2012. Sum of Beauty in the Array

Problem Description

In this problem, we are provided with a 0-indexed integer array nums. We need to determine the "beauty" for each element nums[i] at positions i from 1 to nums.length - 2, according to the following rules:

The beauty is 2 if nums[i] is greater than all preceding elements nums[j] where j < i, and less than all succeeding elements nums[k] where k > i.
The beauty is 1 if nums[i] is greater than the immediate preceding element nums[i - 1] and less than the immediate succeeding element nums[i + 1], but does not satisfy the condition for beauty 2.
The beauty is 0 if none of the above conditions is satisfied.

Our goal is to calculate the sum of beauty for all such nums[i].

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Intuition

The solution builds on the key observation that to find the beauty of an index i, it suffices to determine the maximum element to the left of i and the minimum element to the right of i. This leads us to an efficient way to evaluate the beauty for each index.

The approach is as follows:

Create two additional arrays, lmx and rmi, to record the maximum element observed from the beginning up to i - 1 and the minimum element observed from the end down to i + 1.
Iterate through the nums array from left to right, populating lmx by recording the maximum value seen so far.
Iterate through the nums array from right to left, populating rmi with the minimum value seen so far.
Now, traverse the array again and for each i (from 1 to nums.length - 2), check the following:
- If lmx[i] < nums[i] < rmi[i], add 2 to the answer since nums[i] satisfies the condition for beauty 2.
- Else if nums[i - 1] < nums[i] < nums[i + 1] and the first condition is not satisfied, add 1 to the answer, marking beauty 1.
Sum the beauty values calculated for each i to get the final answer.

Solution Approach

To implement the solution, we follow these steps, making use of sequential iterations and auxiliary space for the arrays needed to keep track of maximum and minimum boundaries:

Initialization:
- Calculate the length n of the array nums.
- Initialize two arrays lmx and rmi of size n to keep track of the left maximum and right minimum values, respectively. lmx[i] will store the maximum value from the start of the array to index i - 1, and rmi[i] will store the minimum value from the end of the array to index i + 1.
- lmx is initially filled with 0 because there is no number before the start of the array.
- rmi is filled with a very large number, 100001, to ensure that any real number in the array nums will be less than this placeholder value.
Populate lmx:
- Iterate through nums from left to right starting from index 1 up to n - 1.
- Update lmx[i] such that it holds the maximum value seen up to nums[i - 1]. This is done using the formula lmx[i] = max(lmx[i - 1], nums[i - 1]).
Populate rmi:
- Iterate through nums from right to left starting from index n - 2 down to 0.
- Update rmi[i] such that it holds the minimum value seen from nums[i + 1] to the end of the array. The formula used here is rmi[i] = min(rmi[i + 1], nums[i + 1]).
Calculate the total beauty:
- Initialize a variable ans to hold the sum of beauty scores.
- Iterate through the elements of nums from index 1 to n - 2 (inclusive).
- Check if the beauty of nums[i] is 2 by comparing if lmx[i] < nums[i] < rmi[i]. If this condition is true, increment ans by 2.
- Else if nums[i] does not qualify for a beauty of 2, check if it is greater than the element to its left and less than the element to its right (i.e., check if nums[i - 1] < nums[i] < nums[i + 1]). If true, increment ans by 1.
- If neither condition is satisfied, the beauty for that element is 0, so ans remains the same.
Return the result:
- After the loop completes, ans contains the sum of beauty for all nums[i], and we return this value.

The main data structures used in this solution are the arrays lmx and rmi for dynamic programming, which store computed values that can be used to determine the beauty of each element efficiently. The algorithm makes use of max() and min() functions for comparisons, and a single pass through the array (ignoring the separate passes for lmx and rmi initializations) to calculate the sum of beauty. This approach ensures that we have all the necessary information to evaluate the beauty of each element without using nested loops, which would result in a higher computational complexity.

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Example Walkthrough

Let's walk through a small example to illustrate the solution approach. Consider the integer array nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 2].

