两个排序数组的中位数

给你两个排序数组，大小都是n。找到两个数组归并后的中位数。如果把每个数组长度记为n，那么问题实质是，找出合并后的第n+1个元素，用第n个元素和第n+1个元素的平均值作为中数。

如果两个数组的大小不相等，请看：http://blog.csdn.net/jiyanfeng1/article/details/41642791 （这个方法更通用、更简洁，和下面给出的找第n+1个元素的算法比较一下)。

Question: There are 2 sorted arrays A and B of size n each. Write an algorithm to find the median of the array obtained after merging the above 2 arrays(i.e. array of length 2n). The complexity should be O(log(n))。

Median: In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the number separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half.
The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the numbers from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one.

For getting the median of input array { 12, 11, 15, 10, 20 }, first sort the array. We get { 10, 11, 12, 15, 20 } after sorting. Median is the middle element of the sorted array which is 12.

There are different conventions to take median of an array with even number of elements, one can take the mean of the two middle values, or first middle value, or second middle value.

Let us see different methods to get the median of two sorted arrays of size n each. Since size of the set for which we are looking for median is even (2n), we are taking average of middle two numbers in all below solutions.

Method 3 (By doing binary search for the median):
The basic idea is that if you are given two arrays ar1[] and ar2[] and know the length of each, you can check whether an element ar1[i] is the median in constant time. Suppose that the median is ar1[i]. Since the array is sorted, it is greater than exactly i values in array ar1[]. Then if it is the median, it is also greater than exactly j = n – i – 1 elements in ar2[].
It requires constant time to check if ar2[j] <= ar1[i] <= ar2[j + 1]. If ar1[i] is not the median, then depending on whether ar1[i] is greater or less than ar2[j] and ar2[j + 1], you know that ar1[i] is either greater than or less than the median. Thus you can binary search for median in O(lg n) worst-case time.

For two arrays ar1 and ar2, first do binary search in ar1[]. If you reach at the end (left or right) of the first array and don't find median, start searching in the second array ar2[].

1) Get the middle element of ar1[] using array indexes left and right.  
   Let index of the middle element be i.
2) Calculate the corresponding index j of ar2[]
     j = n – i – 1 
3) If ar1[i] >= ar2[j] and ar1[i] <= ar2[j+1] then ar1[i] and ar2[j]
   are the middle elements.
     return average of ar2[j] and ar1[i]
4) If ar1[i] is greater than both ar2[j] and ar2[j+1] then 
     do binary search in left half  (i.e., arr[left ... i-1])
5) If ar1[i] is smaller than both ar2[j] and ar2[j+1] then
     do binary search in right half (i.e., arr[i+1....right])
6) If you reach at any corner of ar1[] then do binary search in ar2[]

Example:

   ar1[] = {1, 5, 7, 10, 13}
   ar2[] = {11, 15, 23, 30, 45}

Middle element of ar1[] is 7. Let us compare 7 with 23 and 30, since 7 smaller than both 23 and 30, move to right in ar1[]. Do binary search in {10, 13}, this step will pick 10. Now compare 10 with 15 and 23. Since 10 is smaller than both 15 and 23, again move to right. Only 13 is there in right side now. Since 13 is greater than 11 and smaller than 15, terminate here. We have got the median as 12 (average of 11 and 13)

Implementation:

#include<stdio.h>
 
int getMedianRec(int ar1[], int ar2[], int left, int right, int n);
 
/* This function returns median of ar1[] and ar2[].
   Assumptions in this function:
   Both ar1[] and ar2[] are sorted arrays
   Both have n elements */
int getMedian(int ar1[], int ar2[], int n)
{
    return getMedianRec(ar1, ar2, 0, n-1, n);
}
 
/* A recursive function to get the median of ar1[] and ar2[]
   using binary search */
int getMedianRec(int ar1[], int ar2[], int left, int right, int n)
{
    int i, j;
 
    /* We have reached at the end (left or right) of ar1[] */
    if(left > right)
        return getMedianRec(ar2, ar1, 0, n-1, n);
 
    i = (left + right)/2;
    j = n - i - 1;  /* Index of ar2[] */
 
    /* Recursion terminates here.*/
    if (ar1[i] > ar2[j] && (j == n-1 || ar1[i] <= ar2[j+1]))
    {
        /*ar1[i] is decided as median 2, now select the median 1
           (element just before ar1[i] in merged array) to get the
           average of both*/
        if (ar2[j] > ar1[i-1] || i == 0)
            return (ar1[i] + ar2[j])/2;
        else
            return (ar1[i] + ar1[i-1])/2;
    }
 
    /*Search in left half of ar1[]*/
    else if (ar1[i] > ar2[j] && j != n-1 && ar1[i] > ar2[j+1])
        return getMedianRec(ar1, ar2, left, i-1, n);
 
    /*Search in right half of ar1[]*/
    else /* ar1[i] is smaller than both ar2[j] and ar2[j+1]*/
        return getMedianRec(ar1, ar2, i+1, right, n);
}
 
/* Driver program to test above function */
int main()
{
    int ar1[] = {1, 12, 15, 26, 38};
    int ar2[] = {2, 13, 17, 30, 45};
    int n1 = sizeof(ar1)/sizeof(ar1[0]);
    int n2 = sizeof(ar2)/sizeof(ar2[0]);
    if (n1 == n2)
        printf("Median is %d", getMedian(ar1, ar2, n1));
    else
        printf("Doesn't work for arrays of unequal size");
 
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

如果把每个数组长度记为n，那么问题实质是，找出合并后的第n+1个元素，用第n个元素和第n+1个元素的平均值作为中数。