LintCode 461: Kth Smallest Numbers in Unsorted Array

461. Kth Smallest Numbers in Unsorted Array
     中文English
     Find the kth smallest number in an unsorted integer array.

Example
Example 1:

Input: [3, 4, 1, 2, 5], k = 3
Output: 3
Example 2:

Input: [1, 1, 1], k = 2
Output: 1
Challenge
An O(nlogn) algorithm is acceptable, if you can do it in O(n), that would be great.

解法1：用最大堆。
这个方法很慢。时间复杂度O(nlogk)。pq总共push了n次，pop了n-k次。

class Solution {
public:
    /**
     * @param k: An integer
     * @param nums: An integer array
     * @return: kth smallest element
     */
    int kthSmallest(int k, vector<int> &nums) {
        int  n = nums.size();
        if (n < k) return -1;
        
        priority_queue<int> pq; //max-heap
        
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            pq.push(nums[i]);
            if (i >= k) pq.pop();
        }
        
        return pq.top();
    }
};

解法2：还是max-heap。时间复杂度O(nlogk)。
代码如下:

class Solution {
public:
    /**
     * @param k: An integer
     * @param nums: An integer array
     * @return: kth smallest element
     */
    int kthSmallest(int k, vector<int> &nums) {
        int  n = nums.size();
        if (n < k) return -1;
        
        priority_queue<int> pq; //max-heap
        
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            
            if (i < k) {
                pq.push(nums[i]);
            } else {
                if (nums[i] < pq.top()) {
                    pq.push(nums[i]);
                    pq.pop();
                }
            }
            
        }
        
        return pq.top();
    }
};

解法2比解法1效率高。因为是最大堆，那么nums[i]>pq.top()的话，push进去了就会马上pop出来，等于什么也没干。

解法3：QuickSelect。时间复杂度O(n)。
代码如下:

class Solution {
public:
    /**
     * @param k: An integer
     * @param nums: An integer array
     * @return: kth smallest element
     */
    int kthSmallest(int k, vector<int> &nums) {
        int n = nums.size();
        if (n == 0 || n < k) return -1;
        return quickSelect(nums, k, 0, n - 1);
    }

private:
    int quickSelect(vector<int> & nums, int k, int start, int end) {
        if (start >= end) return nums[start];
        int left = start, right = end;
        int pivot = nums[(left + right) / 2];
        while(left <= right) {
            while(left <= right && nums[left] < pivot) left++;
            
            while(left <= right && nums[right] > pivot) right--;
            
            if (left <= right) { // do not miss this line
                swap(nums[left], nums[right]);
                left++;
                right--;
            }
        }
        
        if (start + k - 1 <= right) return quickSelect(nums, k, start, right);
        if (start + k - 1 >= left) return quickSelect(nums, k - (left - start), left, end);
        
        return nums[right + 1];
    }
};

解法4：QuickSelect循环版本。TBD。