268. Missing Number
Description
Given an array nums
containing n
distinct numbers in the range [0, n]
, return the only number in the range that is missing from the array.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [3,0,1]
Output: 2
Explanation:
n = 3
since there are 3 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,3]
. 2 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums
.
Example 2:
Input: nums = [0,1]
Output: 2
Explanation:
n = 2
since there are 2 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,2]
. 2 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums
.
Example 3:
Input: nums = [9,6,4,2,3,5,7,0,1]
Output: 8
Explanation:
n = 9
since there are 9 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,9]
. 8 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums
.
Constraints:
n == nums.length
1 <= n <= 104
0 <= nums[i] <= n
- All the numbers of
nums
are unique.
Follow up: Could you implement a solution using only O(1)
extra space complexity and O(n)
runtime complexity?
Solutions
Solution 1: Bitwise Operation
The XOR operation has the following properties:
- Any number XOR 0 is still the original number, i.e., $x \oplus 0 = x$;
- Any number XOR itself is 0, i.e., $x \oplus x = 0$;
Therefore, we can traverse the array, perform XOR operation between each element and the numbers $[0,..n]$, and the final result will be the missing number.
The time complexity is $O(n)$, where $n$ is the length of the array. The space complexity is $O(1)$.
1 2 3 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 |
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Solution 2: Mathematics
We can also solve this problem using mathematics. By calculating the sum of $[0,..n]$, subtracting the sum of all numbers in the array, we can obtain the missing number.
The time complexity is $O(n)$, where $n$ is the length of the array. The space complexity is $O(1)$.
1 2 3 4 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 |
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