I have 2 sorted integer lists or arrays a and b, both having same number of elements. I want to pair an element in a with an element in b such that when I take smaller element in all pairs, their sum is minimum.
For example,
a=[1,7,14,18]
b=[8,9,10,12]
I would be pairing [(1,12),(7,10),(14,9),(18,8)] and then taking smaller element in each pair, namely, [1,7,9,8], I will get minimum sum. This is just one possibility I took. I want to know if this method of pairing elements of first list from the first element and moving forward with elements of the second list starting from end and going backwards will give me the minimum sum.
Yes, that method of pairing the largest with the smallest will work:
If the largest element in the second array is smaller than the smallest in the first array, any pairing method will work and so pair the remaining elements using your method.
If not, pairing the first pair with your method will ensure the smallest from the first (which should be counted) will be counted and the largest from the second (which should not be counted) will not be counted
Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the remaining elements from both arrays until you run out of elements
As you can see, the smallest remaining elements from the arrays will always be counted at each step along the way, and so the sum of the smallest from the resulting pairs will be minimized as desired.
Related
For example, given an array
a = [1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9]
and an integer
i = 2. Find maximal subarrays where the distance between the largest and the smallest elements is at most i. The output for the example above would be:
[1,2,3] [7,8,9]
The subarrays are maximal in the sense given two subarrays A and B. There exists no element b in B such that A + b satisfies the condition given. Does there exist a non-polynomial time algorithm for said problem ?
This problem might be solved in linear time using method of two pointers and two deques storing indices, the first deque keeps minimum, another keeps maximum in sliding window.
Deque for minimum (similar for maximum):
current_minimum = a[minq.front]
Adding i-th element of array: //at the right index
while (!minq.empty and a[minq.back] > a[i]):
//last element has no chance to become a minimum because newer one is better
minq.pop_back
minq.push_back(i)
Extracting j-th element: //at the left index
if (!minq.empty and minq.front == j)
minq.pop_front
So min-deque always contains non-decreasing sequence.
Now set left and right indices in 0, insert index 0 into deques, and start to move right. At every step add index in order into deques, and check than left..right interval range is good. When range becomes too wide (min-max distance is exceeded), stop moving right index, check length of the last good interval, compare with the best length.
Now move left index, removing elements from deques. When max-min becomes good, stop left and start with right again. Repeat until array end.
We know about an algorithm that will find the Longest Increasing subsequence in O(nlogn). I was wondering whether we can find the Longest non-decreasing subsequence with similar time complexity?
For example, consider an array : (4,10,4,8,9).
The longest increasing subsequence is (4,8,9).
And a longest non-decreasing subsequence would be (4,4,8,9).
First, here’s a “black box” approach that will let you find the longest nondecreasing subsequence using an off-the-shelf solver for longest increasing subsequences. Let’s take your sample array:
4, 10, 4, 8, 9
Now, imagine we transformed this array as follows by adding a tiny fraction to each number:
4.0, 10.1, 4.2, 8.3, 9.4
Changing the numbers this way will not change the results of any comparisons between two different integers, since the integer components have a larger magnitude difference than the values after the decimal point. However, if you compare the two 4s now, the latter 4 compares bigger than the previous one. If you now find the longest nondecreasing subsequence, you get back [4.0, 4.2, 8.3, 9.4], which you can then map back to [4, 4, 8, 9].
More generally, if you’re working with an array of n integer values, you can add i / n to each of the numbers, where i is its index, and you’ll be left with a sequence of distinct numbers. From there running a regular LIS algorithm will do the trick.
If you can’t work with fractions this way, you could alternatively multiply each number by n and then add in i, which also works.
On the other hand, suppose you have the code for a solver for LIS and want to convert it to one that solves the longest nondecreasing subsequence problem. The reasoning above shows that if you treat later copies of numbers as being “larger” than earlier copies, then you can just use a regular LIS. Given that, just read over the code for LIS and find spots where comparisons are made. When a comparison is made between two equal values, break the tie by considering the later appearance to be bigger than the earlier one.
I think the following will work in O(nlogn):
Scan the array from right to left, and for each element solve a subproblem of finding a longest subsequence starting from the given element of the array. E.g. if your array has indices from 0 to 4, then you start with the subarray [4,4] and check what's the longest sequence starting from 4, then you check subarray [3,4] and what's the longest subsequence starting from 3, next [2,4], and so on, until [0,4]. Finally, you choose the longest subsequence established in either of the steps.
For the last element (so subarray [4,4]) the longest sequence is always of length 1.
When in the next iteration you consider another element to the left (e.g., in the second step you consider the subarray [3,4], so the new element is element with the index 3 in the original array) you check if that element is not greater than some of the elements to its right. If so, you can take the result for some element from the right and add one.
For instance:
[4,4] -> longest sequence of length 1 (9)
[3,4] -> longest sequence of length 2 (8,9) 1+1 (you take the longest sequence from above which starts with 9 and add one to its length)
[2,4] -> longest sequence of length 3 (4,8,9) 2+1 (you take the longest sequence from above, i.e. (8,9), and add one to its length)
[1,4] -> longest sequence of length 1 (10) nothing to add to (10 is greater than all the elements to its right)
[0,4] -> longest sequence of length 4 (4,4,8,9) 3+1 (you take the longest sequence above, i.e. (4,8,9), and add one to its length)
The main issue is how to browse all the candidates to the right in logarithmic time. For that you keep a sorted map (a balanced binary tree). The keys are the already visited elements of the array. The values are the longest sequence lengths obtainable from that element. No need to store duplicates - among duplicate keys store the entry with largest value.
