[Leetcode] 611. Valid Triangle Number 解题报告

题目：

Given an array consists of non-negative integers, your task is to count the number of triplets chosen from the array that can make triangles if we take them as side lengths of a triangle.

Example 1:

Input: [2,2,3,4]
Output: 3
Explanation:
Valid combinations are: 
2,3,4 (using the first 2)
2,3,4 (using the second 2)
2,2,3

Note:

1. The length of the given array won't exceed 1000.
2. The integers in the given array are in the range of [0, 1000].

思路：

暴力法的时间复杂度是O(n^3)；如果排序之后我们遍历最长的边nums[i]，那么我们次长的边的选择范围是r是[1, i - 1]，最短的边的l的选择范围是[0, r - 1]。如果nums[l] + nums[r] > nums[i]，那么l的范围可以是[l, r - 1]，在这个范围之内三个边的长度都符合三角不等式；否则说明l太小，不可能构成三角形，所以我们增加l即可。这样只需要两重循环就可以了，算法的时间复杂度降低到了O(n^2)。

代码：

class Solution {
public:
    int triangleNumber(vector<int>& nums) {
        sort(nums.begin(), nums.end());
        int count = 0, n = nums.size();
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 2; --i) {          // the longest edge
            int l = 0, r = i - 1;
            while (l < r) {
                if (nums[l] + nums[r] > nums[i]) {  // l in the range [l, r - 1] are all good
                    count += (r - l);
                    --r;
                }
                else {                              // l is too small
                    ++l;
                }
            }
        }
        return count;
    }
};