Create a new string that will consist of common letters from other two strings

Question

I'm new to C programming. I have a task to do. User inputs two strings. What I need to do is to create a new string that will consist only from common letters of those two given strings. For example: if given:

str1 = "ABCDZ"
str2 = "ADXYZ"

the new string will look like: "ADZ". I can't make it work. I think there must be a better (more simple) algorithm but I have waisted too much time for this one so I want to complete it .. need your help!

what I've done so far is this:

char* commonChars (char* str1, char* str2)
{
    char *ptr, *qtr, *arr, *tmp, *ch1, *ch2;
    int counter = 1;
    ch1 = str1;
    ch2 = str2;
    arr = (char*) malloc ((strlen(str1)+strlen(str2)+1)*(sizeof(char))); //creating dynamic array
    strcpy(arr, str1);
    strcat(arr,str2);
    for (ptr = arr; ptr < arr + strlen(arr); ptr++)
    {
        for (qtr = arr; qtr < arr + strlen(arr); qtr++) // count for each char how many times is appears
        {
            if (*qtr == *ptr && qtr != ptr)
            {
                counter++;
                tmp = qtr;
            }
        }
        if (counter > 1)
        {
            for (qtr = tmp; *qtr; qtr++) //removing duplicate characters
                *(qtr) = *(qtr+1);
        }
        counter = 1;
    }
    sortArray(arr, strlen(arr)); // sorting the string in alphabetical order
    qtr = arr;
    for (ptr = arr; ptr < arr + strlen(arr); ptr++, ch1++, ch2++) //checking if a letter appears in both strings and if at least one of them doesn't contain this letter -  remove it
    {
        for (qtr = ptr; *qtr; qtr++)
        {
            if (*qtr != *ch1 || *qtr != *ch2)
                *qtr = *(qtr+1);
        }
    }
}

Don't know how to finish this code .. i would be thankful for any suggestion!

Answer 1

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#define min(x,y) ((x)<(y)? (x) : (y))

char* commonChars (const char *str1, const char *str2){
    //str1, str2 : sorted(asc) and unique
    char *ret, *p;
    int len1, len2;
    len1=strlen(str1);
    len2=strlen(str2);
    ret = p = malloc((min(len1, len2)+1)*sizeof(char));

    while(*str1 && *str2){
        if(*str1 < *str2){
            ++str1;
            continue;
        }
        if(*str1 > *str2){
            ++str2;
            continue;
        }
        *p++ = *str1++;
        ++str2;
    }
    *p ='\0';

    return ret;
}

char *deleteChars(const char *str, const char *dellist){
    //str, dellist : sorted(asc) and unique
    char *ret, *p;
    ret = p = malloc((strlen(str)+1)*sizeof(char));

    while(*str && *dellist){
        if(*str < *dellist){
            *p++=*str++;
            continue;
        }
        if(*str > *dellist){
            ++dellist;
            continue;
        }
        ++str;
        ++dellist;
    }
    if(!*dellist)
        while(*str)
            *p++=*str++;
    *p ='\0';

    return ret;
}

int main(void){
    const char *str1 = "ABCDXYZ";
    const char *str2 = "ABCDZ";
    const char *str3 = "ADXYZ";
    char *common2and3;
    char *withoutcommon;

    common2and3 = commonChars(str2, str3);
    //printf("%s\n", common2and3);//ADZ
    withoutcommon = deleteChars(str1, common2and3);
    printf("%s\n", withoutcommon);//BCXY

    free(common2and3);
    free(withoutcommon);
    return 0;
}