leetcode88. Merge Sorted Array

You are given two integer arrays nums1 and nums2, sorted in non-decreasing order, and two integers m and n, representing the number of elements in nums1 and nums2 respectively.

Merge nums1 and nums2 into a single array sorted in non-decreasing order.

The final sorted array should not be returned by the function, but instead be stored inside the array nums1. To accommodate this, nums1 has a length of m + n, where the first m elements denote the elements that should be merged, and the last n elements are set to 0 and should be ignored. nums2 has a length of n.

Example 1:

Input: nums1 = [1,2,3,0,0,0], m = 3, nums2 = [2,5,6], n = 3
Output: [1,2,2,3,5,6]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1,2,3] and [2,5,6].
The result of the merge is [1,2,2,3,5,6] with the underlined elements coming from nums1.

Example 2:

Input: nums1 = [1], m = 1, nums2 = [], n = 0
Output: [1]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1] and [].
The result of the merge is [1].

Example 3:

Input: nums1 = [0], m = 0, nums2 = [1], n = 1
Output: [1]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [] and [1].
The result of the merge is [1].
Note that because m = 0, there are no elements in nums1. The 0 is only there to ensure the merge result can fit in nums1.

Constraints:

nums1.length == m + n
nums2.length == n
0 <= m, n <= 200
1 <= m + n <= 200
-109 <= nums1[i], nums2[j] <= 109

Follow up: Can you come up with an algorithm that runs in O(m + n) time?

方法一：双指针

我们注意到数组的有序性，可以使用双指针的方法，从后向前遍历两个数组，每次取两个数组中较大的一个放进合并后的数组的最后面。

具体地，我们用两个指针 i 和 j 分别指向两个数组的末尾，用一个指针 k 指向合并后的数组的末尾。每次比较两个数组的末尾元素，将较大的元素放在合并后的数组的末尾，然后将指针向前移动一位，重复这个过程，直到两个数组的指针都指向了数组的开头。

class Solution:
    def merge(self, nums1: List[int], m: int, nums2: List[int], n: int) -> None:
        k = m + n - 1
        i, j = m - 1, n - 1
        while j >= 0:
            if i >= 0 and nums1[i] > nums2[j]:
                nums1[k] = nums1[i]
                i -= 1
            else:
                nums1[k] = nums2[j]
                j -= 1
            k -= 1