原创转载请注明出处:http://agilestyle.iteye.com/blog/2361133
Question
Merge Two Sorted Arrays into the larger array, given the large array has extra storage. Merge without additional memory
Requirements
Long sorted array {1,3,5,0,0,0} (0 means blank spaces), so used length is 3
The short sorted array {2,4}
The expected merged array will be {1,2,3,4,5,0}
Additionally, no additional memory is used
- e.g. declaring a new array is not allowed
Solution
1. Loop from end to beginning.
2. Keep track of two tail index values of two merged arrays.
3. Final-merged-tail position is equal to longTail+ShortTail+1 (both index start from 0!!)
4. If the shortTail is larger than or equal to 0 after merging, adding the remaining values to the merged array
package org.fool.java.test;
public class MergeTwoSortedArrays {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] longArray = {1, 3, 5, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0};
int used = 4;
int[] shortArray = {2, 4, 6};
for (int i : longArray) {
System.out.print(i + " ");
}
System.out.println();
merge(longArray, shortArray, used);
for (int i : longArray) {
System.out.print(i + " ");
}
}
// we passed 3 arguments, the first 2 are the 2 arrays
// the longUsed is to present how many items are used in the longArray
// This method returns a int value representing how many valid items to be counted in the merged long array
private static int merge(int[] longArray, int[] shortArray, int longUsed) {
int longTail = longUsed - 1;
int shortTail = shortArray.length - 1;
// the order is to merge from end to beginning
while (longTail >= 0 && shortTail >= 0) {
// check which one in the two arrays should be put at this current tail position
if (longArray[longTail] > shortArray[shortTail]) {
// which means at this position, we'd better to put the value int the longArray for the merged array
longArray[longTail + shortTail + 1] = longArray[longTail];
// notice the key here for the final index in the merged array
// longTail + shortTail + 1 will be the final index, thinking that both tail indexes start from 0
longTail--; // after we put one value in longArray, we need to shift our focus to the left a little
} else {
longArray[longTail + shortTail + 1] = shortArray[shortTail];
shortTail--;
}
}
// case 1, longTail not equal to 0? No problem, they are in position already
// case 2, shortTail not equal to 0? Need to add element one by one to the final array
while (shortTail >= 0) {
longArray[shortTail] = shortArray[shortTail]; // notice the final merging is same as copying
shortTail--; // do not forget updating the index
}
// return how many used elements in the new merged array
return shortArray.length + longUsed;
}
}
Console Output
Reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYrlYlwkbLo&list=PLlhDxqlV_-vkak9feCSrnjlrnzzzcopSG&index=40