LeetCode 34. Search for a Range（有序数组，查找给定值范围）

题目描述：

    Given an array of integers sorted in ascending order, find the starting and ending position of a given target value.
    Your algorithm's runtime complexity must be in the order of O(log n).
    If the target is not found in the array, return [-1, -1].
    For example, given [5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10] and target value 8, return [3, 4].

分析：
    题意：给定一个升序有重复数组，一个目标值，查找该值在数组中的涵盖范围，并返回该范围。时间复杂度要求为O(log(n))。
    思路：此题采用二分法。因为需要找到一个范围，所以需要找到目标值的最小坐标和最大坐标。我们对二分法做一些细节改动，分两次查找（分别保持最小坐标min_index和最大坐标max_index），并返回结果。
    假设数组长度为n，时间复杂度为O(log(n))。

代码：

#include <bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;

class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> searchRange(vector<int>& nums, int target) {
        int n = nums.size();
		vector<int> ans;
		// Exceptional Case: 
		if(n == 0){
			ans = {-1, -1};
			return ans;
		}
		// binary search
		// find the minimum valid index
		int min_index = -1;
		int left = 0, right = n - 1;
		while(left <= right){
			int mid = (left + right) >> 1;
			if(nums[mid] >= target){
				if(nums[mid] == target){
					min_index = mid;
				}
				right = mid - 1;
			}
			else if(nums[mid] < target){
				left = mid + 1;
			}
		}
		// debug
		// cout << "left: " << left << endl;
		if(min_index == -1){
			ans = {-1, -1};
			return ans;
		}
		// find the maximum valid index
		int max_index = -1;
		left = 0, right = n - 1;
		while(left <= right){
			int mid = (left + right) >> 1;
			if(nums[mid] > target){
				right = mid - 1;
			}
			else if(nums[mid] <= target){
				if(nums[mid] == target){
					max_index = mid;
				}
				left = mid + 1;
			}	
		}
		// debug
		// cout << "right: " << right << endl;
		ans = {min_index, max_index};
		return ans;
    }
};