LeetCode(12), Last Stone Weight

Description

We have a collection of stones, each stone has a positive integer weight.

Each turn, we choose the two heaviest stones and smash them together. Suppose the stones have weights x and y with x <= y. The result of this smash is:

• If x == y, both stones are totally destroyed;
• If x != y, the stone of weight x is totally destroyed, and the stone of weight y has new weight y-x.
  At the end, there is at most 1 stone left. Return the weight of this stone (or 0 if there are no stones left.)

Example 1:

Input: [2,7,4,1,8,1]
Output: 1
Explanation: 
We combine 7 and 8 to get 1 so the array converts to [2,4,1,1,1] then,
we combine 2 and 4 to get 2 so the array converts to [2,1,1,1] then,
we combine 2 and 1 to get 1 so the array converts to [1,1,1] then,
we combine 1 and 1 to get 0 so the array converts to [1] then that's the value of last stone.

Note:

1. 1 <= stones.length <= 30
2. 1 <= stones[i] <= 1000

Solution

Priority Queue

Using priority queue, every time pop out two largest number, calculate m1-m2, and then add it back to priority queue.

• Time complexity: O(NlgN)
• Space complexity: O(N)

class Solution {
    public int lastStoneWeight(int[] stones) {
        // create a MaxPriority Queue.
        PriorityQueue<Integer> pq = new PriorityQueue<Integer>(new Comparator<Integer>(){
            public int compare(Integer lhs, Integer rhs) {
                if (lhs < rhs) return +1;
                if (lhs.equals(rhs)) return 0;
                return -1;
            }
        });
        
        // add integers into priority queue.
        for (int i : stones) 
            pq.offer(i);
        
        while (pq.size() > 1) {
            pq.offer(pq.poll() - pq.poll());
        }
       
        return pq.isEmpty() ? 0 : pq.poll(); 
    }
}