2020-11-30

23. Merge k Sorted Lists

You are given an array of k linked-lists lists, each linked-list is sorted in ascending order.

Merge all the linked-lists into one sorted linked-list and return it.

Example 1:

Input: lists = [[1,4,5],[1,3,4],[2,6]]
Output: [1,1,2,3,4,4,5,6]
Explanation: The linked-lists are: [ 1->4->5, 1->3->4, 2->6 ]
merging them into one sorted list: 1->1->2->3->4->4->5->6

Example 2:
Input: lists = []
Output: []

Example 3:
Input: lists = [[]]
Output: []

合并k个有序的链表，这道题在之前面试bigo时遇到过。

虽然是一道hard，但是实现方式并不复杂。首先，需要实现合并两个链表，然后归并两两合并。

合并两个有序的链表：
分别从头开始遍历两个链表，每次选取数值较小的那个节点，说白了：就是谁小选谁。

public ListNode mergeTwoLists(ListNode l1, ListNode l2) {
   ListNode head = new ListNode(-1);
   ListNode temp = head;
   while (l1 != null && l2 != null) {
       if (l1.val < l2.val) {
           temp.next = l1;
           l1 = l1.next;
       } else {
           temp.next = l2;
           l2 = l2.next;
       }
       temp = temp.next;
   }
   while (l1 != null) {
       temp.next = l1;
       l1 = l1.next;
       temp = temp.next;
   }
   while (l2 != null) {
       temp.next = l2;
       l2 = l2.next;
       temp = temp.next;
   }
   return head.next;
}

合并两个链表已经实现了，下面通过归并算法，两两合并。
思路是：先计算出中点，从中间把lists分一半，然后对左右两边分别合并。合并后得到两个升序链表：l1和l2，然后合并l1和l2

 public ListNode mergeLists(ListNode[] lists, int left, int right) {
        if (left == right) {
            return lists[left];
        }
        if (left == right - 1) {
            return mergeTwoLists(lists[left], lists[right]);
        }
        int mid = (left + right) >> 1;
        ListNode l1 = mergeLists(lists, left, mid);
        ListNode l2 = mergeLists(lists, mid + 1, right);
        return mergeTwoLists(l1, l2);
    }

完整的代码如下：

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * public class ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode next;
 *     ListNode() {}
 *     ListNode(int val) { this.val = val; }
 *     ListNode(int val, ListNode next) { this.val = val; this.next = next; }
 * }
 */
class Solution {X
    public ListNode mergeKLists(ListNode[] lists) {
        if (lists == null || lists.length == 0) {
            return null;
        }
        return mergeLists(lists, 0, lists.length - 1);
    }

    public ListNode mergeLists(ListNode[] lists, int left, int right) {
        if (left == right) {
            return lists[left];
        }
        if (left == right - 1) {
            return mergeTwoLists(lists[left], lists[right]);
        }
        int mid = (left + right) >> 1;
        ListNode l1 = mergeLists(lists, left, mid);
        ListNode l2 = mergeLists(lists, mid + 1, right);
        return mergeTwoLists(l1, l2);
    }

    public ListNode mergeTwoLists(ListNode l1, ListNode l2) {
        ListNode head = new ListNode(-1);
        ListNode temp = head;
        while (l1 != null && l2 != null) {
            if (l1.val < l2.val) {
                temp.next = l1;
                l1 = l1.next;
            } else {
                temp.next = l2;
                l2 = l2.next;
            }
            temp = temp.next;
        }
        while (l1 != null) {
            temp.next = l1;
            l1 = l1.next;
            temp = temp.next;
        }
        while (l2 != null) {
            temp.next = l2;
            l2 = l2.next;
            temp = temp.next;
        }
        return head.next;
    }
}