题目:
There are N gas stations along a circular route, where the amount of gas at station i is gas[i]
.
You have a car with an unlimited gas tank and it costs cost[i]
of gas to travel from station i to its next station (i+1). You begin the journey with an empty tank at one of the gas stations.
Return the starting gas station's index if you can travel around the circuit once, otherwise return -1.
Note:
The solution is guaranteed to be unique.
方法:
Bloomberg的面试题,首先想到的方法是O(n^2)的循环检测方法,注意第二层循环的数组index取(i+index)%len。
更好的O(n)解法:建立两个变量sum和total,从0到len遍历gas[]和cost[],sum和total都等于gas[i]-cost[i],检测sum是否小于0,如果是,res变量等于当前index,同时sum归零。最终根据total变量是否大于零决定返回res或者-1。
代码:
public class Solution {
public int canCompleteCircuit(int[] gas, int[] cost) {
// Note: The Solution object is instantiated only once and is reused by each test case.
int sum = 0, total = 0, len = gas.length, index = -1;
for(int i=0; i<len; i++){
sum += gas[i]-cost[i];
total += gas[i]-cost[i];
if(sum < 0){
index = i;
sum = 0;
}
}
return total>=0 ? index+1 : -1;
}
}
总结:
这个方法的经典之处在于sum和total的运用:sum判断当前的指针的有效性;total则判断了整个array是否有解,有就返回通过sum得到的解,没有返回-1。有点DP,双指针的感觉,但是能力有限,总结不出来,望指正。