题目描述:Sort a linked list in O(n log n) time using constant space complexity
这个题目本身的时间复杂度很容易让人想到mergesort的算法复杂度,所以考虑用mergesort的方法进行解题。但是在学习mergesort时,存储元素的是数组,而现在如果存储结构变成链表。算法的大体思想是按照mergesort的思想进行的,主要分以下步骤:
- 将链表分为左右两部分;
- 对左边的链表调用mergesort的函数;
- 对右边的链表调用mergesort的函数;
- 将左右的排好序的链表进行合并merge;
算法本身的思想很简单,主要难度在编程过程中对于一些特殊情况的考虑上,这主要集中在对merge函数的编写上。
merge函数和以数组方式存储的merge会有不同,主要是直接进行操作,而不用另外开辟空间进行额外存储。主要思路是:
将right链表中的节点依次加入left节点中,其中涉及到对指针的移动,很容易出现问题。
下面针对编程过程中需要考虑的一些特殊情况进行说明:
- 第一种情况:考虑首节点的问题。在最开始,左边的current和before都指在了首节点。在合并右边节点的过程中和普通的合并方式会有不同。
- 第二种情况:考虑左边的current节点为空,右边的节点不为空的情况。
/**
* Definition for singly-linked list.
* struct ListNode {
* int val;
* ListNode *next;
* ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
* };
*/
class Solution {
public:
ListNode *sortList(ListNode *head) {
if(head == NULL || head -> next == NULL)
return head;
int size = 0;
ListNode* current = head;
while(current != NULL){
current = current->next;
size++;
}
current = head;
for(int i = 0; i < size / 2 - 1; i++){
current = current -> next;
}
ListNode* left = head;
ListNode* right = current -> next;
current -> next = NULL;
left = sortList(left);
right = sortList(right);
head = merge(left,right);
return head;
}
ListNode* merge(ListNode* left, ListNode* right){
ListNode* leftCurrent = left;
ListNode* leftBefore = left;
ListNode* rightCurrent = right;
ListNode* rightNext = right -> next;
while(leftCurrent != NULL && rightCurrent!= NULL){
if(rightCurrent -> val < leftCurrent -> val){
if(leftBefore == leftCurrent){
rightCurrent -> next = leftBefore;
leftBefore = rightCurrent;
left = leftBefore;
leftCurrent = leftBefore -> next;
rightCurrent = rightNext;
if(rightCurrent != NULL)
rightNext = rightCurrent -> next;
}
else{
rightCurrent -> next = leftBefore -> next;
leftBefore -> next = rightCurrent;
leftBefore = rightCurrent;
rightCurrent = rightNext;
if(rightCurrent != NULL)
rightNext = rightCurrent -> next;
}
}
else{
leftBefore = leftCurrent;
if(leftCurrent != NULL)
leftCurrent = leftCurrent -> next;
}
}
if(rightCurrent != NULL)
leftBefore -> next = rightCurrent;
return left;
}
};