LintCode 159. Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array

题目

Suppose a sorted array is rotated at some pivot unknown to you beforehand.
(i.e., 0 1 2 4 5 6 7 might become 4 5 6 7 0 1 2).
Find the minimum element.
Notice
You may assume no duplicate exists in the array.
Have you met this question in a real interview?
Yes
Example
Given [4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2] return 0
Tags
Binary Search

思路

二分查找。
假设数字没有重复，这样题目简单很多。
需要动点脑筋。
如果是旋转数组的话，最左边的数字应该是大于最右边的数字的。
那么左指针的值应该大于右指针的值。
如果$mid>left$，那么$mid$在左半部分数字中，最小值在右边，令$start=mid$。如果$mid<right$，那么$mid$在右半部分数字中，最小值在左边，令$end=mid$。

代码

class Solution:
    """
    @param: nums: a rotated sorted array
    @return: the minimum number in the array
    """
    def findMin(self, nums):
        # write your code here
        start = 0; end = len(nums) - 1
        mid = start
        while start < end and nums[start] > nums[end]:
            if start + 1 == end:
                return nums[end]
            mid = start + (end - start) // 2
            if nums[mid] > nums[start]:
                start = mid
            else:
                end = mid
        return nums[mid]