leetcode question 34：Search for a Range

问题：

Given an array of integers sorted in ascending order, find the starting and ending position of a given target value.

Your algorithm's runtime complexity must be in the order of O(log n).

If the target is not found in the array, return [-1, -1].

For example,
Given [5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10] and target value 8,
return [3, 4].

这道题要求时间要控制在O（log n）内，就是暗示我们要使用二分的方法来解决问题。但是它又是叫我们找两个边界，所以一个直接的思路就是通过二分查找先找到目标值的位置，然后再向左向右找边界。这样每次都是筛掉一半，时间要求肯定可以满足。

代码如下：

class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> searchRange(vector<int>& nums, int target) {
        int start = 0, end = nums.size() - 1;
        vector<int> res;
        int ans_start = -1, ans_end = -1;

        //判断特殊情况
        if( nums.size() == 0 ){
            res.push_back(-1);
            res.push_back(-1);
            return res;
        }
        if (nums[start] == target) {
            ans_start = 0;
        }
        if (nums[end] == target) {
            ans_end = end;
        }

        //开始搜索目标值的大概位置
        while (start <= end) {
            int mid = (start + end) / 2;

            if (nums[mid] == target) {
                if (ans_start == -1) {
                    ans_start = findStart(nums, target, start, mid);//找开始的边界
                }
                if (ans_end == -1) {
                    ans_end = findEnd(nums, target, mid , end);//找结束的边界
                }
                break;
            }
            else if (nums[mid] > target) {
                end = mid - 1;
            }
            else {
                start = mid + 1;
            }
        }

        if (ans_start == -1 && ans_end == -1) {//假若不存在目标值
            res.push_back(-1);
            res.push_back(-1);
            return res;
        }

        res.push_back(ans_start);
        res.push_back(ans_end);
        return res;
    }
    
   int findStart(vector<int>& nums, int target, int start, int end) {
        int mid;
        while (start <= end) {
            mid = (start + end) / 2;

            if (nums[mid] < target) {
                start = mid + 1;
            }
            else if (nums[mid - 1] != target) {
                break;
            }
            else {
                end = mid - 1;
            }
        }
        return mid;
    }

    int findEnd(vector<int>& nums, int target, int start, int end) {
        int mid;

        while (start <= end) {
            mid = (start + end) / 2;

            if (nums[mid] > target) {
                end = mid - 1;
            }
            else if (nums[mid + 1] != target) {
                break;
            }
            else {
                start = mid + 1;
            }
        }

        return mid;
    }
};