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index_of

Language/Type: PHP recursion string return

Write a recursive function named index_of that accepts two Strings $s1 and $s2 as parameters and that returns the starting index of the first occurrence of the second String $s2 inside the first String $s1, or -1 if $s2 is not found in $s1. The table below shows several calls to your function and their expected return values. If $s2 is the empty String, always return 0 regardless of the contents of $s1. If $s2 is longer than $s1, it of course cannot be contained in $s1 and therefore your function would return -1 in such a case. Notice that case matters; the last example returns -1.

Call Value Returned
index_of("Barack Obama", "Bar") 0
index_of("foo", "foo") 0
index_of("Stanford CS", "ford") 4
index_of("Barack Obama", "ack") 3
index_of("Barack Obama", "a") 1
index_of("sandwich", "") 0
index_of("Barack Obama", "McCain") -1
index_of("Barack Obama", "ACK") -1

Constraints:

  • Do not declare any global variables.
  • Do not use any loops; you must use recursion.
  • Do not use any auxiliary data structures (e.g. arrays) to this problem.
  • You can declare as many primitive variables (e.g. integers) as you like.
  • You are allowed to define other "helper" functions if you like; they are subject to these same constraints.
Function: Write a PHP function as described, not a complete program.

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