628. Maximum Product of Three Numbers

628. Maximum Product of Three Numbers

Problem

Given an integer array, find three numbers whose product is maximum and output the maximum product.

Example 1:

Input: [1,2,3]
Output: 6

Example 2:

Input: [1,2,3,4]
Output: 24

Note:
The length of the given array will be in range [3,104] and all elements are in the range [-1000, 1000].
Multiplication of any three numbers in the input won’t exceed the range of 32-bit signed integer.

Implementation

class Solution {
public:
    int maximumProduct(vector<int>& nums) {
        int res = 0;
        int len = nums.size();

        if(len < 3) 
            return res;
        else if(len == 3)
            return nums[0]*nums[1]*nums[2];

        res = INT_MIN;

        sort(nums.begin(), nums.end());

        int num_neg = 0;
        int num_pos = 0;
        bool has_zero = false;

        for(int idx = 0; idx < len; idx++) {
            if(nums[idx] < 0) { 
                num_neg++;
            }    
            else if(nums[idx] > 0) {
                num_pos = len - idx;
                break;
            }    
            else {
                has_zero = true;
            }
        }

        int choice1 = nums[len-1]*nums[len-2]*nums[len-3];
        int choice2 = nums[0]*nums[1];

        if(!num_neg || num_neg == 1) {
            return choice1;
        }    
        else {
            return choice2*nums[len-1] > choice1?choice2*nums[len-1]:choice1;
        }
        // The above can be simplified with  
        // choice2*nums[len-1] > choice1?choice2*nums[len-1]:choice1;

        /* Brute force will cause time exceed
        for(int idx1 = 0; idx1 < len - 2; idx1++) {
            for(int idx2 = idx1 + 1; idx2 < len - 1; idx2++) {
                int inter1 = nums[idx1]*nums[idx2];
                for(int idx3 = idx2 + 1; idx3 < len; idx3++) {
                    int tmp = inter1*nums[idx3];
                    if(tmp > res)   
                        res = tmp;  
                }
            }
        }
        */

        return res;
    }
};