[leetcode] 287. Find the Duplicate Number

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Given an arraynums containingn + 1 integers where each integer is between 1 and n (inclusive), prove that at least one duplicate number must exist. Assume that there is only one duplicate number, find the duplicate one.

Note:

1. Youmust not modify the array (assume the array is read only).

2. You must use only constant,O(1) extra space.

3. Your runtime complexity should be less thanO(n2).

4. There is only one duplicate number in the array, but it could be repeated more than once.

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这道题要找出特定数组中重复出现的元素，要求空间复杂度O(1)，因此不能用HashTable，同时要求时间复杂度低于O(n2)，所以也不能用两层循环暴力比对，题目难度为Hard。

思考很久始终没想到合适的办法，查看别人的做法后恍然大悟，由于数组元素的特殊性，可以采用快慢指针的方法解决（能否想到这里是关键！！）。关于快慢指针请查看第141和142题的解释。

数组中元素在1和n之间，因此遍历数组时可以拿当前元素的数值作为下一元素的下标，这样就把数组串联起来形成了一个链表。由于存在重复元素，所以链表中必定存在回环，重复元素就是回环的入口，这就把问题转化成了第142题。看到这里，大家应该不难解决这道题了。具体代码：

class Solution {
public:
    int findDuplicate(vector<int>& nums) {
        if(nums.size() < 1) return 0;
        
        int fast = 0, slow = 0;

        do {
            slow = nums[slow];
            fast = nums[nums[fast]];
        } while(slow != fast);

        fast = 0;
        do {
            slow = nums[slow];
            fast = nums[fast];
        } while(slow != fast);
        
        return slow;
    }
};