Leetcode 23. Merge k Sorted Lists (Hard) (cpp)

Leetcode 23. Merge k Sorted Lists (Hard) (cpp)

Tag: Divide and Conquer, Linked List, Heap

Difficulty: Hard

/*

23. Merge k Sorted Lists (Hard)

Merge k sorted linked lists and return it as one sorted list. Analyze and describe its complexity.

*/
/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Comp {
public:
    bool operator()(pair<ListNode*, int> p1, pair<ListNode*, int> p2) {
        return p1.first->val > p2.first->val;
    }
};
class Solution {
public:
    ListNode* mergeKLists(vector<ListNode*>& lists) {
        priority_queue<pair<ListNode*, int>, vector<pair<ListNode*, int>>, Comp> pq;
        ListNode *dummy = new ListNode(-1);
        ListNode *cur = dummy;
        for (int i = 0; i < lists.size();i++) {
            if (lists[i] != NULL) {
                pq.push(make_pair(lists[i], i));
            }
        }
        while (!pq.empty()) {
            pair<ListNode*, int> p = pq.top();
            pq.pop();
            cur->next = p.first;
            cur = cur->next;
            lists[p.second] = lists[p.second]->next;
            if (lists[p.second] != NULL) {
                pq.push(make_pair(lists[p.second], p.second));
            } 
        }
        return dummy->next;
    }
};