String Manipulation String Hash Map Counting Character Pattern Matching
Learner Level

Implement the validAnagramCheck method that checks whether two strings are anagrams.

The input contains two strings, first and second. Your task is to check whether both strings are anagrams of each other.

Two strings are anagrams when they contain exactly the same characters with the same frequency, but the order may be different. For example, listen and silent are anagrams.

Example 1
Input:
first (string) = listen
second (string) = silent
Return:
(boolean) true
Example 2
Input:
first (string) = anagram
second (string) = nagaram
Return:
(boolean) true
Example 3
Input:
first (string) = rat
second (string) = car
Return:
(boolean) false

First compare the lengths. If the lengths are different, the strings cannot be anagrams.

Then count how many times each character appears in the first string. While scanning the second string, reduce the matching character count.

If any count becomes negative or a character is missing, the strings are not anagrams. If all counts balance to zero, they are valid anagrams.

Pseudocode:

function validAnagramCheck(first, second):
    if length(first) != length(second):
        return false
    counts = empty map
    for each character in first:
        counts[character]++
    for each character in second:
        if character does not exist in counts or counts[character] == 0:
            return false
        counts[character]--
    return true
Run your code to see the result.