Median of Two Sorted Arrays

 

There are two sorted arrays nums1 and nums2 of size m and n respectively.

Find the median of the two sorted arrays. The overall run time complexity should be O(log (m+n)).

You may assume nums1 and nums2 cannot be both empty.

Example 1:

nums1 = [1, 3]
nums2 = [2]

The median is 2.0

Example 2:

nums1 = [1, 2]
nums2 = [3, 4]

The median is (2 + 3)/2 = 2.5

用merge sort的思路可以做

用二分更快，meidian就是将数组划分为2部分，一部分的min比另外一部分的max还大；所以可以从2个数组中选长度小的数组作为二分的对象，然后不满足 “一部分的min比另外一部分的max还大” 这一性质的话就改变搜索区间

参考https://leetcode.com/problems/median-of-two-sorted-arrays/discuss/2481/Share-my-O(log(min(mn))-solution-with-explanation

To solve this problem, we need to understand "What is the use of median". In statistics, the median is used for dividing a set into two equal length subsets, that one subset is always greater than the other. If we understand the use of median for dividing, we are very close to the answer.

First let's cut A into two parts at a random position i:

      left_A             |        right_A
A[0], A[1], ..., A[i-1]  |  A[i], A[i+1], ..., A[m-1]

Since A has m elements, so there are m+1 kinds of cutting( i = 0 ~ m ). And we know: len(left_A) = i, len(right_A) = m - i . Note: when i = 0 , left_A is empty, and when i = m , right_A is empty.

With the same way, cut B into two parts at a random position j:

      left_B             |        right_B
B[0], B[1], ..., B[j-1]  |  B[j], B[j+1], ..., B[n-1]

Put left_A and left_B into one set, and put right_A and right_B into another set. Let's name them left_part and right_part :

      left_part          |        right_part
A[0], A[1], ..., A[i-1]  |  A[i], A[i+1], ..., A[m-1]
B[0], B[1], ..., B[j-1]  |  B[j], B[j+1], ..., B[n-1]

If we can ensure:

1) len(left_part) == len(right_part)
2) max(left_part) <= min(right_part)

then we divide all elements in {A, B} into two parts with equal length, and one part is always greater than the other. Then median = (max(left_part) + min(right_part))/2.

To ensure these two conditions, we just need to ensure:

(1) i + j == m - i + n - j (or: m - i + n - j + 1)
    if n >= m, we just need to set: i = 0 ~ m, j = (m + n + 1)/2 - i
(2) B[j-1] <= A[i] and A[i-1] <= B[j]

def median(A, B):
    m, n = len(A), len(B)
    if m > n:
        A, B, m, n = B, A, n, m
    if n == 0:
        raise ValueError

    imin, imax, half_len = 0, m, (m + n + 1) / 2
    while imin <= imax:
        i = (imin + imax) / 2
        j = half_len - i
        if i < m and B[j-1] > A[i]:
            # i is too small, must increase it
            imin = i + 1
        elif i > 0 and A[i-1] > B[j]:
            # i is too big, must decrease it
            imax = i - 1
        else:
            # i is perfect

            if i == 0: max_of_left = B[j-1]
            elif j == 0: max_of_left = A[i-1]
            else: max_of_left = max(A[i-1], B[j-1])

            if (m + n) % 2 == 1:
                return max_of_left

            if i == m: min_of_right = B[j]
            elif j == n: min_of_right = A[i]
            else: min_of_right = min(A[i], B[j])

            return (max_of_left + min_of_right) / 2.0