Apply Operations to an Array — LeetCode 2460 Python Solution

The problem

You are given a 0-indexed array nums of size n consisting of non-negative integers. You need to apply n - 1 operations to this array where, in the ith operation (0-indexed), you will apply the following on the ith element of nums: If nums[i] == nums[i + 1], then multiply nums[i] by 2 and set nums[i + 1] to 0.

Example

Input

nums = [1,2,2,1,1,0]

Output

[1,4,2,0,0,0]

Explanation

We do the following operations:

Python solution

class Solution:
    def applyOperations(self, nums: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        n = len(nums)
        for i in range(n - 1):
            if nums[i] == nums[i + 1]:
                nums[i] <<= 1
                nums[i + 1] = 0
        ans = [0] * n
        i = 0
        for x in nums:
            if x:
                ans[i] = x
                i += 1
        return ans

Complexity

Pattern: Two Pointers

Use the order already in the input to discard half the search space at every step. LeetCode 2460. Apply Operations to an Array is filed here on both counts: the reference solution below belongs to the algorithm family this hub collects, and LeetCode tags it Two Pointers.

The two pointers guide has the Python template for the pattern and the 201 LeetCode problems that use it.

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