Short Encoding of Words

A valid encoding of an array of words is any reference string s and an array of indices indices such that:

1.words.length == indices.length

2.The reference string s ends with the '#' character.

3.For each index indices[i], the substring of s starting from indices[i] and up to (but not including) the next '#' character is equal to words[i].

Given an array of words, return the length of the shortest reference string s possible of any valid encoding of words.

Example :

Input: words = ["time", "me", "bell"]
Output: 10
Explanation: A valid encoding would be s = "time#bell#" and indices = [0, 2, 5].
words[0] = "time", the substring of s starting from indices[0] = 0 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"
words[1] = "me", the substring of s starting from indices[1] = 2 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"
words[2] = "bell", the substring of s starting from indices[2] = 5 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"

Approach:

C++

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

bool static compare(string &a, string &b)
{
    return a.length() > b.length();
}
int minimumLengthEncoding(vector<string> &words)
{

    sort(words.begin(), words.end(), compare);
    string res = "";
    res = res + words[0] + "#";

    for (int i = 1; i < words.size(); i++)
    {

        int pos = res.find(words[i] + "#");
        if (pos != -1)
            continue;
        else
            res += words[i] + "#";
    }

    return res.length();
}

int main()
{
    vector<string> words = {"time", "me", "bell"};

    cout << minimumLengthEncoding(words);

    return 0;
}