#880
Medium Algorithms Decoded string at index
String Stack
37.3% acceptance
Feb 22, 2026
2611
366
You are given an encoded string s. To decode the string to a tape, the encoded string is read one character at a time and the following steps are taken:
If the character read is a letter, that letter is written onto the tape.
If the character read is a digit d, the entire current tape is repeatedly written d - 1 more times in total.
Given an integer k, return the kth letter (1-indexed) in the decoded string.
Solution
Rust
Time O(n)
Space O(1)
/*
* You are given an encoded string s. To decode the string to a tape, the encoded string is read one character at a time and the following steps are taken:
* If the character read is a letter, that letter is written onto the tape.
* If the character read is a digit d, the entire current tape is repeatedly written d - 1 more times in total.
* Given an integer k, return the kth letter (1-indexed) in the decoded string.
* Example 1:
* Input: s = "leet2code3", k = 10
* Output: "o"
* Explanation: The decoded string is "leetleetcodeleetleetcodeleetleetcode".
* The 10th letter in the string is "o".
* Example 2:
* Input: s = "ha22", k = 5
* Output: "h"
* Explanation: The decoded string is "hahahaha".
* The 5th letter is "h".
* Example 3:
* Input: s = "a2345678999999999999999", k = 1
* Output: "a"
* Explanation: The decoded string is "a" repeated 8301530446056247680 times.
* The 1st letter is "a".
* Constraints:
* 2 <= s.length <= 100
* s consists of lowercase English letters and digits 2 through 9.
* s starts with a letter.
* 1 <= k <= 109
* It is guaranteed that k is less than or equal to the length of the decoded string.
* The decoded string is guaranteed to have less than 263 letters.
*/
impl Solution {
pub fn decode_at_index(s: String, k: i32) -> String {
let mut size = 0i64;
let bytes = s.as_bytes();
for &c in bytes {
if c.is_ascii_digit() { size *= (c - b'0') as i64; }
else { size += 1; }
}
let mut k = k as i64;
for &c in bytes.iter().rev() {
k %= size;
if k == 0 && c.is_ascii_alphabetic() { return (c as char).to_string(); }
if c.is_ascii_digit() { size /= (c - b'0') as i64; }
else { size -= 1; }
}
unreachable!()
}
}