(Java)LeetCode-27. Remove Element

Given an array and a value, remove all instances of that value in place and return the new length.

Do not allocate extra space for another array, you must do this in place with constant memory.

The order of elements can be changed. It doesn't matter what you leave beyond the new length.

Example:
Given input array nums = [3,2,2,3], val = 3

Your function should return length = 2, with the first two elements of nums being 2.

Hint:

1. Try two pointers.
2. Did you use the property of "the order of elements can be changed"?
3. What happens when the elements to remove are rare?

这道题我总共想了几种思路，首先看到顺序可以变，于是我想干脆排个序吧，这样复杂度为O（NlgN)，我感觉这样太无趣了，然后就是考虑到用两个指针，跟上一题很像的思路，依次往前移动数字剔除掉相同的数，这样复杂度为O（N），不过需要移动数字的次数也几乎是N，后来我突然想到（哎，这种问题就是想到了就知道是最优的，想不到就是想不到），可以一个指针从前往后依次指向那个要被剔除的数字，一个指针从后往前依次指向和那个要被剔除的数字不同的数字，然后交换，这样时间复杂度一样，移动数字的次数为需要剔除的数的一个子集。代码如下：

public int removeElement(int[] nums, int val) {
		int left = 0;
		int right = nums.length-1;
		int length = nums.length;
		while(true){
			while(left <= nums.length-1 && nums[left] != val){
				left++;
			}
			while(right >=0 &&nums[right] == val ){
				right--;
				length--;
			}
			if(left < right){
				nums[left++] = nums[right--];
				length --;
			}else{
				break;
			}
		}
		return length;
    }