I have an array A of size N. All elements are positive integers. In one step, I can add two adjacent elements and replace them with their sum. That said, the array size reduces by 1. Now I need to make all the elements same by performing minimum number of steps.
For example: A = [1,2,3,2,1,3].
Step 1: Merge index 0 and 1 ==> A = [3,3,2,1,3]
Step 2: Merge index 2 and 3 (of new array) ==> [3,3,3,3]
Hence number of steps are 2.
I couldn't think of a straight solution, so tried a recursive approach by merging all indices one by one and returning the min level I can get when either array size is 1 or all elements are equal.
Below is the code I tried:
# Checks if all the elements are same or not
def check(A):
if len(set(A)) == 1:
return True
return False
# Recursive function to find min steps
def min_steps(N,A,level):
# If all are equal return the level
if N == 1 or check(A):
return level
# Initialize min variable
mn = float('+inf')
# Try merging all one by one and recur
for i in range(N-1):
temp = A[:]
temp[i]+=temp[i+1]
temp.pop(i+1)
mn = min(mn, min_steps(N-1,temp, level+1))
return mn
This solution has complexity of O(N^N). I want to reduce it to polynomial time near to O(N^2) or O(N^3). Can anyone help me modify this solution or tell me if I am missing something?
Combining any k adjacent pairs of elements (even if they include elements formed from previous combining steps) leaves exactly n-k elements in total, each of which we can map back to the contiguous subarray of the original problem that constitutes the elements that were added together to form it. So, this problem is equivalent to partitioning the array into the largest possible number of contiguous subarrays such that all subarrays have the same sum: Any adjacent pair of elements within the same subarray can be combined into a single element, and this process repeated within the subarray with adjacent pairs chosen in any order, until all elements have been combined into a single element.
So, if there are n elements and they sum to T, then a simple O(nT) algorithm is:
For i from 0 to T:
Try partitioning the elements into subarrays each having sum i. This amounts to scanning along the array, greedily adding the current element to the current subarray if the sum of elements in the current subarray is strictly < i. When we reach a total of exactly i, the current subarray ends and a new subarray (initially having sum 0) begins. If adding the current element takes us above the target of i, or if we run out of elements before reaching the target, stop this scan and try the next outer loop iteration (value of i). OTOH if we get to the end, having formed k subarrays in the process, stop and report n-k as the optimal (minimum possible) number of combining moves.
A small speedup would be to only try target i values that evenly divide T.
EDIT: To improve the time complexity from O(nT) to O(n^2), it suffices to only try target i values corresponding to sums of prefixes of the array (since there must be a subarray containing the first element, and this subarray can only have such a sum).
I have a mathematical/algorithmic problem here.
Given an array of numbers, find a way to separate it to 5 subarrays, so that sum of each subarrays is less than or equal to a given number. All numbers from the initial array, must go to one of the subarrays, and be part of one sum.
So the input to the algorithm would be:
d - representing the number that each subarrays sum has to be less or equal
A - representing the array of numbers that will be separated to different subarrays, and will be part of one sum
Algorithm complexity must be polynomial.
Thank you.
If by "subarray" you mean "subset" as opposed to "contiguous slice", it is impossible to find a polynomial time algorithm for this problem (unless P = NP). The Partition Problem is to partition a list of numbers into to sets such that the sum of both sets are equal. It is known to be NP-complete. The partition problem can be reduced to your problem as follows:
Suppose that x1, ..., x_n are positive numbers that you want to partition into 2 sets such that their sums are equal. Let d be this common sum (which would be the sum of the xi divided by 2). extend x_i to an array, A, of size n+3 by adding three copies of d. Clearly the only way to partition A into 5 subarrays so that the sum of each is less than or equal to d is if the sum of each actually equals d. This would in turn require 3 of the subarrays to have length 1, each consisting of the number d. The remaining 2 subarrays would be exactly a partition of the original n numbers.
On the other hand, if there are additional constraints on what the numbers are and/or the subarrays need to be, there might be a polynomial solution. But, if so, you should clearly spell out what there constraints are.
Set up of the problem:
d : the upper bound for the subarray
A : the initial array
Assuming A is not sorted.
(Heuristic)
Algorithm:
1.Sort A in ascending order using standard sorting algorithm->O(nlogn)
2.Check if the largest element of A is greater than d ->(constant)
if yes, no solution
if no, continue
3.Sum up all the element in A, denote S. Check if S/5 > d ->O(n)
if yes, no solution
if no, continue
4.Using greedy approach, create a new subarray Asi, add next biggest element aj in the sorted A to Asi so that the sum of Asi does not exceed d. Remove aj from sorted A ->O(n)
repeat step4 until either of the condition satisfied:
I.At creating subarray Asi, there are only 5-i element left
In this case, split the remaining element to individual subarray, done
II. i = 5. There are 5 subarray created.
The algorithm described above is bounded by O(nlogn) therefore in polynomial time.
I'm trying to implement this in my program, namely we have given array of K pairs, where each pair is in form (i,j) and i<=N, j<=M, N,M<=1000, and K<=N*M.
Now for each pair we want to count pairs in which the first element is strictly bigger and the second one is strictly less, for example if our pair is: (2,3), we want to count the pair (4,1), but not the pair (1,2) because 1 is less than 2.
Is this possible to do in O(N*M) time complexity?