LeetCode Find the Duplicate Number

Description:

Given an array nums containing n + 1 integers where each integer is between 1 and n (inclusive), prove that at least one duplicate number must exist. Assume that there is only one duplicate number, find the duplicate one.

Solution:

The solution is very tricky, but we can think of some trivial methods at first.

1. Just use an array with length n+1, and calculate the showing times for each number.

But it is required that extra space is O(1), so we need to choose another solution.

We can find a very interesting property of this array: if no duplicates with number n, then the numbers equal or below n is n. We can put this into a function. So if we call this function, then a binary search can work.

 

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class Solution {

	public int count(int[] nums, int bound) {
		int n = 0;
		for (int i = 0; i < nums.length; i++)
			if (nums[i] <= bound)
				n++;

		return n;
	}

	public int findDuplicate(int[] nums) {
		int n = nums.length;

		int l = 1, r = nums.length;
		int mid, c;
		while (l <= r) {
			mid = (l + r) / 2;
			c = count(nums, mid);
			if (c > mid)
				r = mid - 1;
			else
				l = mid + 1;
		}

		return l;
	}
}