3Sum

Given an array S of n integers, are there elements a, b, c in S such that a + b + c = 0? Find all unique triplets in the array which gives the sum of zero.

Note:

• Elements in a triplet (a,b,c) must be in non-descending order. (ie, a ≤ b ≤ c)
• The solution set must not contain duplicate triplets.

    For example, given array S = {-1 0 1 2 -1 -4},

    A solution set is:
    (-1, 0, 1)
    (-1, -1, 2)

Analysis: Just use two pointers, the basic idea is the same as Two Sum. The time complexity is O(N2).

public class Solution {
    public ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> threeSum(int[] num) {
        ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> res = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
        Arrays.sort(num);   // sort the original array in ascending order
        for(int i=0; i<=num.length-3; i++) {
            if(i>0 && num[i]==num[i-1]) continue;   // avoid duplicate, [0, 0, 0, 0]
            int twoSum=0-num[i], low=i+1, high=num.length-1;
            while(low < high) {
                if(num[low]+num[high]<twoSum) low++;
                else if(num[low]+num[high]>twoSum) high--;
                else if(num[low]+num[high] == twoSum) {
                    ArrayList<Integer> tem = new ArrayList<Integer>();
                    tem.add(num[i]);
                    tem.add(num[low]);
                    tem.add(num[high]);
                    res.add(tem);
                    low++;
                    high--;
                    while(low<high && num[low]==num[low-1]) low++;      // avoid duplicate
                    while(low<high && num[high]==num[high+1]) high--;   // avoid duplicate
                }
            }
        }
        return res;
    }
}