Evaluate Division

You are given an array of variable pairs equations and an array of real numbers values, where equations[i] = [Ai, Bi] and values[i] represent the equation Ai / Bi = values[i]. Each Ai or Bi is a string that represents a single variable.

You are also given some queries, where queries[j] = [Cj, Dj] represents the jth query where you must find the answer for Cj / Dj = ?.

Return the answers to all queries. If a single answer cannot be determined, return -1.0.

Note: The input is always valid. You may assume that evaluating the queries will not result in division by zero and that there is no contradiction.

Example 1:
Input: equations = [["a","b"],["b","c"]], values = [2.0,3.0], queries = [["a","c"],["b","a"],["a","e"],["a","a"],["x","x"]]
Output: [6.00000,0.50000,-1.00000,1.00000,-1.00000]
Explanation:
Given: a / b = 2.0, b / c = 3.0
queries are: a / c = ?, b / a = ?, a / e = ?, a / a = ?, x / x = ?
return: [6.0, 0.5, -1.0, 1.0, -1.0 ]

Example 2:
Input: equations = [["a","b"],["b","c"],["bc","cd"]], values = [1.5,2.5,5.0], queries = [["a","c"],["c","b"],["bc","cd"],["cd","bc"]]
Output: [3.75000,0.40000,5.00000,0.20000]

Example 3:
Input: equations = [["a","b"]], values = [0.5], queries = [["a","b"],["b","a"],["a","c"],["x","y"]]
Output: [0.50000,2.00000,-1.00000,-1.00000]

Constraints:

  • 1 <= equations.length <= 20
  • equations[i].length == 2
  • 1 <= Ai.length, Bi.length <= 5
  • values.length == equations.length
  • 0.0 < values[i] <= 20.0
  • 1 <= queries.length <= 20
  • queries[i].length == 2
  • 1 <= Cj.length, Dj.length <= 5
  • Ai, Bi, Cj, Dj consist of lower case English letters and digits.

Solution

To solve the problem, we observe that

  • given an equation a/b = n > 0 we also know b/a = 1/n.
  • given two equations a/b=n b/c=m, by transitivity, a/c=(a/b)(b/c)=nm.

For each query (a/b), we wish to find a path from dividend(a) to divisor(b) and multiply the quotients along the way to find the final answer. If no such path exists, then we can return -1.0.

We will use aggregated backtracking to find the answer to each query.

Implementation

  def calcEquation(self, equations: List[List[str]], values: List[float], queries: List[List[str]]) -> List[float]:
      graph = defaultdict(list)
      for i, [dividend, divisor] in enumerate(equations):
          graph[dividend].append((divisor, values[i]))
          graph[divisor].append((dividend, 1/values[i]))
      
      def divide(dividend, divisor, visited):
          if dividend == divisor:
              return 1
          for new_dividend, multiplier in graph[dividend]:
              if new_dividend not in visited:
                  visited.add(new_dividend)
                  ans = divide(new_dividend, divisor, visited)
                  if ans > 0:
                      return ans*multiplier
                  visited.remove(new_dividend)
          return -1
      
      res = []
      for query in queries:
          if graph[query[0]] == [] or graph[query[1]] == []:
              res.append(-1)
          else:
              visited = set()
              visited.add(query[0])
              res.append(divide(query[0], query[1], visited))
      return res

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Question 1 out of 10

What does the following code do?

1def f(arr1, arr2):
2  i, j = 0, 0
3  new_arr = []
4  while i < len(arr1) and j < len(arr2):
5      if arr1[i] < arr2[j]:
6          new_arr.append(arr1[i])
7          i += 1
8      else:
9          new_arr.append(arr2[j])
10          j += 1
11  new_arr.extend(arr1[i:])
12  new_arr.extend(arr2[j:])
13  return new_arr
14
1public static List<Integer> f(int[] arr1, int[] arr2) {
2  int i = 0, j = 0;
3  List<Integer> newArr = new ArrayList<>();
4
5  while (i < arr1.length && j < arr2.length) {
6      if (arr1[i] < arr2[j]) {
7          newArr.add(arr1[i]);
8          i++;
9      } else {
10          newArr.add(arr2[j]);
11          j++;
12      }
13  }
14
15  while (i < arr1.length) {
16      newArr.add(arr1[i]);
17      i++;
18  }
19
20  while (j < arr2.length) {
21      newArr.add(arr2[j]);
22      j++;
23  }
24
25  return newArr;
26}
27
1function f(arr1, arr2) {
2  let i = 0, j = 0;
3  let newArr = [];
4  
5  while (i < arr1.length && j < arr2.length) {
6      if (arr1[i] < arr2[j]) {
7          newArr.push(arr1[i]);
8          i++;
9      } else {
10          newArr.push(arr2[j]);
11          j++;
12      }
13  }
14  
15  while (i < arr1.length) {
16      newArr.push(arr1[i]);
17      i++;
18  }
19  
20  while (j < arr2.length) {
21      newArr.push(arr2[j]);
22      j++;
23  }
24  
25  return newArr;
26}
27

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