Step 1: Initialization

n = 5 (length of nums)
Initialize lmx = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0] and rmi = [100001, 100001, 100001, 100001, 100001]

Step 2: Populate lmx

Starting from i = 1, iterate to i = 4:
- lmx[1] = max(0, nums[0]) = 1
- lmx[2] = max(1, nums[1]) = 2
- lmx[3] = max(2, nums[2]) = 3
- lmx[4] = max(3, nums[3]) = 4
Now lmx = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

Step 3: Populate rmi

Starting from i = 3, iterate to i = 0:
- rmi[3] = min(100001, nums[4]) = 2
- rmi[2] = min(2, nums[3]) = 2
- rmi[1] = min(2, nums[2]) = 2
- rmi[0] = min(2, nums[1]) = 2
Now rmi = [2, 2, 2, 2, 100001]

Step 4: Calculate the total beauty

Initialize ans = 0
For i = 1 to n - 2:
- For i = 1:
  - lmx[1] is 1, nums[1] is 2, rmi[1] is 2.
  - nums[1] is greater than lmx[1] but not less than rmi[1], so check next condition.
  - nums[0] is 1, nums[1] is 2, nums[2] is 3. It satisfies nums[0] < nums[1] < nums[2], so add 1 to ans.
- For i = 2:
  - lmx[2] is 2, nums[2] is 3, rmi[2] is 2.
  - nums[2] does not satisfy any beauty conditions, so ans stays the same.
- For i = 3:
  - lmx[3] is 3, nums[3] is 4, rmi[3] is 2.
  - nums[3] is greater than both lmx[3] and rmi[3], so it adds nothing to ans.
The final value of ans after the loop is 1.

Step 5: Return the result

The result, which is the sum of beauty for all nums[i], is 1. This is the final answer to the problem.

In this particular example, the only element to contribute to the beauty sum was nums[1] with a beauty of 1.

Solution Implementation

1from typing import List
2
3class Solution:
4    def sumOfBeauties(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
5        num_elements = len(nums)  # Get the number of elements in the list
6        max_left = [0] * num_elements  # Initialize a list to store the maximum to the left of each position
7        min_right = [100001] * num_elements  # Initialize a list to store the minimum to the right of each position
8
9        # Populate max_left by finding the maximum on the left for each position in nums
10        for i in range(1, num_elements):
11            max_left[i] = max(max_left[i - 1], nums[i - 1])
12
13        # Populate min_right by finding the minimum on the right for each position in nums
14        for i in range(num_elements - 2, -1, -1):
15            min_right[i] = min(min_right[i + 1], nums[i + 1])
16
17        beauty_sum = 0  # This variable will hold the cumulative beauty of the array
18
19        # Loop through each element of the array except the first and last
20        for i in range(1, num_elements - 1):
21            # Check if the element is greater than the max to the left and less than the min to the right
22            if max_left[i] < nums[i] < min_right[i]:
23                beauty_sum += 2  # If it is, the beauty score for this number is 2
24            # Otherwise, check if the element is greater than its previous and less than its next element
25            elif nums[i - 1] < nums[i] < nums[i + 1]:
26                beauty_sum += 1  # If so, the beauty score for this number is 1
27
28        return beauty_sum  # Return the total accumulated beauty
29

1class Solution {
2    public int sumOfBeauties(int[] nums) {
3        int n = nums.length; // Get the length of the input array
4        int[] leftMax = new int[n]; // Initialize an array to keep track of maximum values from the left
5        int[] rightMin = new int[n]; // Initialize an array to keep track of minimum values from the right
6        rightMin[n - 1] = 100001; // Set the last element to a high value as a sentinel
7      
8        // Fill the leftMax array with the maximum value encountered from the left up to that index
9        for (int i = 1; i < n; ++i) {
10            leftMax[i] = Math.max(leftMax[i - 1], nums[i - 1]);
11        }
12      
13        // Fill the rightMin array with the minimum value encountered from the right up to that index
14        for (int i = n - 2; i >= 0; --i) {
15            rightMin[i] = Math.min(rightMin[i + 1], nums[i + 1]);
16        }
17      
18        int totalBeauty = 0; // Variable to hold the total sum of beauty
19        // Loop through the array, omitting the first and last element
20        for (int i = 1; i < n - 1; ++i) {
21            // Check if the current element is larger than the maximum to its left and smaller than the minimum to its right
22            if (leftMax[i] < nums[i] && nums[i] < rightMin[i]) {
23                totalBeauty += 2; // Add 2 to beauty as it satisfies the special condition
24            } else if (nums[i - 1] < nums[i] && nums[i] < nums[i + 1]) {
25                totalBeauty += 1; // Add 1 to beauty if it's simply larger than its adjacent elements
26            }
27        }
28        // Return the sum of beauty of all elements
29        return totalBeauty;
30    }
31}
32

