LintCode 14题：First Position of Target

这篇文章讲解的是LintCode第14题：寻找有序数组中第一次出现的目标值—First Position of Target

题目描述链接

这题只要在二分查找的模板上加以修改即可：

class Solution:
    """
    @param nums: The integer array.
    @param target: Target to find.
    @return: The first position of target. Position starts from 0.
    """
    def binarySearch(self, nums, target):
        # write your code here
        
        if not nums:
            return -1
            
        start, end = 0, len(nums) - 1
        while start + 1 < end:
            mid = start + (end - start) // 2
            if nums[mid] < target:
                start = mid
            elif nums[mid] >= target:
                end = mid
        
        if nums[start] == target:
            return start
        if nums[end] == target:
            return end
        return -1

同理在第458题查找最后一个出现的目标值索引时，只需要将等号位置换成<=即可。

class Solution:
    """
    @param nums: An integer array sorted in ascending order
    @param target: An integer
    @return: An integer
    """
    def lastPosition(self, nums, target):
        # write your code here
        if not nums:
            return -1
        
        start, end = 0, len(nums) - 1
        while start + 1 < end:
            mid = start + (end - start) // 2
            if nums[mid] < target:
                start = mid
            elif nums[mid] > target:
                end = mid
            else:
                start = mid
        
        if nums[end] == target:
            return end
        if nums[start] == target:
            return start
        return -1