667. Beautiful Arrangement II

1. Description

Given two integers n and k, you need to construct a list which contains n different positive integers ranging from 1 to n and obeys the following requirement:
Suppose this list is [a1, a2, a3, … , an], then the list [|a1 - a2|, |a2 - a3|, |a3 - a4|, … , |an-1 - an|] has exactly k distinct integers.
If there are multiple answers, print any of them.

2. Example

Example 1:
Input: n = 3, k = 1
Output: [1, 2, 3]
Explanation: The [1, 2, 3] has three different positive integers ranging from 1 to 3, and the [1, 1] has exactly 1 distinct integer: 1.

Example 2:
Input: n = 3, k = 2
Output: [1, 3, 2]
Explanation: The [1, 3, 2] has three different positive integers ranging from 1 to 3, and the [2, 1] has exactly 2 distinct integers: 1 and 2.

3. Note

  • The n and k are in the range 1 <= k < n <= $10^4$.

4. Solutions

My Accepted Solution

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n)

// we could set the array as the rule: 1, n, 2, n-1, 3, n-2, ...
// then, every two nums have a different difference, so we could use this rule to create k - 1 pair numbers, then, we could set last numbers keep progressive increase or progressive decrease, so every two numbers have a difference as 1
class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> constructArray(int n, int k) {
        bool increase = true;
        int left = 1, right = n, index = 0;
        vector<int> beautifulArray(n);
        for (int i = 1; i < k; ++i) {
            if (increase) {
                // put the '++' or '--' operation into other codes could decrease lines dramatically, but it will make codes less understandable, so I don't want to do that
                beautifulArray[index] = left;
                ++left;
            } else {
                beautifulArray[index] = right;
                --right;
            }

            ++index;
            increase = !increase;
        }

        if (increase) {
            while (index < n) {
                beautifulArray[index] = left;
                ++index;
                ++left;
            }
        } else {
            while (index < n) {
                beautifulArray[index] = right;
                ++index;
                --right;
            }
        }

        return beautifulArray;
    }
};
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Tags: Array
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