43. Multiply Strings

Given two non-negative integers num1 and num2 represented as strings, return the product of num1 and num2.

Note:

1. The length of both num1 and num2 is < 110.
2. Both num1 and num2 contains only digits 0-9.
3. Both num1 and num2 does not contain any leading zero.
4. You must not use any built-in BigInteger library or convert the inputs to integer directly.

Analysis

link: https://leetcode.com/problems/multiply-strings/discuss/17605/Easiest-JAVA-Solution-with-Graph-Explanation

The product of two numbers cannot exceed the sum of the two lengths. (e.g. 99 * 99 cannot be five digit)

Solution from Forum

public String multiply(String num1, String num2) {
    int m = num1.length(), n = num2.length();
    int[] pos = new int[m + n];

    for(int i = m - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        for(int j = n - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
            int mul = (num1.charAt(i) - '0') * (num2.charAt(j) - '0'); 
            int p1 = i + j, p2 = i + j + 1;
            int sum = mul + pos[p2];

            pos[p1] += sum / 10;
            pos[p2] = (sum) % 10;
        }
    }  

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(int p : pos) if(!(sb.length() == 0 && p == 0)) sb.append(p);
    return sb.length() == 0 ? "0" : sb.toString();
}