Given an array S of n integers, are there elements a, b, c, and d in S such that a + b + c + d = target? Find all unique quadruplets in the array which gives the sum of target.
Note:
Elements in a quadruplet (a,b,c,d) must be in non-descending order. (ie, a ≤ b ≤ c ≤ d)
The solution set must not contain duplicate quadruplets.
For example, given array S = {1 0 -1 0 -2 2}, and target = 0. A solution set is: (-1, 0, 0, 1) (-2, -1, 1, 2) (-2, 0, 0, 2)
Thoughts
A typical k-sum problem. Time is N to the poser of (k-1).
Java Solution
public ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> fourSum(int[] num, int target) {
Arrays.sort(num);
HashSet<ArrayList<Integer>> hashSet = new HashSet<ArrayList<Integer>>();
ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> result = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
for (int i = 0; i < num.length; i++) {
for (int j = i + 1; j < num.length; j++) {
int k = j + 1;
int l = num.length - 1;
while (k < l) {
int sum = num[i] + num[j] + num[k] + num[l];
if (sum > target) {
l--;
} else if (sum < target) {
k++;
} else if (sum == target) {
ArrayList<Integer> temp = new ArrayList<Integer>();
temp.add(num[i]);
temp.add(num[j]);
temp.add(num[k]);
temp.add(num[l]);
if (!hashSet.contains(temp)) {
hashSet.add(temp);
result.add(temp);
}
k++;
l--;
}
}
}
}
return result;
}
Here is the hashCode method of ArrayList. It makes sure that if all elements of two lists are the same, then the hash code of the two lists will be the same. Since each element in the ArrayList is Integer, same integer has same hash code.
int hashCode = 1;
Iterator<E> i = list.iterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
E obj = i.next();
hashCode = 31*hashCode + (obj==null ? 0 : obj.hashCode());
}