Leetcode 128. Longest Consecutive Sequence:

Given an unsorted array of integers, find the length of the longest consecutive elements sequence.

For example,
Given [100, 4, 200, 1, 3, 2],
The longest consecutive elements sequence is [1, 2, 3, 4]. Return its length: 4.

Your algorithm should run in O(n) complexity.

1. HashSet:
   my java solution

class Solution {
    public int longestConsecutive(int[] nums) {
        Set <Integer> set = new <Integer>HashSet();
        int result = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < nums.length; i++){
            set.add(nums[i]);
        }
        for(int i = 0; i < nums.length; i++){
            int len = 0;
            if (set.contains(nums[i])){
                int num = nums[i];
                set.remove(num);
                len++;
                while(set.contains(num+1)){
                    set.remove(num+1);
                    num++;
                    len++;
                }
                num = nums[i];
                while(set.contains(num-1)){
                    set.remove(num-1);
                    num--;
                    len++;
                }
                result = Math.max(len,result);
            }
        }
        return result;
    }
}

2.HashMap
We will use HashMap. The key thing is to keep track of the sequence length and store that in the boundary points of the sequence. For example, as a result, for sequence {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, map.get(1) and map.get(5) should both return 5.

Whenever a new element n is inserted into the map, do two things:

1.See if n - 1 and n + 1 exist in the map, and if so, it means there is an existing sequence next to n. Variables left and right will be the length of those two sequences, while 0 means there is no sequence and n will be the boundary point later. Store (left + right + 1) as the associated value to key n into the map.
2.Use left and right to locate the other end of the sequences to the left and right of n respectively, and replace the value with the new length

public int longestConsecutive(int[] num) {
    int res = 0;
    HashMap<Integer, Integer> map = new HashMap<Integer, Integer>();
    for (int n : num) {
        if (!map.containsKey(n)) {
            int left = (map.containsKey(n - 1)) ? map.get(n - 1) : 0;
            int right = (map.containsKey(n + 1)) ? map.get(n + 1) : 0;
            // sum: length of the sequence n is in
            int sum = left + right + 1;
            map.put(n, sum);

            // keep track of the max length 
            res = Math.max(res, sum);

            // extend the length to the boundary(s)
            // of the sequence
            // will do nothing if n has no neighbors
            map.put(n - left, sum);
            map.put(n + right, sum);
        }
        else {
            // duplicates
            continue;
        }
    }
    return res;
}