Given an integer array nums, return the maximum difference between two successive elements in its sorted form. If the array contains less than two elements, return 0.
You must write an algorithm that runs in linear time and uses linear extra space.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [3,6,9,1]
Output: 3
Explanation: The sorted form of the array is [1,3,6,9], either (3,6) or (6,9) has the maximum difference 3.
Example 2:
Input: nums = [10]
Output: 0
Explanation: The array contains less than 2 elements, therefore return 0.
Constraints:
1 <= nums.length <= 105
0 <= nums[i] <= 109
Solutions
Solution 1: Discuss Different Cases
Let $m$ represent the length of string $s$, and $n$ represent the length of string $t$. We can assume that $m$ is always greater than or equal to $n$.
If $m-n > 1$, return false directly;
Otherwise, iterate through $s$ and $t$, if $s[i]$ is not equal to $t[i]$:
If $m \neq n$, compare $s[i+1:]$ with $t[i:]$, return true if they are equal, otherwise return false;
If $m = n$, compare $s[i:]$ with $t[i:]$, return true if they are equal, otherwise return false.
If the iteration ends, it means that all the characters of $s$ and $t$ that have been iterated are equal, at this time it needs to satisfy $m=n+1$.
The time complexity is $O(m)$, where $m$ is the length of string $s$. The space complexity is $O(1)$.