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the maximum n digit number possible in K steps

Can somebody help me with this problem?
Statement: - What is the maximum possible n digit number starting from 0 we can make in K steps
using only 2 operations:-
multiplying by 3 or incrementing by 2.
EXAMPLE :
N =2 K = 5;
-> (0->2->6->8->24->72) 72 IS THE ANSWER
N = 2 , K = 51 -> (0->2->6->8->10->30->32->96->98). 98 is the maximum we can get so need to check for rest of the moves.
My 2 state-recursive solution:-
public static void largestNDigitNumber(long[] highest, long maxValue, long k, long currentValue) {
if (highest[0] == (maxValue - 2)) return; //no need to do anything as we get 98 as highest.
if (k < 0) return; //checking for steps
if (highest[0] < currentValue && currentValue <= (maxValue - 2)) {
highest[0] = currentValue;
}
largestNDigitNumber(highest, maxValue, (k - 1), (currentValue * 3));
largestNDigitNumber(highest, maxValue, (k - 1), (currentValue + 2));
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 2;
long k = 51;
long maxValue = (long) Math.pow(10, n);
long[] highest = new long[1];
largestNDigitNumber(highest, maxValue, (k - 1), 2);
if (highest[0] < (long) Math.pow(10, (n - 1))) {
System.out.println("-1"); // if it is not possible to make n digit in given steps
} else System.out.println(highest[0]);
}
when "k" is small it is giving the correct answer but for bigger values of "k", it does not show any input. for n=2 and k = 51, it does not show anything.
please help me to improve this code

The question is equivalent to asking what is the largest base 3 number that is less than 10^n/2, and has digit sum plus length less than or equal to k+1. (The answer is then double the base 3 number).
For example, N=2 K=5. What's the largest base 3 number that's less than 50, with length plus digit sum less than or equal to 6. Answer: 1100 (36 decimal), so the answer to the original question is 36*2=72.
For N=2, K=51, the largest base-3 number that's less than 50 is 2001 (49 decimal) and has length sum plus digit sum = 7, which is way less than K+1.
Given this representation, it's easy to solve the problem in O(n) time (in fact, you can solve it using pencil and paper). The length d of the base-3 number is as large as possible such that 3^d < 10^n/2 and d<=K. Then fill in the digits of the number greedily from the most-significant first until you have digit sum K+1-d (or you run out of digits).
Equivalence
First note that without loss of generality you can assume you never have three +2 operations in a row, since that can be done more efficiently by inserting a single +2 operation to before the most recent *3 (or simply replacing it by +2 * 3 if there's no *3 operation). Suppose you have represented the current number as a doubled base-3 number. A +2 operation corresponds to adding 1 to the bottom digit (this never overflows into the next column thanks to the observation above). A *3 operation moves all the digits up one column, introducing a 0 as the bottom digit. Note that because the number is doubled, the +2 operation adds just 1 to the base-3 number!
From this, you can see that you can count the number of operations from observation of the doubled base-3 number. Because *3 introduces a new digit, and +2 increases the digit sum by 1, so the number of operations is equal to the number of digits plus 1, plus the digit sum.
As an example. Suppose you have the doubled base-3 number 2 * 2101, then this is equivalent to 2 * (1+3*3*(1+3*(1+1)))) = (2 + 3*3*(2+3*(2+2))).

