[LeetCode]19. Remove Nth Node From End of List

  "从链表中删除倒数第n个节点"

Posted by Stephen.Ri on October 6, 2017

Description

Given a linked list, remove the nth node from the end of list and return its head.

Example

Given linked list: 1->2->3->4->5, and n = 2. After removing the second node from the end, the linked list becomes 1->2->3->5.

Note: Given n will always be valid. Try to do this in one pass.

Discussion

这个问题要求我们移除掉链表中的倒数第n个元素。常规思路当然是首先遍历一遍链表,得出链表的总长度len,再移除掉第len-n个元素。然而,题目的要求是一次遍历,这就要求我们有更加巧妙的方法。

我们可以设置两个指针preLoccurLoc,使得两个指针相距为n,且一起往后运动。这样,当后者curLoc运动到链表尾部时,preLoc恰好在倒数第n的位置。

算法的时间复杂度为O(n)

C++ Code

/**
 * Definition for singly-linked list.
 * struct ListNode {
 *     int val;
 *     ListNode *next;
 *     ListNode(int x) : val(x), next(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    ListNode* removeNthFromEnd(ListNode* head, int n) {
        ListNode * preLoc = head, * curLoc = head;      //设置两个指针相距n,当后面的指针curLoc运动到尾部时,前面的指针就在倒数第n个。
        for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
        {
            curLoc = curLoc->next;
        }
        //若恰好有n个元素
        if(!curLoc)
        {
            return head->next;
        }
        while(curLoc->next)
        {
            curLoc = curLoc->next;
            preLoc = preLoc->next;
        }
        preLoc->next = preLoc->next->next;
        return head;
    }
};