A robot is located at the top-left corner of a m x n grid (marked ‘Start’ in the diagram below).
The robot can only move either down or right at any point in time. The robot is trying to reach the bottom-right corner of the grid (marked ‘Finish’ in the diagram below).
How many possible unique paths are there?
Example
Solution 1: dynamic programming
Consideration
- We use a 2d array to store # of ways from start point to current point.
- For a point(i, j), ways[i,j] = ways[i-1][j] +ways[i][j-1].
Time complexity: O(mn), space complexity: O(mn)
class Solution {
public int uniquePaths(int m, int n) {
int[][] res = new int[m][n];
for(int i = 0; i < m; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
if(i == 0 || j == 0) {
res[i][j] = 1;
} else {
res[i][j] = res[i-1][j] + res[i][j-1];
}
}
return res[m-1][n-1];
}
}
Solution 2: an improved version of solution 1
Consideration
- For a point(i, j), ways[i,j] = ways[i-1][j] +ways[i][j-1]. That is, ways[j] = ways[j] + ways[j-1].
Time complexity: O(m*n), space complexity: O(n)
class Solution {
public int uniquePaths(int m, int n) {
int[] ways = new int[n];
for(int i = 0; i < m; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
if(j == 0) {
ways[j] = 1;
} else {
ways[j] = ways[j] + ways[j-1];
}
}
return ways[n-1];
}
}
Solution 3: use recursion, but will have time limitation problem
Consideration
- Use recursion, the intermediate result is not reserved. Each time we should recalculate the results, so it is more time consuming than dynamic programming.
class Solution {
public int uniquePaths(int m, int n) {
if(m == 1 || n == 1)
return 1;
return uniquePaths(m-1,n)+uniquePaths(m, n-1);
}
}
References