Two pointers (2) -- Partition List，Valid Palindrome

Partition List

Given a linked list and a value x, partition it such that all nodes less than x come before nodes greater than or equal to x.

You should preserve the original relative order of the nodes in each of the two partitions.

For example,
Given 1->4->3->2->5->2 and x = 3,
return 1->2->2->4->3->5.

解法1：记录小于x的第一个node的位置。遍历list然后将小于x的node移到前面

    ListNode* partition(ListNode* head, int x) {
        if (head == NULL) return NULL;
        ListNode* fakeHead = new ListNode(0);
        fakeHead -> next = head;
        ListNode* lastSmall = fakeHead;
        ListNode* firstLarge = NULL;
        ListNode* ptr = fakeHead;
        while (ptr -> next != NULL){
            if (ptr->next->val < x){
                if (firstLarge){
                    ListNode* ptr2move = ptr -> next;
                    lastSmall -> next = ptr2move;
                    ptr -> next = lastSmall -> next;
                    ptr2move -> next = firstLarge;
                    lastSmall = ptr2move;
                }
                else
                    ptr = ptr -> next;
            }
            else {
                if (!firstLarge){
                    lastSmall = ptr;
                    firstLarge = ptr -> next;
                }
                ptr = ptr -> next;
            }
        }
        return fakeHead -> next;
    }

解法2：将原list拆成两个list，最后拼接起来。这个少了许多修改指针的操作，显然更快一些。

    ListNode* partition(ListNode* head, int x) {

       //ListNode node1(0), node2(0);    这种写法也可以，记录一下

       //ListNode *p1 = &node1, *p2 = &node2;

        ListNode* s = new ListNode(0);
        ListNode* l = new ListNode(0);
        ListNode* sH = s;
        ListNode* lH = l;
        while (head){
            if (head -> val < x) 
                s = s -> next = head;
            else
                l = l -> next = head;
            head = head -> next;
        }
        l -> next = NULL;  //这句必须有，测试用例应该是没有NULL不停止，所以指针会一直乱走
        s -> next = lH -> next;
        return sH -> next;
    }

Valid Palindrome

Given a string, determine if it is a palindrome, considering only alphanumeric characters and ignoring cases.

For example,
"A man, a plan, a canal: Panama" is a palindrome.
"race a car" is not a palindrome.

Note:
Have you consider that the string might be empty? This is a good question to ask during an interview.

For the purpose of this problem, we define empty string as valid palindrome.

使用两个指针分别从前后开始移动。注意c++中可以使用isalnum()函数来判断是否是alphanumeric characters

    bool isPalindrome(string s) {
        for (int i = 0, j = s.size() - 1; i < j; i++, j--) { // Move 2 pointers from each end until they collide
            while (isalnum(s[i]) == false && i < j) i++; // Increment left pointer if not alphanumeric
            while (isalnum(s[j]) == false && i < j) j--; // Decrement right pointer if no alphanumeric
            if (toupper(s[i]) != toupper(s[j])) return false; // Exit and return error if not match
        }
        
        return true;
    }