[面试题]在一个先增长后减小的数组中找到最大值

题目如下：

Given an array of integers. Find a peak element in it. An array element is peak if it is larger than its neighbors. For corner elements, we need to consider only one neighbor. For example, for input array {5, 10, 20, 15}, 20 is the only peak element. For input array {10, 20, 15, 2, 23, 90, 67}, there are two peak elements: 20 and 90. Note that we need to return any one peak element.

分析如下：

面试题目，来自G。首先，这道题目一定可以有一个答案。

(1)如果数组先增大再减小，一定有答案。

(2)如果数组单调递增，最后一个元素就是答案。

(3)如果数组单调递简，第一个元素就是答案。

(4)如果数组全部都一样，任何一个元素都是答案，更极端地，如果数组只有一个元素，那么这唯一的元素就是答案。

(5)如果数组出现了几个峰值，那么任何一个峰值都是答案。

normal case:

二分一次找到中点，如果中点Array[mid]比Array[mid-1]和Array[mid+1]都大，那么就返回mid。否则，如果Array[mid]>Array[mid-1], 则最大值在mid右边，如果

Array[mid]>Array[mid+1], 则最大值在mid左边。不断进行下去，直到找到为止。

corner case:

上面的(2)(3)(4)(5)

代码如下：

[cpp]  view plain  copy

1. // 来自http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-a-peak-in-a-given-array/  
2. // A Java program to find a peak element element using divide and conquer
   import java.util.*;
   import java.lang.*;
   import java.io.*;
   
   
   class PeakElement
   {
   // A binary search based function that returns index of a peak
   // element
   static int findPeakUtil(int arr[], int low, int high, int n)
   {
   // Find index of middle element
   int mid = low + (high - low)/2; /* (low + high)/2 */
   
   
   // Compare middle element with its neighbours (if neighbours
   // exist)
   if ((mid == 0 || arr[mid-1] <= arr[mid]) && (mid == n-1 ||
   arr[mid+1] <= arr[mid]))
   return mid;
   
   
   // If middle element is not peak and its left neighbor is
   // greater than it,then left half must have a peak element
   else if (mid > 0 && arr[mid-1] > arr[mid])
   return findPeakUtil(arr, low, (mid -1), n);
   
   
   // If middle element is not peak and its right neighbor
   // is greater than it, then right half must have a peak
   // element
   else return findPeakUtil(arr, (mid + 1), high, n);
   }
   
   
   // A wrapper over recursive function findPeakUtil()
   static int findPeak(int arr[], int n)
   {
   return findPeakUtil(arr, 0, n-1, n);
   }
   
   
   // Driver method
   public static void main (String[] args)
   {
   int arr[] = {1, 3, 20, 4, 1, 0};
   int n = arr.length;
   System.out.println("Index of a peak point is " +
   findPeak(arr, n));
   }
   }
   

上面的第1个if写得比较简洁，其实主要表达的是这样的条件判断:

(1) if(arr[mid+1]<=arr[mid]&&arr[mid-1]<=arr[mid])如果当前元素mid比左边的mid-1大，也比右边的mid+1大，那么mid就是答案。

(2) if(mid==n-1&&arr[mid-1]<=arr[mid])如果当前数组中待判断的元素只有2个元素且数组单调递增加，那么第2个元素就是答案。

(3) if(mid==0&&arr[mid+1]<=arr[mid])如果当前数组中待判断的元素只有2个元素且数组单调递减，那么第1个元素就是答案。

(4) if(mid==0&&mid==n-1) 如果当前数组中待判断的元素只有1个元素，那么这唯一的元素就是答案。

扩展思考：

把一个增序数组旋转，如何在旋转后的数组中找到一个数A并返回下标。这是leetcode上的一道题目并且有分析过程。

参考资料：

(1)  http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-a-peak-in-a-given-array/

https://blog.csdn.net/feliciafay/article/details/20586551