18. 4Sum

问题

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

Note: The solution set must not contain duplicate quadruplets.

For example, given array S = [1, 0, -1, 0, -2, 2], and target = 0.

A solution set is:
[
  [-1,  0, 0, 1],
  [-2, -1, 1, 2],
  [-2,  0, 0, 2]
]

分析：

4Sum问题。从discuss中找到了一个非常巧妙的方法，而且效率很高，就是从4+简化成3+再简化成2+，换一种评论中的说法就是玩五阶魔方的思路就是从五阶降到四阶，然后再从四阶降到三阶，最后再按照玩三阶魔方的老套路解决问题。嗯，这个思路有点类似！ 。其中很重要的就是各种限制条件，还有去重。

java

class Solution {
    public List<List<Integer>> fourSum(int[] nums, int target) {
        List<List<Integer>> ans = new ArrayList<>();

        if(nums==null || nums.length<4 )
            return ans;

        Arrays.sort(nums);
        if(nums[nums.length-1]*4 < target)
            return ans;

        for(int i = 0; i < nums.length - 3; i++){
            if(i>0 && nums[i]==nums[i-1])
                continue;
            if(nums[i] + nums[nums.length-1]*3 < target)
                continue;
            if(nums[i]*4 > target)
                break;
            threeSumForFourSum(nums, ans, i+1, target - nums[i]);
        }

        return ans;
    }

    public void threeSumForFourSum(int[] nums, List<List<Integer>> ans, int low, int target){
        for(int i = low; i < nums.length - 2; i++){
            if(i > low &&  nums[i] == nums[i-1])
                continue;
            if(nums[i] + nums[nums.length-1]*3 < target)
                continue;
            if(nums[i]*3 > target)
                return;
            twoSumForThreeSum(nums, ans, i+1, target - nums[i], low-1);
        }
        return;
    }

    public void twoSumForThreeSum(int[] nums, List<List<Integer>> ans, int low, int target, int firstinx){
        int i = low, j = nums.length - 1;
        while(i < j){
            if(nums[i] + nums[j] == target){
                ans.add(Arrays.asList(nums[firstinx], nums[low-1], nums[i], nums[j]));
                while(i<j && nums[i] == nums[i+1]) i++;
                i++;
                while(i<j && nums[j] == nums[j-1]) j--;
                j--;
            }
            else if(nums[i] + nums[j] < target)
                i++;
            else
                j--;
        }
        return;
    }
}