Leetcode summary: Binary search

You use while (start <= end) if you are returning the match from inside the loop.

You use while (start < end) if you want to exit out of the loop first, and then use the result of start or end to return the match.

34. Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array

Given an array of integers nums sorted in ascending order, find the starting and ending position of a given target value.

Your algorithm’s runtime complexity must be in the order of O(log n).

If the target is not found in the array, return [-1, -1].

Example 1:

Input: nums = [5,7,7,8,8,10], target = 8
Output: [3,4]
Example 2:

Input: nums = [5,7,7,8,8,10], target = 6
Output: [-1,-1]

class Solution(object):
    def searchRange(self, nums, target):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :type target: int
        :rtype: List[int]
        """
        if not nums:
            return [-1,-1]

        l=0
        r=len(nums)-1

        while l<r: #without =
            mid=(l+r)/2
            if nums[mid]<target:
                l=mid+1
            else:
                r=mid

        if nums[l]!=target: 
            return [-1,-1]

        index0=r # find the lower boudry index

        l=0
        #r=len(nums)-1
        r=len(nums) #only len(nums) works, cause l-1 will encounter -1 when only one elment: such as [1]
        while l<r: 
            mid=(l+r)/2  #round to the lower val, so cannot use l to find the high boundry 
            if nums[mid]<=target: #use =
                l=mid+1
            else:
                r=mid  # keep 
        index1=l-1
        return [index0,index1]