leetcode - 260. Single Number III

Description

Given an integer array nums, in which exactly two elements appear only once and all the other elements appear exactly twice. Find the two elements that appear only once. You can return the answer in any order.

You must write an algorithm that runs in linear runtime complexity and uses only constant extra space.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,2,1,3,2,5]
Output: [3,5]
Explanation:  [5, 3] is also a valid answer.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [-1,0]
Output: [-1,0]

Example 3:

Input: nums = [0,1]
Output: [1,0]

Constraints:

2 <= nums.length <= 3 * 104
-231 <= nums[i] <= 231 - 1
Each integer in nums will appear twice, only two integers will appear once.

Solution

Sort

Use sort to get the sorted list, then use the pointer to iterate the whole list. When we see the element next to current element is identical, we move pointer 2 steps forward, otherwise we append the current element to list and move the pointer 1 step forward.

Time complexity: $o(n\log n)$
Space complexity: $o(1)$

Bit Manipulation

By xor all the element, we could get a ^ b, and it must contains 1 because a and b are two different numbers. We randomly select one digit that is 1 in a ^ b, then a and b are in different groups. One group has 1 in this digit while the other group has 0. We start over again to iterate the list, and all the other elements must be divided into these two groups. a will be the only single element in its group, and so does b. Then by xor we could get these two numbers.

Time complexity: $o(n)$
Space complexity: $o(1)$

Code

Sort

class Solution:
    def singleNumber(self, nums: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        if len(nums) == 2:
            return nums
        nums.sort()
        res = []
        p = 0
        while p < len(nums):
            if p + 1 < len(nums) and nums[p] == nums[p + 1]:
                p += 2
            else:
                res.append(nums[p])
                p += 1
        return res

Bit Manipulation

class Solution:
    def singleNumber(self, nums: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        a_xor_b = 0
        for each_num in nums:
            a_xor_b ^= each_num
        digit = a_xor_b & (-a_xor_b)
        a_group, b_group = 0, 0
        for each_num in nums:
            if each_num & digit == 0:
                a_group ^= each_num
            else:
                b_group ^= each_num
        return [a_group, b_group]