I tried something like this. it seems to work fine.
getMaxNumber(2, 5) ==> 72
getMaxNumber(2, 51) ==> 98
private int getMaxNumber(int n, int k){
int N = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
N = N * 10 + 9;
}
int[] result = new int[1];
helper(N, k, 0, 0, result);
return result[0];
}
private void helper(int N, int K, int n, int k, int[] result){
if(n > N) return;
if(k <= K){
result[0] = Math.max(result[0], n);
}
if(n > 0)
helper(N, K, n * 3, k + 1, result);
helper(N, K, n + 2, k + 1, result);
}

Keeping with the style of your original recursive method. I modified it a bit to produce a working solution:
public static long largestNDigitNumber(int n, long currentK, long maxK, long currentValue) {
if (currentK > maxK || n < 1 || maxK < 1) return 0;
if (currentValue >= Math.pow(10, n))
return 0;
long c1 = largestNDigitNumber(n, currentK + 1, maxK, currentValue * 3);
long c2 = largestNDigitNumber(n, currentK + 1, maxK, currentValue + 2);
if (c1 == 0 && c2 == 0)
return currentValue;
return c1 > c2 ? c1 : c2;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 2;
long k = 51;
long largest = largestNDigitNumber(n, 0, k, 0);
System.out.println(largest); //98
}
This recursive method returns values here instead of using an array. Hence the check if one returned value is bigger than the other or they are both 0 before returning.

Both the +2 and *3 operations preserve odd/even parity, so starting from 0 we can only reach even numbers. We could start our search at the highest even number: 8, 98, 998, 9998 etc. and see what the shortest distance to 0 is.
If we are looking for the shortest distance, then there are less choices to make. If the current number is a multiple of 3 then there are two choices, either we divide by 3 or subtract 2. Otherwise the only choice is to subtract 2. I suspect that in the majority of cases, dividing by 3 is the better option, so that might be the first to try to keep the tree smaller.
If the minimum number of steps is less than K then as many divide by 3 operations as needed can be used to make the correct K
If the minimum number of steps is equal to K then the problem is solved.
If the minimum number of steps is more than K then you need to pick a lower starting number. Some even numbers will already have been covered as part of the initial calculation. You get those 'for free', provide you include a small amount of record keeping. You only need to examine large even numbers that were missed earlier due to a 'divide by 3' step.

Improve performance of string to binary number conversion

This is one of the questions that I faced in competitive programming.
Ques) You have an input String which is in binary format 11100 and you need to count number of steps in which number will be zero. If number is odd -> subtract it by 1, if even -> divide it by 2.
For example
28 -> 28/2
14 -> 14/2
7 -> 7-1
6 -> 6/2
3 -> 3-1
2 -> 2/2
1-> 1-1
0 -> STOP
Number of steps =7
I came up with the following solutions
public int solution(String S) {
// write your code in Java SE 8
String parsableString = cleanString(S);
int integer = Integer.parseInt(S, 2);
return stepCounter(integer);
}
private static String cleanString(String S){
int i = 0;
while (i < S.length() && S.charAt(i) == '0')
i++;
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(S);
sb.replace(0,i,"");
return sb.toString();
}
private static int stepCounter(int integer) {
int counter = 0;
while (integer > 0) {
if (integer == 0)
break;
else {
counter++;
if (integer % 2 == 0)
integer = integer / 2;
else
integer--;
}
}
return counter;
}
The solution to this question looks quite simple and straightforward, however the performance evaluation of this code got me a big ZERO. My initial impressions were that converting the string to int was a bottleneck but failed to find a better solution for this. Can anybody please point out to me the bottlenecks of this code and where it can be significantly improved ?

If a binary number is odd, the last (least significant) digit must be 1, so subtracting 1 is just changing the last digit from 1 to 0 (which, importantly, makes the number even).
If a binary number is even, the last digit must be 0, and dividing by zero can be accomplished by simply removing that last 0 entirely. (Just like in base ten, the number 10 can be divided by ten by taking away the last 0, leaving 1.)
So the number of steps is two steps for every 1 digit, and one step for every 0 digit -- minus 1, because when you get to the last 0, you don't divide by 2 any more, you just stop.
Here's a simple JavaScript (instead of Java) solution:
let n = '11100';
n.length + n.replace(/0/g, '').length - 1;
With just a little more work, this can deal with leading zeros '0011100' properly too, if that were needed.

