You are given a string s, where every two consecutive vertical bars '|' are grouped int
o a pair. In other words, the 1st and 2nd '|' make a pair, the 3rd and 4th '|' make a pair, and so forth.
Return the number of '*' in s, excluding the '*' between each pair of '|'.
Note that each '|' will belong to exactly one pair.
Example 1:
Input: s = "l|*e*et|c**o|*de|"
Output: 2
Explanation: The considered characters are underlined: "l|*e*et|c**o|*de|".
The characters between the first and second '|' are excluded from the answer.
Also, the characters between the third and fourth '|' are excluded from the answer.
There are 2 asterisks considered. Therefore, we return 2.Example 2:
Input: s = "iamprogrammer"
Output: 0
Explanation: In this example, there are no asterisks in s. Therefore, we return 0.
Example 3:
Input: s = "yo|uar|e**|b|e***au|tifu|l"
Output: 5
Explanation: The considered characters are underlined: "yo|uar|e**|b|e***au|tifu|l". There are 5 asterisks considered. Therefore, we return 5.
Constraints:
1 <= s.length <= 1000sconsists of lowercase English letters, vertical bars'|', and asterisks'*'.scontains an even number of vertical bars'|'.
C++ Code :
int countAsterisks(string s) {
int res = 0, sign = 1;
for (char& c : s)
if ((sign ^= c == '|') && c == '*')
res++;
return res;
}

