LeetCode 15. 3Sum（双指针）

题目来源：https://leetcode.com/problems/3sum/

问题描述

15. 3Sum

Medium

Given an array nums of n integers, are there elements a, b, c in nums such that a + b + c = 0? Find all unique triplets in the array which gives the sum of zero.

Note:

The solution set must not contain duplicate triplets.

Example:

Given array nums = [-1, 0, 1, 2, -1, -4],

 

A solution set is:

[

  [-1, 0, 1],

  [-1, -1, 2]

]

Accepted

490K

Submissions

2.1M

Seen this question in a real interview before?

------------------------------------------------------------

题意

给出一组整数序列，求序列中这样的三个数组成的集合，三个数的和为0.

------------------------------------------------------------

思路

问题可以转化为给定一个数a，求序列中另外两个数b, c，使得b + c = -a.

将输入无序序列排序，对于序列中的每个a，问题转化为求a右侧的数对，使得数对的和为-a. 有序序列求零和数对有经典算法双指针法可以用O(n)解决，这样复杂度是O(n^2)。再加上对输入的无序序列排序的时间O(nlogn)，总的复杂度还是O(n^2).

------------------------------------------------------------

代码

class Solution {
    /**
    Go through #n element:
        double-pointer for contrary sum of the i-th element: O(n)
    Total: O(n^2)
    **/
    public List<List<Integer>> threeSum(int[] nums) {
        int i = 0, n = nums.length, left = 0, right = n - 1, sum = 0;
        if (n < 3)
        {
            return new LinkedList<>();
        }
        Arrays.sort(nums);
        LinkedList<List<Integer>> ret = new LinkedList<>();
        for (i=0; i<n-2; i++)
        {
            if (i > 0 && nums[i] == nums[i-1])
            {
                continue;
            }
            left = i + 1;
            right = n - 1;
            while (left < right)
            {
                sum = nums[left] + nums[right];
                if (sum == -nums[i])
                {
                    LinkedList<Integer> list = new LinkedList<Integer>();
                    list.add(nums[i]);
                    list.add(nums[left]);
                    list.add(nums[right]);
                    ret.add(list);
                    while (left < n-1 && nums[left] == nums[++left]);
                }
                else if (sum < -nums[i])
                {
                    while (left < n-1 && nums[left] == nums[++left]);
                }
                else
                {
                    while (right > 0 && nums[right] == nums[--right]);
                }
            }
        }
        return ret;
    }
}