26. Remove Duplicates from Sorted Array (E)

https://leetcode.com/problems/remove-duplicates-from-sorted-array/

Given an integer array nums sorted in non-decreasing order, remove the duplicates in-place such that each unique element appears only once. The relative order of the elements should be kept the same.

Since it is impossible to change the length of the array in some languages, you must instead have the result be placed in the first part of the array nums. More formally, if there are k elements after removing the duplicates, then the first k elements of nums should hold the final result. It does not matter what you leave beyond the first k elements.

Return k after placing the final result in the first k slots of nums.

Do not allocate extra space for another array. You must do this by modifying the input array in-place with O(1) extra memory.

Custom Judge:

The judge will test your solution with the following code:

int[] nums = [...]; // Input array
int[] expectedNums = [...]; // The expected answer with correct length

int k = removeDuplicates(nums); // Calls your implementation

assert k == expectedNums.length;
for (int i = 0; i < k; i++) {
    assert nums[i] == expectedNums[i];
}

If all assertions pass, then your solution will be accepted.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,1,2]
Output: 2, nums = [1,2,_]
Explanation: Your function should return k = 2, with the first two elements of nums being 1 and 2 respectively.
It does not matter what you leave beyond the returned k (hence they are underscores).

Example 2:

Input: nums = [0,0,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4]
Output: 5, nums = [0,1,2,3,4,_,_,_,_,_]
Explanation: Your function should return k = 5, with the first five elements of nums being 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.
It does not matter what you leave beyond the returned k (hence they are underscores).

Constraints:

• 0 <= nums.length <= 3 * 104

• -100 <= nums[i] <= 100

• nums is sorted in non-decreasing order.

Solution:

Version 1: 快慢指针

显然，由于数组已经排序，所以重复的元素一定连在一起，找出它们并不难，但如果毎找到一个重复元素就立即删除它，就是在数组中间进行删除操作，整个时间复杂度是会达到 O(N^2)。

简单解释一下什么是原地修改：

如果不是原地修改的话，我们直接 new 一个 int[] 数组，把去重之后的元素放进这个新数组中，然后返回这个新数组即可。

但是原地删除，不允许我们 new 新数组，只能在原数组上操作，然后返回一个长度，这样就可以通过返回的长度和原始数组得到我们去重后的元素有哪些了。

这种需求在数组相关的算法题中时非常常见的，通用解法就是我们前文 双指针技巧 中的快慢指针技巧。

我们让慢指针 slow 走在后面，快指针 fast 走在前面探路，找到一个不重复的元素就告诉 slow 并让 slow 前进一步。这样当 fast 指针遍历完整个数组 nums 后，nums[0..slow] 就是不重复元素。

int removeDuplicates(int[] nums) {
    if (nums.length == 0) {
        return 0;
    }
    int slow = 0, fast = 0;
    while (fast < nums.length) {
        if (nums[fast] != nums[slow]) {
            slow++;
            // 维护 nums[0..slow] 无重复
            nums[slow] = nums[fast];
        }
        fast++;
    }
    // 数组长度为索引 + 1
    return slow + 1;
}

看下算法执行的过程：

Version2:

public class Solution {
    public int removeDuplicates(int[] nums) {
       if(nums==null || nums.length==0)
		 {
			 return 0;
		 }
		 
		 int index=1;
		 for(int i=1;i<nums.length;i++)
		 {
			 if(nums[i]!=nums[i-1])
			 {
				 nums[index]=nums[i];
				 index++;
			 }
		 }
		 return index;
        
    }
}