leetcode - 735. Asteroid Collision

Description

We are given an array asteroids of integers representing asteroids in a row.

For each asteroid, the absolute value represents its size, and the sign represents its direction (positive meaning right, negative meaning left). Each asteroid moves at the same speed.

Find out the state of the asteroids after all collisions. If two asteroids meet, the smaller one will explode. If both are the same size, both will explode. Two asteroids moving in the same direction will never meet.

Example 1:

Input: asteroids = [5,10,-5]
Output: [5,10]
Explanation: The 10 and -5 collide resulting in 10. The 5 and 10 never collide.

Example 2:

Input: asteroids = [8,-8]
Output: []
Explanation: The 8 and -8 collide exploding each other.

Example 3:

Input: asteroids = [10,2,-5]
Output: [10]
Explanation: The 2 and -5 collide resulting in -5. The 10 and -5 collide resulting in 10.

Constraints:

2 <= asteroids.length <= 10^4
-1000 <= asteroids[i] <= 1000
asteroids[i] != 0

Solution

Recursive

Every time, find the positive that has a negative at the right, and then collide, then recursively solve the rest of the list.
Time complexity: $o(n^2)$
Space complexity: $o(n)$

Stack

We sweep from the left to the right, if the asteroid is positive, nothing will happen, just append it into the stack. But if it’s negative, we will see if the top element in the stack would collide with the current one. If they will collide, and the current one is larger than the top element, then keep popping from the stack until the stack is empty or the current one is smaller.

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

Code

Recursive

class Solution:
    def asteroidCollision(self, asteroids: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        # find collisions
        i = 1
        while i < len(asteroids):
            if asteroids[i - 1] > 0 and asteroids[i] < 0:
                break
            i += 1
        if i >= len(asteroids):
            return asteroids
        if asteroids[i - 1] + asteroids[i] > 0:
            return self.asteroidCollision(asteroids[:i] + asteroids[i+1:])
        elif asteroids[i - 1] + asteroids[i] < 0:
            return self.asteroidCollision(asteroids[:i-1] + asteroids[i:])
        else:
            return self.asteroidCollision(asteroids[:i-1] + asteroids[i+1:])

Stack

class Solution:
    def asteroidCollision(self, asteroids: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        asteroid_stack = []
        for each_asteroid in asteroids:
            while asteroid_stack and asteroid_stack[-1] > 0 and each_asteroid < 0:
                top_asteroid = asteroid_stack.pop()
                if top_asteroid > -each_asteroid:
                    each_asteroid = top_asteroid
                elif top_asteroid == -each_asteroid:
                    each_asteroid = 0
            if each_asteroid != 0:
                asteroid_stack.append(each_asteroid)
        return asteroid_stack