Partition Array/ Sort Color

Partition array 和leetcode中sort color的想法类似： 用two pointer， 一个start （< k）， 一个end( >= k)，遇到不满足的就交换

Partition Array

question from lintcode

Given an array "nums" of integers and an int "k", Partition the array (i.e move the elements in "nums") such that,

* All elements < k are moved to the left

* All elements >= k are moved to the right

Return the partitioning Index, i.e the first index "i" nums[i] >= k.

Note
You should do really partition in array "nums" instead of just counting the numbers of integers smaller than k.

If all elements in "nums" are smaller than k, then return "nums.length"

Example
If nums=[3,2,2,1] and k=2, a valid answer is 1.

public int partitionArray(ArrayList<Integer> nums, int k) {
	    int res = 0;
	    if(nums == null || nums.size() == 0){
	    	return 0;
	    }
	    //two pointer
	    int start = 0, end = nums.size() -1;
	    while(start < end){
	    	while((start < end) && nums.get(start) < k){
	    		start++;
	    		res++;
	    	}
	    	if(start == end){
	    		break;
	    	}
	    	while((start< end) && nums.get(end) >= k){
	    		end--;
	    	}
	    	if(start  == end){
	    		break;
	    	}
	    	//swap two element
	    	int tmp = nums.get(start);
	    	nums.set(start, nums.get(end));
	    	nums.set(end, tmp);
	    	res++; //one < k
	    	start++;
	    	end--;
	    }
	    //start == end
	    if(nums.get(start) < k){
	    	res++;
	    }
	    return res;
    }

Sort color 想法类似，遇到中间元素也跳过即可

类似问题：Sort Letters By Case( lintcode)