Convert Date to Binary - Practice Coding Problems

Convert Date to Binary - Problem

Math String Easy

You are given a string date representing a Gregorian calendar date in the yyyy-mm-dd format.

date can be written in its binary representation obtained by converting year, month, and day to their binary representations without any leading zeroes and writing them down in year-month-day format.

Return the binary representation of date.

Input & Output

Example 1 — Standard Date

$ Input: date = "2019-06-10"

› Output: "11111100011-110-1010"

💡 Note: 2019 in binary is 11111100011, 06 in binary is 110, 10 in binary is 1010. Join with dashes: 11111100011-110-1010

Example 2 — Early Year

$ Input: date = "1900-01-01"

› Output: "11101101100-1-1"

💡 Note: 1900 in binary is 11101101100, 01 in binary is 1, 01 in binary is 1. Result: 11101101100-1-1

Example 3 — Large Numbers

$ Input: date = "2000-12-31"

› Output: "11111010000-1100-11111"

💡 Note: 2000 in binary is 11111010000, 12 in binary is 1100, 31 in binary is 11111. Result: 11111010000-1100-11111

Constraints

date.length == 10
date[4] == date[7] == '-'
All other characters in date are digits
date represents a valid Gregorian calendar date between 1000-01-01 and 9999-12-31

Visualization

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Understanding the Visualization

Input

Date string in yyyy-mm-dd format: '2019-06-10'

Process

Convert each component (year, month, day) to binary

Output

Binary representation with dashes: '11111100011-110-1010'

Key Takeaway

🎯 Key Insight: Split date components and convert each number to binary without leading zeros

Asked in

G Google 15 M Microsoft 12 a Amazon 8

The key insight is to split the date into components and convert each integer to binary representation. Best approach uses built-in binary conversion functions. Time: O(log n), Space: O(1)

Common Approaches

Approach	Time	Space	Notes
✓ Manual Binary Conversion	O(log n)	O(1)	Manually parse date parts and convert to binary using division by 2
Built-in Binary Conversion	O(log n)	O(1)	Use built-in integer parsing and binary conversion functions

Manual Binary Conversion — Algorithm Steps

Split date by '-' to get year, month, day
For each number, repeatedly divide by 2 and collect remainders
Reverse remainders to get binary representation
Join with dashes

Visualization

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Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Parse Date

Split '2019-06-10' into year=2019, month=6, day=10

Convert Each Part

Convert 2019→binary, 6→binary, 10→binary using division by 2

Join Result

Combine binary parts with dashes: '11111100011-110-1010'

Code -

solution.c — C

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

void toBinary(int num, char* result) {
    if (num == 0) {
        strcpy(result, "0");
        return;
    }
    
    char temp[32];
    int i = 0;
    
    while (num > 0) {
        temp[i++] = '0' + (num % 2);
        num /= 2;
    }
    
    int j = 0;
    for (int k = i - 1; k >= 0; k--) {
        result[j++] = temp[k];
    }
    result[j] = '\0';
}

char* solution(char* date) {
    static char result[100];
    char* token;
    char* dateCopy = strdup(date);
    
    token = strtok(dateCopy, "-");
    int year = atoi(token);
    token = strtok(NULL, "-");
    int month = atoi(token);
    token = strtok(NULL, "-");
    int day = atoi(token);
    
    char yearBin[32], monthBin[32], dayBin[32];
    toBinary(year, yearBin);
    toBinary(month, monthBin);
    toBinary(day, dayBin);
    
    sprintf(result, "%s-%s-%s", yearBin, monthBin, dayBin);
    free(dateCopy);
    return result;
}

int main() {
    char date[20];
    fgets(date, sizeof(date), stdin);
    date[strcspn(date, "\n")] = 0;
    
    char* result = solution(date);
    printf("%s\n", result);
    return 0;
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time Complexity

⏱️

O(log n)

Converting each number to binary takes O(log n) where n is the number value

⚡ Linearithmic

Space Complexity

O(1)

Only using variables to store intermediate results

✓ Linear Space

12.4K Views

Medium Frequency

~8 min Avg. Time

543 Likes

Ln 1, Col 1

Smart Actions

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Input & Output

Constraints

Visualization

Related Problems

Common Approaches

Manual Binary Conversion — Algorithm Steps

Visualization

Code -

Time & Space Complexity

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