Problem

Suppose an array of length n sorted in ascending order is rotated between 1 and n times. For example, the array nums = [0,1,2,4,5,6,7] might become:

  • [4,5,6,7,0,1,2] if it was rotated 4 times.
  • [0,1,2,4,5,6,7] if it was rotated 7 times.

Notice that rotating an array [a[0], a[1], a[2], ..., a[n-1]] 1 time results in the array [a[n-1], a[0], a[1], a[2], ..., a[n-2]].

Given the sorted rotated array nums of unique elements, return the minimum element of this array.

You must write an algorithm that runs in O(log n) time.

https://leetcode.com/problems/find-minimum-in-rotated-sorted-array/

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,4,5,1,2]
Output: 1
Explanation: The original array was [1,2,3,4,5] rotated 3 times.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [4,5,6,7,0,1,2]
Output: 0
Explanation: The original array was [0,1,2,4,5,6,7] and it was rotated 4 times.

Example 3:

Input: nums = [11,13,15,17]
Output: 11
Explanation: The original array was [11,13,15,17] and it was rotated 4 times.

Constraints:

  • n == nums.length
  • 1 <= n <= 5000
  • -5000 <= nums[i] <= 5000
  • All the integers of nums are unique.
  • nums is sorted and rotated between 1 and n times.

Test Cases

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class Solution:
def findMin(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
solution_test.py
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import pytest

from solution import Solution


@pytest.mark.parametrize('nums, expected', [
([3,4,5,1,2], 1),
([4,5,6,7,0,1,2], 0),
([11,13,15,17], 11),
])
class Test:
def test_solution(self, nums, expected):
sol = Solution()
assert sol.findMin(nums) == expected

Thoughts

还是二分搜索的逻辑。

看数组中间位置的元素值,如果比两端的值都大,那么应该去右半边(不含中间位置)继续搜索。如果比两端的值都小,应该去左半边(含中间位置)继续搜索。如果介于两端的值之间,那么左端点就是最小值。

当子数组缩短到不超过 2 个元素的时候就可以停止,最后的一个元素,或者最后两个元素的较小值,就是整个数组的最小值。这样写代码的时候可以简化边界值的处理(运行速度也是更快的)。

时间复杂度 O(log n),空间复杂度 O(1)

Code

solution.py
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from typing import List


class Solution:
def findMin(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
l, r = 0, len(nums) - 1
while l < r - 1:
m = (l + r) >> 1
if nums[l] < nums[r]:
return nums[l]
elif nums[l] < nums[m]:
l = m + 1
else: # nums[m] < nums[r]
r = m

return min(nums[l], nums[r])