First Position of Target

For a given sorted array (ascending order) and a target number, find the first index of this number in O(log n) time complexity.

If the target number does not exist in the array, return -1.

Have you met this question in a real interview? 

Yes

Example

If the array is [1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 10], for given target 3, return 2.

这是一道二分搜索的题。跟一般的二分搜索的区别在于对于target == nums[mid]的情况，不会直接返回，而是继续执行，直到low，high重合。如果targe == nums[mid]， 那么为了找下边界，所以要使high变低，low不变，这样能进一步缩小，从而找到目标值的下边界。

代码：

public int binarySearch(int[] nums, int target) {
        //write your code here
        if(nums == null || nums.length == 0) return -1;
        int low = 0;
        int high = nums.length-1;
        
        while(low<high){
            int mid = low +(high - low)/2;
            if(nums[mid] > target){
                high = mid -1;
            }else if(nums[mid] < target){
                low = mid +1;
            }else{
                high = mid;
            }
        }
        return nums[low] == target?low:-1;
    }