package leetcode func findLadders(beginWord string, endWord string, wordList []string) [][]string { result, wordMap := make([][]string, 0), make(map[string]bool) for _, w := range wordList { wordMap[w] = true } if !wordMap[endWord] { return result } // create a queue, track the path queue := make([][]string, 0) queue = append(queue, []string{beginWord}) // queueLen is used to track how many slices in queue are in the same level // if found a result, I still need to finish checking current level cause I need to return all possible paths queueLen := 1 // use to track strings that this level has visited // when queueLen == 0, remove levelMap keys in wordMap levelMap := make(map[string]bool) for len(queue) > 0 { path := queue[0] queue = queue[1:] lastWord := path[len(path)-1] for i := 0; i < len(lastWord); i++ { for c := 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++ { nextWord := lastWord[:i] + string(c) + lastWord[i+1:] if nextWord == endWord { path = append(path, endWord) result = append(result, path) continue } if wordMap[nextWord] { // different from word ladder, don't remove the word from wordMap immediately // same level could reuse the key. // delete from wordMap only when currently level is done. levelMap[nextWord] = true newPath := make([]string, len(path)) copy(newPath, path) newPath = append(newPath, nextWord) queue = append(queue, newPath) } } } queueLen-- // if queueLen is 0, means finish traversing current level. if result is not empty, return result if queueLen == 0 { if len(result) > 0 { return result } for k := range levelMap { delete(wordMap, k) } // clear levelMap levelMap = make(map[string]bool) queueLen = len(queue) } } return result }