Leetcode 142 Linked List Cycle II

题目

Given a linked list, return the node where the cycle begins. If there is no cycle, return null.

There is a cycle in a linked list if there is some node in the list that can be reached again by continuously following the next pointer. Internally, pos is used to denote the index of the node that tail’s next pointer is connected to. Note that pos is not passed as a parameter.

Notice that you should not modify the linked list.

Follow up:
Can you solve it using O(1) (i.e. constant) memory?

Example 1:
Input: head = [3,2,0,-4], pos = 1
Output: tail connects to node index 1
Explanation: There is a cycle in the linked list, where tail connects to the second node.

Example 2:
Input: head = [1,2], pos = 0
Output: tail connects to node index 0
Explanation: There is a cycle in the linked list, where tail connects to the first node.

Example 3:
Input: head = [1], pos = -1
Output: no cycle
Explanation: There is no cycle in the linked list.

Constraints:
The number of the nodes in the list is in the range [0, 104].
-105 <= Node.val <= 105
pos is -1 or a valid index in the linked-list.

思路

考虑用快慢指针，那么很显然快指针走的举例是慢指针的两倍，当他们的差正好是圈的长度的时候，快指针会重新追上慢指针，如果在快指针到达null前两者相遇则可以判断有圈。对照两个例子看了停止的位置并不固定，那么接下来是找到起点，假设圈子的长度是$c$，从起点到圈子的起点的距离为$x$，停下时慢指针在进入圈后走了$y$，这时慢指针走了$x+y$，快指针走了$x+y+c=2(x+y)$，接下来希望y在往前走$c-y=x$步，发现正好慢指针走到圈子起点的距离和从起点到圈子的距离一致，所以让一个指针从头开始往后遍历至与slow相遇即可。

代码

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * class ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode next;
 *     ListNode(int x) {
 *         val = x;
 *         next = null;
 *     }
 * }
 */
public class Solution {
    public ListNode detectCycle(ListNode head) {
        ListNode slow = head, fast = head;
        while (fast != null && fast.next != null) {
            slow = slow.next;
            fast = fast.next.next;
            if (slow == fast) break;
        }
        if (fast == null || fast.next == null) return null;
        slow = head;
        while (slow != fast) {
            slow = slow.next;
            fast = fast.next;
        }
        return fast;
    }
}