LeetCode 128: Longest Consecutive Sequence

Difficulty: 4

Frequency: 3

Problem:

Given an unsorted array of integers, find the length of the longest consecutive elements sequence.

For example,
Given [100, 4, 200, 1, 3, 2],
The longest consecutive elements sequence is [1, 2, 3, 4]. Return its length: 4.

Your algorithm should run in O(n) complexity.

Solution:

class Solution {
public:
    int longestConsecutive(vector<int> &num) {
        // Start typing your C/C++ solution below
        // DO NOT write int main() function
        set<int> numSet;
        for(int i = 0; i<num.size(); i++)
        {
            numSet.insert(num[i]);
        }
        int answer = 0;
        for(int i = 0; i<num.size()&&numSet.size()>answer; i++)
        {
            int i_count = 0;
            if (numSet.find(num[i])!=numSet.end())
            {
                ++i_count;
                int val = num[i];
                while(numSet.find(++val)!=numSet.end())
                {
                    ++i_count;
                    numSet.erase(val);
                }
                    
                
                val = num[i];
                while(numSet.find(--val)!=numSet.end())
                {
                    ++i_count;
                    numSet.erase(val);
                }
                answer = answer>i_count?answer:i_count;
            }
        }
        return answer;
    }
};

Notes:

This algorithm is really easy if you can think of hashmap. This is the beginning I learn how to use hashmap. Quoted from others blog:"When it concerning O(n) time with unsorted data, think about hashmap."