382. Linked List Random Node

题目

Given a singly linked list, return a random node's value from the linked list. Each node must have the same probability of being chosen.

Follow up:
What if the linked list is extremely large and its length is unknown to you? Could you solve this efficiently without using extra space?

Example:

// Init a singly linked list [1,2,3].
ListNode head = new ListNode(1);
head.next = new ListNode(2);
head.next.next = new ListNode(3);
Solution solution = new Solution(head);

// getRandom() should return either 1, 2, or 3 randomly. Each element should have equal probability of returning.
solution.getRandom();

分析

给定一个单链表，要求随机返回其中一个元素，所有元素被返回的概率相等，使用rand()函数得到一个随机值，与链表长度取模即可得到一个随机步数，满足各元素概率相等，在计算链表长度的同时将单链表首尾相连，构成循环链表，这样随机移动步数即可找到随机返回的元素值。

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    /** @param head The linked list's head.
        Note that the head is guaranteed to be not null, so it contains at least one node. */
    Solution(ListNode* head) {
        len=1;
        head_=head;
        cur_=head;
        while(cur_->next)
        {
            len++;
            cur_=cur_->next;
        }
        cur_->next=head_;
    }
    
    /** Returns a random node's value. */
    int getRandom() {
        int step=rand()%len;
        while(step--)
        {
            cur_=cur_->next;
        }
        return cur_->val;
    }
private:
    ListNode* head_;
    ListNode* cur_;
    int len;
};

/**
 * Your Solution object will be instantiated and called as such:
 * Solution obj = new Solution(head);
 * int param_1 = obj.getRandom();
 */

由于链表可能过大，无法提前得知链表的长度，因此可以使用水塘抽样的思想，其中原理的证明可参见水塘抽样的证明，基于此算法的解决方案如下：

class Solution {
public:
    /** @param head The linked list's head. Note that the head is guanranteed to be not null, so it contains at least one node. */
    Solution(ListNode* head) {
        this->head = head;
    }
    
    /** Returns a random node's value. */
    int getRandom() {
        int res = head->val, i = 2;
        ListNode *cur = head->next;
        while (cur) {
            int j = rand() % i;
            if (j == 0) res = cur->val;
            ++i;
            cur = cur->next;
        }
        return res;
    }
private:
    ListNode *head;
};