Bit field

Pangram
Pangram in Rust 
const A_LCASE: u8 = 97;
const A_UCASE: u8 = 65;
const ALL_26_BITS_SET: u32 = 67108863;

pub fn is_pangram(sentence: &str) -> bool {
    let mut letter_flags = 0;

    for letter in sentence.chars() {
        if letter >= 'a' && letter <= 'z' {
            letter_flags |= 1 << (letter as u8 - A_LCASE);
        } else if letter >= 'A' && letter <= 'Z' {
            letter_flags |= 1 << (letter as u8 - A_UCASE);
        }
    }
    letter_flags == ALL_26_BITS_SET
}

This solution uses the ASCII value of the letter to set the corresponding bit position. First, some const values are set. These values will be used for readability in the body of the is_pangram function. The ASCII value for a is 97. The ASCII value for A is 65. The value for all of the rightmost 26 bits being set in a u32 is 67108863.

  • The for loop loops through the chars of sentence. We don't iterate by bytes because, as of this writing, some tests may include multi-byte characters in sentence.
  • Each letter is tested for being a through z or A through Z.
  • If the lower-cased letter is subtracted by a, then a will result in 0, because 97 minus 97 equals 0. z would result in 25, because 122 minus 97 equals 25. So a would have 1 shifted left 0 places (so not shifted at all) and z would have 1 shifted left 25 places.
  • If the upper-cased letter is subtracted by A, then A will result in 0, because 65 minus 65 equals 0. Z would result in 25, because 90 minus 65 equals 25. So A would have 1 shifted left 0 places (so not shifted at all) and Z would have 1 shifted left 25 places.

In that way, both a lower-cased z and an upper-cased Z can share the same position in the bit field.

So, for an unsigned thirty-two bit integer, if the values for a and Z were both set, the bits would look like

      zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
00000010000000000000000000000001

We can use the bitwise OR operator to set the bit. After the loop completes, the function returns true if the letter_flags value is the same value as when all of the rightmost 26 bits are set, which is 67108863.

This approach is relatively very fast compared with other approaches.

6th Nov 2024 · Found it useful?

Other Approaches to Pangram in Rust

Other ways our community solved this exercise
pub fn is_pangram_all_contains(sentence: &str) -> bool {
    let sentence_lowered = sentence.to_lowercase();
    ('a'..='z').all(|ltr| sentence_lowered.contains(ltr))
}
all with contains on lower case

Use all with contains on lowercased letters. 

use std::collections::HashSet;

pub fn is_pangram(sentence: &str) -> bool {
    let all: HashSet<char> = HashSet::from_iter("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".chars());
    let used: HashSet<char> = HashSet::from_iter(sentence.to_lowercase().chars());
    all.is_subset(&used)
}
HashSet with is_subset

Use HashSet with is_subset. 

sentence
    .to_lowercase()
    .chars()
    .filter(|c| c.is_ascii_alphabetic())
    .collect::<HashSet<char>>()
    .len()
    == 26
HashSet with len

Use HashSet with len.