DAY27：leetcode #23 Merge k Sorted Lists

Merge k sorted linked lists and return it as one sorted list. Analyze and describe its complexity.

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# Definition for singly-linked list.
# class ListNode(object):
#     def __init__(self, x):
#         self.val = x
#         self.next = None
import heapq
class Solution(object):
    def mergeKLists(self, lists):
        """
        :type lists: List[ListNode]
        :rtype: ListNode
        """
        if len(lists) == 0:
            return None
        head = ListNode(0)
        r_pointer = head
        heap = []
        heapq.heapify(heap)
        index_hash = {}
        for i in range(len(lists)):
            if lists[i]:
                heapq.heappush(heap, lists[i].val)
                index_hash.setdefault(lists[i].val, []).append(i)
                lists[i] = lists[i].next
        while len(heap) > 0:
            item = heapq.heappop(heap)
            r_pointer.next = ListNode(item)
            r_pointer = r_pointer.next
            if lists[index_hash[item][0]]:
                heapq.heappush(heap, lists[index_hash[item][0]].val)
                index_hash.setdefault(lists[index_hash[item][0]].val, []).append(index_hash[item][0])
                lists[index_hash[item][0]] = lists[index_hash[item][0]].next
            del index_hash[item][0]
        return head.next

这种方法用到了堆的数据结构，原理比较简单。维护一个大小为k的堆，每次取堆顶的最小元素放到结果中，然后读取该元素的下一个元素放入堆中，重新维护好。因为每个链表是有序的，每次又是去当前k个元素中最小的，所以当所有链表都读完时结束，这个时候所有元素按从小到大放在结果链表中。这个算法每个元素要读取一次，即是k*n次，然后每次读取元素要把新元素插入堆中要logk的复杂度，所以总时间复杂度是O(nklogk)。空间复杂度是堆的大小，即为O(k)。