Number of times you need to subtract is the number of one bits which is Integer.bitCount(). Number of times you need to divide is the position of most-significant bit which is Integer.SIZE (32, total number of bits in integer) minus Integer.numberOfLeadingZeros() minus one (you don't need to divide 1). For zero input I assume, the result should be zero. So we have
int numberOfOperations = integer == 0 ? 0 : Integer.bitCount(integer) +
Integer.SIZE - Integer.numberOfLeadingZeros(integer) - 1;

As per the given condition, we are dividing the number by 2 if it is even which is equivalent to remove the LSB, again if number is odd we are subtracting 1 and making it an even which is equivalent to unset the set bit (changing 1 to 0). Analyzing the above process we can say that the total number of steps required will be the sum of (number of bits i.e. (log2(n) +1)) and number of set bits - 1(last 0 need not to be removed).
C++ code:
result = __builtin_popcount(n) + log2(n) + 1 - 1;
result = __builtin_popcount(n) + log2(n);

Java find second-leading digit in int

I am working on a Java problem in which I need to check if the second-leading digit of an int (ex: the '2' in 123, or the '8' in 58347) of any size is a particular digit (such as a '2' or a '5'), and then assign true to a Boolean, if it is that digit. I am trying to do the modulo/divisor method, but I am not able to extract the second-leading digit if the number is large.
I searched Stack Overflow, and found a very similar question. However, the solution for that question works if the number is hard-coded as being two digits. I know there is a way by converting int to String, and I tried that method successfully, but I need to use int/modulo/division method. I tried doing (n%100)/10; but it got me second-to-last digit (ex: the '7' in 4562374), not second-after-first digit.
// n is a number such as 123, or 25, or 52856.
while (n > 0) {
int i=((n%10)/10);
if( (i==2)||(i==3) || (i==5)|| (i==7) )
{ secondDigit=true; }
else { secondDigit= false; } }
System.out.println(secondDigit);

Just keep dividing by 10 until the number is < 100 then do modulo 10, example:
class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 58347;
while (n >= 100) {
n /= 10;
}
System.out.println(n % 10); // prints 8
}
}

Not certain about the efficiency of this method, however its easy to read.
Integer.parseInt(String.valueOf(Math.abs(initial_value)).charAt(1)+"")
However, you have to ensure that the number has more than 1 digit.

Instead of repeatedly dividing the number you have until it's small enough for you to handle, how about finding out how big the number is so you only need to do a single division?
What I mean is that you should consider using logarithms to find out the magnitude of your number. Finding the base 10 logarithm of your number gets you its magnitude. For 100 the log_10 is 2, so you can do the following:
long magnitude = Math.log10(number);
long divisor = Math.pow(10, magnitude - 1);
long smallNumber = number / divisor;
int digit = smallNumber % 10;

sum of first and last digit in the integer

The method written in the below code needs to take integer and result sum of 1st digit and last digit in the integer.
NOTE: The reason i am asking this question though i got to know the correct solution is i need to understand why my code is not working also as that makes me a better programmer please help.
public class FirstLastDigitSum {
public static int sumFirstAndLastDigit(int number)//to add first and last
//digits of a given interger
{
int firstdigit=0;
int lastdigit=0;
if(number>=0 && number<=9)
{
return number+number;
}
else if(number>9)
{
lastdigit=number%10;
while(number>0)
{
number/=10;
if(number<=9 & number>=0){
firstdigit=number;
}
}
return firstdigit+lastdigit;
}
else
return -1;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println(sumFirstAndLastDigit(121));
}
}
In the above code if i keep number/=10 after if block like below
if(number<=9 & number>=0){
firstdigit=number;
}
number/=10;
then my code is giving proper results. like if i input 121 to the method as first digit is 1 and second digit is 1 it is summing both and giving me result 2. which is absolutely correct
But if keep number/=10 above the if block like below
number/=10;
if(number<=9 & number>=0){
firstdigit=number;
}
Then my code is not giving proper result it is giving only last number which is 1.
I am not at all understanding why this is happening can any one explain please.

