finding common prefix of array of strings

Question

I have an array like this:

$sports = array(
\'Softball - Counties\',
\'Softball - Eastern\',
\'Softball - North Harbour\',
\'Softball - South\',
\'Softball -         


        

Answer 1

    // Common prefix
    $common = '';

    $sports = array(
    'Softball T - Counties',
    'Softball T - Eastern',
    'Softball T - North Harbour',
    'Softball T - South',
    'Softball T - Western'
    );

    // find mini string
    $minLen = strlen($sports[0]);
    foreach ($sports as $s){
        if($minLen > strlen($s))
            $minLen = strlen($s);
    }


    // flag to break out of inner loop
    $flag = false;

    // The possible common string length does not exceed the minimum string length.
    // The following solution is O(n^2), this can be improve.
    for ($i = 0 ; $i < $minLen; $i++){
        $tmp = $sports[0][$i];

        foreach ($sports as $s){
            if($s[$i] != $tmp)
                $flag = true;
        }
        if($flag)
            break;
        else
            $common .= $sports[0][$i];
    }

    print $common;