494. Target Sum

Text Summary

To solve this problem, implement a ‘dfs’(depth-first search) function which involves two key variables and four essential steps:

Key Variables:

1. The ‘index’ variable of type ‘int’: This variable is used to determine the current layer within the function and aids in tracking progress.
2. The ‘memo’ variable of type ‘map’: This map stores results using a tuple containing the ‘index’ and ‘target’ values as the key, and an integer as the corresponding value. This helps avoid redundant calculations.

Four essential steps:

1. Check if the (index, target) tuple exists in the ‘memo’, and return its value if found:

if (index, target) in memo:
      return memo[(index, target)]

2. If the ‘index’ reaches the length of ‘nums’, determine the count based on whether the ‘target’ is 0 or not:

if index == len(nums):
    if target == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return 0

3. Update the ‘memo’ with the result of the recursive ‘dfs’ calls:

memo[(index, target)] = dfs(nums, target - nums[index], index + 1, memo) + dfs(nums, target + nums[index], index + 1, memo)

4. Return the calculated result:

return memo[(index, target)]

Code Summary

class Solution(object):
    def findTargetSumWays(self, nums, target):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :type target: int
        :rtype: int
        """
        def dfs(nums, target, index, memo):
            if (index, target) in memo:
                return memo[(index, target)]
            if index == len(nums):
                if target == 0:
                    return 1
                else:
                    return 0
            memo[(index, target)] = dfs(nums, target - nums[index], index + 1, memo) + dfs(nums, target + nums[index], index + 1, memo)
            return memo[(index, target)]

        memo = {}
        return dfs(nums, target, 0, memo)