160. Intersection of Two Linked Lists

Write a program to find the node at which the intersection of two singly linked lists begins.

For example, the following two linked lists:

begin to intersect at node c1.

 

Example 1:

Input: intersectVal = 8, listA = [4,1,8,4,5], listB = [5,0,1,8,4,5], skipA = 2, skipB = 3
Output: Reference of the node with value = 8
Input Explanation: The intersected node's value is 8 (note that this must not be 0 if the two lists intersect). From the head of A, it reads as [4,1,8,4,5]. From the head of B, it reads as [5,0,1,8,4,5]. There are 2 nodes before the intersected node in A; There are 3 nodes before the intersected node in B.

 

Example 2:

Input: intersectVal = 2, listA = [0,9,1,2,4], listB = [3,2,4], skipA = 3, skipB = 1
Output: Reference of the node with value = 2
Input Explanation: The intersected node's value is 2 (note that this must not be 0 if the two lists intersect). From the head of A, it reads as [0,9,1,2,4]. From the head of B, it reads as [3,2,4]. There are 3 nodes before the intersected node in A; There are 1 node before the intersected node in B.

 

Example 3:

Input: intersectVal = 0, listA = [2,6,4], listB = [1,5], skipA = 3, skipB = 2
Output: null
Input Explanation: From the head of A, it reads as [2,6,4]. From the head of B, it reads as [1,5]. Since the two lists do not intersect, intersectVal must be 0, while skipA and skipB can be arbitrary values.
Explanation: The two lists do not intersect, so return null.

 

Notes:

• If the two linked lists have no intersection at all, return null.
• The linked lists must retain their original structure after the function returns.
• You may assume there are no cycles anywhere in the entire linked structure.
• Your code should preferably run in O(n) time and use only O(1) memory.

 

首先找出相对较长的链表，然后后移长度差。接下来就是一样长的链表逐个比较了。

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    
    int getlength(ListNode *head){
        int cnt=0;
        while(head){
            cnt++;
            head=head->next;
        }
        return cnt;
    }
    ListNode *getIntersectionNode(ListNode *headA, ListNode *headB) {
        int lenA=getlength(headA);
        int lenB=getlength(headB);
        int len=lenA-lenB;
        if(len<0){
            while(len<0){
                len++;
                headB=headB->next;
            }
        }
        else{
            while(len){
                len--;
                headA=headA->next;
            }
        }
        while(headA){
            if(headA==headB){
                return headA;
            }
            headA=headA->next;
            headB=headB->next;
        }
        return NULL;
    }
};

 

网上其他人的思路:

这道题还有一种特别巧妙的方法，虽然题目中强调了链表中不存在环，但是我们可以用环的思想来做，我们让两条链表分别从各自的开头开始往后遍历，当其中一条遍历到末尾时，我们跳到另一个条链表的开头继续遍历。两个指针最终会相等，而且只有两种情况，一种情况是在交点处相遇，另一种情况是在各自的末尾的空节点处相等。为什么一定会相等呢，因为两个指针走过的路程相同，是两个链表的长度之和，所以一定会相等。这个思路真的很巧妙，而且更重要的是代码写起来特别的简洁，参见代码如下：

（

I found most solutions here preprocess linkedlists to get the difference in len.
Actually we don’t care about the “value” of difference, we just want to make sure two pointers reach the intersection node at the same time.

We can use two iterations to do that. In the first iteration, we will reset the pointer of one linkedlist to the head of another linkedlist after it reaches the tail node. In the second iteration, we will move two pointers until they points to the same node. Our operations in first iteration will help us counteract the difference. So if two linkedlist intersects, the meeting point in second iteration must be the intersection point. If the two linked lists have no intersection at all, then the meeting pointer in second iteration must be the tail node of both lists, which is null.

You can prove that: say A length = a + c, B length = b + c, after switching pointer, pointer A will move another b + c steps, pointer B will move a + c more steps, since a + c + b + c = b + c + a + c, it does not matter what value c is. Pointer A and B must meet after a + c + b (b + c + a) steps. If c == 0, they meet at NULL.

 

I think this algorithm is pretty similar to the algorithm that uses length difference. By forcing the shorter to also take the longer path you “slow” it down. By forcing the longer to also take the shorter you “speed” it up. By the time the longer path reaches tail and is redirected to shorter it is given the exact “head start” needed for them to intersect if they do. This means if we find the intersection it will take at worst 2m + 2n pointer advancements. So O(m + n). They will never loop more than twice. If they don’t intersect then they reach null at the same time in the second pass because the pointers have been properly adjusted to end at the same time. If both are null then while loop terminates and we return a which is null.

）

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    ListNode *getIntersectionNode(ListNode *headA, ListNode *headB) {
        if (!headA || !headB) return NULL;
        ListNode *a = headA, *b = headB;
        while (a != b) {
            a = a ? a->next : headB;
            b = b ? b->next : headA;
        }
        return a;
    }
};