LeetCode330. Patching Array

Given a sorted positive integer array nums and an integer n, add/patch elements to the array such that any number in range [1, n] inclusive can be formed by the sum of some elements in the array. Return the minimum number of patches required.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,3], n = 6
Output: 1 
Explanation:
Combinations of nums are [1], [3], [1,3], which form possible sums of: 1, 3, 4.
Now if we add/patch 2 to nums, the combinations are: [1], [2], [3], [1,3], [2,3], [1,2,3].
Possible sums are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, which now covers the range [1, 6].
So we only need 1 patch.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,5,10], n = 20
Output: 2
Explanation: The two patches can be [2, 4].

Example 3:

Input: nums = [1,2,2], n = 5
Output: 0

参考资料：here。

解决这道题关键是：如何在不出现间断的情况下最快地增加覆盖范围。

如果现在能够覆盖的范围是[1,N]，那么应该增加哪个数来扩大覆盖范围呢？答案是N+1。因为这样才不会出现覆盖范围间断的情况。

另外需要注意，使用nums中的数来扩大覆盖范围是“免费”的，所以当nums[i]<=N+1时，可以使用nums[i]来扩大覆盖范围。

class Solution {
public:
	int minPatches(vector<int>& nums, int n) {
		int max_range(0), add_count(0), current_pos(0);
		while (max_range < n) {
			if (current_pos < nums.size() && nums[current_pos] <= max_range + 1) {
				max_range += nums[current_pos++];
			}
			else {
				add_count++;
				max_range += max_range + 1;
			}
		}
		return add_count;
	}
};