1class Solution {
2public:
3    int sumOfBeauties(vector<int>& nums) {
4        int size = nums.size();
5        vector<int> leftMax(size);  // Stores the maximum to the left of each element.
6        vector<int> rightMin(size, 100001);  // Stores the minimum to the right of each element, initially set high
7      
8        // Populate leftMax by keeping track of the maximum number seen so far from the left.
9        for (int i = 1; i < size; ++i) {
10            leftMax[i] = max(leftMax[i - 1], nums[i - 1]);
11        }
12      
13        // Populate rightMin by keeping track of the minimum number seen so far from the right.
14        for (int i = size - 2; i >= 0; --i) {
15            rightMin[i] = min(rightMin[i + 1], nums[i + 1]);
16        }
17      
18        int totalBeauty = 0;  // This will store the total beauty of the array.
19      
20        // Calculate the beauty for each number in the array excluding the first and last element.
21        for (int i = 1; i < size - 1; ++i) {
22            // If the current element is greater than the maximum on its left
23            // and less than the minimum on its right, add 2 to total beauty.
24            if (leftMax[i] < nums[i] && nums[i] < rightMin[i]) {
25                totalBeauty += 2;
26            }
27            // If it doesn't meet the first condition but is still increasing with respect
28            // to its immediate neighbors, add 1 to total beauty.
29            else if (nums[i - 1] < nums[i] && nums[i] < nums[i + 1]) {
30                totalBeauty += 1;
31            }
32        }
33      
34        // Return the total beauty of the array.
35        return totalBeauty;
36    }
37};
38

1// Function to calculate the sum of beauties for all elements in the array except the first and last.
2function sumOfBeauties(nums: number[]): number {
3    // Determine the length of input array.
4    let n: number = nums.length;
5    // Initialize prefix and postfix arrays to keep track of max and min values seen so far from either end.
6    let prefixMax: number[] = new Array(n).fill(0);
7    let postfixMin: number[] = new Array(n).fill(0);
8
9    // Set the first element of prefix and the last element of postfix to be the corresponding values from 'nums'.
10    prefixMax[0] = nums[0];
11    postfixMin[n - 1] = nums[n - 1];
12  
13    // Fill the prefixMax and postfixMin arrays.
14    for (let i: number = 1, j: number = n - 2; i < n; ++i, --j) {
15        prefixMax[i] = Math.max(nums[i], prefixMax[i - 1]);
16        postfixMin[j] = Math.min(nums[j], postfixMin[j + 1]);
17    }
18  
19    // Initialize the sum of beauties.
20    let sumOfBeautyPoints: number = 0;
21
22    // Check the beauty for each element, based on the conditions and update the sum accordingly.
23    for (let i: number = 1; i < n - 1; ++i) {
24        // Check for beauty level 2 condition.
25        if (prefixMax[i - 1] < nums[i] && nums[i] < postfixMin[i + 1]) {
26            sumOfBeautyPoints += 2;
27        // Check for beauty level 1 condition.
28        } else if (nums[i - 1] < nums[i] && nums[i] < nums[i + 1]) {
29            sumOfBeautyPoints += 1;
30        }
31    }
32
33    // Return the total sum of beauty points.
34    return sumOfBeautyPoints;
35}
36

Time and Space Complexity

Time Complexity

The given code consists of three separate for loops that are not nested. Each of these loops runs linearly with respect to the length of the input array nums, which is denoted as n.

The first loop initializes the lmx array, which takes O(n) time as it iterates from 1 to n-1.
The second loop initializes the rmi array, which also takes O(n) time as it iterates from n-2 to 0.
The third loop calculates the ans (answer) by iterating once again in linear time over the range from 1 to n-1, resulting in O(n) time.

When we add these up, since they are executed in sequence and not nested, the overall time complexity of the code is O(n) + O(n) + O(n), which simplifies to O(n).

Space Complexity

The space complexity of the code is due to the additional arrays lmx and rmi that are both of length n, and the space used for variables like n, i, and ans.

The lmx array uses O(n) space.
The rmi array also uses O(n) space.

Besides these arrays, only a constant amount of extra space is used for the loop indices and the ans variable. Thus, the total auxiliary space used by the algorithm is O(n) + O(n) which simplifies to O(n).

In conclusion, the time complexity of the algorithm is O(n) and the space complexity is O(n).

Learn more about how to find time and space complexity quickly using problem constraints.

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