【leetcode】18. 四数之和

排序+双指针（优化前）

class Solution(object):
    def fourSum(self, nums, target):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :type target: int
        :rtype: List[List[int]]
        """
        res = list()
        length = len(nums)
        if length < 4:
            return res
        nums.sort()
        for i in range(length):
            if i > 0 and nums[i] == nums[i - 1]:
                continue
            j = i + 1
            while j < length:
                while i + 1 < j < length and nums[j] == nums[j - 1]:
                    j += 1
                L = j + 1
                R = length - 1
                while L < R:
                    if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[L] + nums[R] == target:
                        res.append([nums[i], nums[j], nums[L], nums[R]])
                        while L < R and nums[L] == nums[L + 1]:
                            L += 1
                        while L < R and nums[R] == nums[R - 1]:
                            R -= 1
                        L += 1
                        R -= 1
                    elif nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[L] + nums[R] < target:
                        L += 1
                    else:
                        R -= 1
                j += 1
        return res

排序+双指针（优化后）

class Solution(object):
    def fourSum(self, nums, target):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :type target: int
        :rtype: List[List[int]]
        """
        res = list()
        length = len(nums)
        if length < 4:
            return res
        nums.sort()
        for i in range(length - 3):
            if i > 0 and nums[i] == nums[i - 1]:
                continue
            if nums[i] + nums[i + 1] + nums[i + 2] + nums[i + 3] > target:
                break
            if nums[i] + nums[length - 3] + nums[length - 2] + nums[length - 1] < target:
                continue
            for j in range(i + 1, length - 2):
                if j > i + 1 and nums[j] == nums[j - 1]:
                    continue
                if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[j + 1] + nums[j + 2] > target:
                    break
                if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[length - 2] + nums[length - 1] < target:
                    continue
                L = j + 1
                R = length - 1
                while L < R:
                    if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[L] + nums[R] == target:
                        res.append([nums[i], nums[j], nums[L], nums[R]])
                        while L < R and nums[L] == nums[L + 1]:
                            L += 1
                        while L < R and nums[R] == nums[R - 1]:
                            R -= 1
                        L += 1
                        R -= 1
                    elif nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[L] + nums[R] < target:
                        L += 1
                    else:
                        R -= 1
        return res

总结

1、该题目为15、16题的结合，只需在“三数之和”外层再添加一层循环即可。
但是，我们发现该方法的运行时间很长，时长达到“840ms”，需要优化。
2、在循环体内，添加判断语句：

if nums[i] + nums[i + 1] + nums[i + 2] + nums[i + 3] > target:
    break
if nums[i] + nums[length - 3] + nums[length - 2] + nums[length - 1] < target:
    continue

if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[j + 1] + nums[j + 2] > target:
    break
if nums[i] + nums[j] + nums[length - 2] + nums[length - 1] < target:
    continue

以此减少循环的次数。经过优化，时长减少至“44ms”。