2020-12-12 56. Merge Intervals

56. Merge Intervals

Difficulty: Medium

Related Topics: Array, Sort

Given an array of intervals where intervals[i] = [start<sub style="display: inline;">i</sub>, end<sub style="display: inline;">i</sub>], merge all overlapping intervals, and return an array of the non-overlapping intervals that cover all the intervals in the input.

Example 1:

Input: intervals = [[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Output: [[1,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Explanation: Since intervals [1,3] and [2,6] overlaps, merge them into [1,6].

Example 2:

Input: intervals = [[1,4],[4,5]]
Output: [[1,5]]
Explanation: Intervals [1,4] and [4,5] are considered overlapping.

Constraints:

• 1 <= intervals.length <= 10<sup>4</sup>
• intervals[i].length == 2
• 0 <= start<sub style="display: inline;">i</sub> <= end<sub style="display: inline;">i</sub> <= 10<sup>4</sup>

Solution

key: when we want to reduce O(n^2), we can consider doing a pre-sort.

Language: Java

class Solution {
    public int[][] merge(int[][] intervals) {
        Comparator<int[]> comparator = new Comparator<>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(int[] a, int[] b) {
                return a[0] - b[0];
            }
        };
        
        Arrays.sort(intervals, comparator);
        LinkedList<int[]> list = new LinkedList<>();
        for (int[] temp : intervals) {
            if (list.isEmpty() || temp[0] > list.getLast()[1]) {
                list.add(temp);
            } else {
                list.getLast()[1] = Math.max(temp[1], list.getLast()[1]);
            }
            
        }
        
        return list.toArray(new int[list.size()][]);
    }
}