Question
Given an unsorted array, find the maximum difference between the successive elements in its sorted form.
Return 0 if the array contains less than 2 elements.
Example 1:
Input: [3,6,9,1] Output: 3 Explanation: The sorted form of the array is [1,3,6,9], either (3,6) or (6,9) has the maximum difference 3.
Example 2:
Input: [10] Output: 0 Explanation: The array contains less than 2 elements, therefore return 0.
Note:
- You may assume all elements in the array are non-negative integers and fit in the 32-bit signed integer range.
- Try to solve it in linear time/space.
Difficulty:Hard
Category:Sort
Analyze
Solution
class Solution {
public:
int maximumGap(vector<int>& nums) {
if (nums.size() < 2) return 0;
priority_queue<int, vector<int>, greater<int>> pq;
for (int num : nums) pq.push(num);
int ans = 0;
int pre = pq.top();
pq.pop();
for (int i = 1; i < nums.size(); ++i) {
int cur = pq.top();
pq.pop();
ans = max(cur - pre, ans);
pre = cur;
}
return ans;
}
};