word1 and word2 and store them in length1 and length2.
• Initialize two indexes, i and j, both set to zero, to track the current position in word1 and word2.

Merging Alternately

• Use a while loop to merge characters from word1 and word2 alternately.
• The loop runs as long as there are characters left in both strings.
• Append the current character from word1 to ret and increment the index i.
• Append the current character from word2 to ret and increment the index j.
• This process adds one character from each string alternately to the result string ret.

Handling Remaining Characters

• After the first while loop, one of the strings might still have remaining characters if it is longer than the other.
• Use two additional while loops to append the remaining characters to ret.
• The first while loop appends remaining characters from word1 to ret, incrementing the index i each time.
• The second while loop appends remaining characters from word2 to ret, incrementing the index j each time.

Returning the Result

• After all characters from both strings have been merged and any remaining characters have been appended, return the merged string ret.
• The resulting string ret contains characters from word1 and word2 in an alternating order, with any extra characters from the longer string appended at the end.

Example Walkthroughs

• Example 1: Merging "abc" and "pqr" results in "apbqcr".
• Example 2: Merging "ab" and "pqrs" results in "apbqrs".
• Example 3: Merging "abcd" and "pq" results in "apbqcd".

This is a quiz on a string merging algorithm, where two input strings are merged alternately. Understand the step-by-step process of this algorithm.