11.5 Given a sorted array of strings which is interspersed with empty strings, write a method to find the location of a given string. EXAMPLE Input: find "ball" in {"at", "", "", "", "ball", "", "", "car", "", "", "dad", "", ""} Output: 4

 

这道题给了我们一个有序的字符串数组,但是在中间加入了很多空字符串,让我们来查找一个给定字符串。如果没有这些空字符串,那么我们用二分查找法很容易搜索,但是这些空字符串就有很大的干扰作用。那么我们要在原有的二分查找法上做修改,类似的修改二分查找法的里有Search in Rotated Sorted Array 在旋转有序数组中搜索和Search in Rotated Sorted Array II 在旋转有序数组中搜索之二。这道题我们的思路是,查找中间的字符串,如果是空字符串,那么我们用二分查找法来找周围最近的非空字符串,然后把mid移到飞空字符串的位置,继续二分查找。相当于二分查找中又嵌套了一个二分查找,参见代码如下:

 

class Solution {

public:

int search(vector strings, string str) {

int first = 0, last = strings.size() - 1;

while (first <= last) {

int mid = first + (last - first) / 2;

if (strings[mid].empty()) {

int left = mid - 1, right = mid + 1;

while (true) {

if (left < first && right > last) return -1;

else if (right <= last && !strings[right].empty()) {

mid = right; break;

}

else if (left >= first && !strings[left].empty()) {

mid = left; break;

}

++right;

--left;

}

}

int res = strings[mid].compare(str);

if (res == 0) return mid;

else if (res < 0) first = mid + 1;

else last = mid - 1;

}

return -1;

}

};

 

查看原文