Gas Station

Problem:

There are N gas stations along a circular route, where the amount of gas at station i is gas[i].

You have a car with an unlimited gas tank and it costs cost[i] of gas to travel from station i to its next station (i+1). You begin the journey with an empty tank at one of the gas stations.

Return the starting gas station's index if you can travel around the circuit once, otherwise return -1.

Note:
The solution is guaranteed to be unique.

如果汽车只能走完i->j的路程，那么不存在k包含于(i,j)使汽车从k出发走完全程。所以，如果一次遍历在已遍历过的路程中断开，那么就不存在能走完全程的始发节点。

另外，在讨论区看到一哥们提出的两点思考有点意思：

• If car starts at A and can not reach B. Any station between A and B can not reach B.(B is the first station that A can not reach.)
• If the total number of gas is bigger than the total number of cost. There must be a solution.

再贴一段c++代码，相当精致，好好学习一下。

class Solution {
public:
    int canCompleteCircuit(vector<int> &gas, vector<int> &cost) {
        int start(0),total(0),tank(0);
        //if car fails at 'start', record the next station
        for(int i=0;i<gas.size();i++) if((tank=tank+gas[i]-cost[i])<0) {start=i+1;total+=tank;tank=0;}
        return (total+tank<0)? -1:start;
    }
};

Solution:

public class Solution {
    public int canCompleteCircuit(int[] gas, int[] cost) {
        for(int i=0;i<gas.length;i++)
        {
         gas[i] -= cost[i];
        }
        
        if(gas.length==0)
         return -1;
        
        if(gas.length==1)
         return gas[0]>=0?0:-1;
        
        int sum;
        int head=0,tail=0;
        boolean flag = true;
        while(flag)
        {
         sum = gas[head];
         while(sum>=0)
         {
         head = head+1;
         if(head>=gas.length)
         flag = false;
         head = head%gas.length;
         if(head==tail)
         return tail;
         sum += gas[head];
         }        
     if(++head>=gas.length)
     flag = false;
         tail = head;
        }
        return -1;
    }
}