Leetcode日练笔记33 [linked list专题] #21 #2 Merge Two Sorted Lists & Add Two Numbers

#21 Merge Two Sorted Lists

You are given the heads of two sorted linked lists list1 and list2.

Merge the two lists in a one sorted list. The list should be made by splicing together the nodes of the first two lists.

Return the head of the merged linked list.

解题思路：

分两种，一个是iterative的，另外一个是recursive的。后者的time 和 space complexity都是O(m+n)。前者time complexity是O(m+n)，space complexity是O(1)【这里暂时不明白】。

iterative的方法是先排除两个list没有节点的情况，然后比较两个list排头的val大小，小的放入新的list中，然后继续比较后续的节点，直到其中一个list没有节点为止，就把另外一个list剩下的节点接在新list的后面。新的list操作时需要两个pointers，一个是记录整个list，head。另外一个是接最小值用的，tail。

# rule out the possibility of either list1 or list2 is None
        if not list1:
            if not list2:
                return None
            else:
                return list2
        else:
            if not list2:
                return list1
        
        # create a new linked list
        head = ListNode(0)
        
        # attach the smallest nodes from two linked lists to the new one
        while list1 and list2:
            if list1.val <= list2.val:
                # the first node attached to head
                if not head.next:
                    head.next = list1