Lets break this up into two parts. Get the last digit of the number, and getting the first digit of the number.
The first part of the problem is easy. Its exactly what you already have; just take modulo 10 of the number.
int lastdigit = number % 10;
The second part is a little trickier, but not too much. While the number is greater than 10 divide it by 10 (using integers you will have truncation for the remainder). One problem I see in your solution is that you keep checking the value even after a digit is discovered. That means if the value was 1234, you correctly find 1, but then overwrite it to 0 with an extra loop iteration
int firstdigit = number;
while (firstdigit >= 10) {
firstdigit /= 10;
}
And that's it, you are done. Just return the value.
return firstdigit + lastdigit;

If the number is less than 0 then return -1. Otherwise the last number can be found by modulus 10, and the first number found by dividing by 10 until that number is less than 10.
public static int sumFirstAndLastDigit(int number) {
if (number < 0) {
return -1;
}
int last = number % 10;
int first = number;
while (first >= 10) {
first = first / 10;
}
return first + last;
}

In this case:
while(number>0)
{
number/=10;
if(number<=9 & number>=0){
firstdigit=number;
}
}
Note that you change number after you check number > 0. That means that number can be 0 when reaches the if statement and if it is 0 it will be accepted as first digit because it satisfies the condition number<=9 & number>=0. As an example, when you test it with 121 you have this values for number 121, 12, 1 and 0. The last one satisfies the if statement and set first digit to 0.
In this case:
while(number>0)
{
if(number<=9 & number>=0){
firstdigit=number;
}
number/=10;
}
You change number before you check number > 0. That means that the if statement will never have a number = 0 and firstdigit will never be 0. As an example, when you test it with 121 you have this values for number 121, 12, and 1. The last one satisfies the if statement and set first digit to 1. After that you divide number by zero and it becomes 0 and it stop the while loop.

This is not a direct solution to your problem, but we can fairly easily handle this using regex and the base methods:
int number = 12345678;
String val = String.valueOf(number);
val = val.replaceAll("(?<=\\d)\\d+(?=\\d)", "");
number = Integer.parseInt(val);
int sum = number % 10 + number / 10;
System.out.println(sum);

Remove nth digit from an integer without converting to string

Say I have this integer in java, 987654321. I want to be able to remove, say the third and fourth digits, so I can get 9876521 in java.
I know I can do this by converting to a string, then taking a substring, but is there a way to do this without converting to a string?

% and / are your friends here! Using modulus and division we can get pieces of the number that we want.
We use modulus to eliminate the most significant digits, and division to eliminate the least significant digits. We can use division because the remainder gets truncated.
Then we put the two pieces we got from these two operations together. However, we need to shift the digits we got from the division to have room for the least significant digits.
Take 987654321 / 10000, this will give you 98765 (let's call this x)
Take 987654321 % 100, this will give you 21 (let's call this y)
x * 100 + y = 9876521.
More generally, if you want to remove a to bth digits from the number n (where a < b),
n % 10^(a-1) + ((n / 10^(b)) * 10^(a-1))

This will remove only one digit:
public static int RemoveNthPosition(int input, int position) {
int leftDivider = (int) Math.pow(10.0, position);
int rightDivider = (int) Math.pow(10.0, position - 1);
int leftSide = input / leftDivider;
int rightSide = input % rightDivider;
return leftSide * rightDivider + rightSide;
}
To remove multiple at the same time:
public static int RemoveMultiplePositions(int input, int[] positions) {
Arrays.sort(positions);
int result = input;
for (int count = 0; count < positions.length; count++) {
result = RemoveNthPosition(result, positions[count] - count);
}
return result;
}
In your case, it would be:
System.out.println(RemoveMultiplePositions(987654321, new int[] { 3, 4 }));