LeetCode 27: Remove Element

题目描述：
Given an array nums and a value val, remove all instances of that value in-place and return the new length.

Do not allocate extra space for another array, you must do this by modifying the input array in-place with O(1) extra memory.

The order of elements can be changed. It doesn’t matter what you leave beyond the new length.

问题分析：
循环不变量：假设等于val的地方是空当，如果我们总是把下一个非空当的值交换到第一个空当处，那么空当连续。既然是连续的就好办了，我们始终让lower指针在空当（想象它是条河）的左岸，higher指针始终向前探索。如果higher指针遇到空当则继续前进，如果非空当，就把它交换到lower的下一个位置。

代码不难，一次通过：

class Solution {
    public int removeElement(int[] nums, int val) {
        int hole_size = 0;
        int lower = -1;
        int temp = 0;
        
        for (int higher=0; higher<nums.length; higher++){
            if (nums[higher] == val){
                hole_size++;
            }
            else {
                if (hole_size>0){
                   //swap nums[lower+1] and nums[higher]
                   temp = nums[higher];
                   nums[higher]=nums[lower+1];
                   nums[lower+1] = temp;
                }
                lower++;
            }
        }
        return lower+1;
    }
}
``

时间复杂度：O（n）