239. Sliding Window Maximum

题意：Given an array nums, there is a sliding window of size k which is moving from the very left of the array to the very right. You can only see the k numbers in the window. Each time the sliding window moves right by one position.

For example,
Given nums = [1,3,-1,-3,5,3,6,7], and k = 3.

Window position                Max
---------------               -----
[1  3  -1] -3  5  3  6  7       3
 1 [3  -1  -3] 5  3  6  7       3
 1  3 [-1  -3  5] 3  6  7       5
 1  3  -1 [-3  5  3] 6  7       5
 1  3  -1  -3 [5  3  6] 7       6
 1  3  -1  -3  5 [3  6  7]      7

Therefore, return the max sliding window as [3,3,5,5,6,7].

Note:
You may assume k is always valid, ie: 1 ≤ k ≤ input array’s size for non-empty array.

Follow up:
Could you solve it in linear time?

Hint:

How about using a data structure such as deque (double-ended queue)?
The queue size need not be the same as the window’s size.
Remove redundant elements and the queue should store only elements that need to be considered.

思路：如果用普通的数据结构，每次从k个数中找出最大数的复杂度是O（k），对于n个数的数组就是O（nk），这样显然不是线性时间内完成的。所以借助一个双端队列的数据结构，仔细看题不难发现，如果新加入的数大于之前几个数，那之前的数就不可能成为备选的次最大数，因为他们会先被移出窗口，因此新加入的数存入队列中。如果新加入的数小于队列头部的数，那就有可能成为次最大数，所以也存入队列。还有一种情况是窗口不在包含队列最大数，它就会被pop出去。具体实现看代码：

def maxSlidingWindow(self, nums, k):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :type k: int
        :rtype: List[int]
        """
        from collections import deque
        dq, max_windows = deque(), []
        for i in xrange(len(nums)):
            while dq and nums[i]>nums[dq[-1]]:
                dq.pop()
            dq.append(i)
            if i >= k and dq and dq[0]<=i-k:
                dq.popleft()
            if i >= k-1:
                max_windows.append(nums[dq[0]])
        return max_windows