Sliding Window Maximum

Given an array nums, there is a sliding window of size k which is moving from the very left of the array to the very right. You can only see the k numbers in the window. Each time the sliding window moves right by one position.

For example,

Given nums = [1,3,-1,-3,5,3,6,7], and k = 3.

Window position                Max
---------------               -----
[1  3  -1] -3  5  3  6  7       3
 1 [3  -1  -3] 5  3  6  7       3
 1  3 [-1  -3  5] 3  6  7       5
 1  3  -1 [-3  5  3] 6  7       5
 1  3  -1  -3 [5  3  6] 7       6
 1  3  -1  -3  5 [3  6  7]      7

Therefore, return the max sliding window as [3,3,5,5,6,7].

Note:

You may assume k is always valid, ie: 1 ≤ k ≤ input array's size for non-empty array.

Follow up:

Could you solve it in linear time?

Hint:

1. How about using a data structure such as deque (double-ended queue)?
2. The queue size need not be the same as the window’s size.
3. Remove redundant elements and the queue should store only elements that need to be

Tip：

双向队列，O(N) ，窗口里存的是index；

当我们遇到新的数时，将新的数和双向队列的末尾比较，如果末尾比新数小，则把末尾扔掉，直到该队列的末尾比新数大或者队列为空的时候才住手。这样，我们可以保证队列里的元素是从头到尾降序的，由于队列里只有窗口内的数，所以他们其实就是窗口内第一大，第二大，第三大...的数。保持队列里只有窗口内数的方法和上个解法一样，也是每来一个新的把窗口最左边的扔掉，然后把新的加进去。然而由于我们在加新数的时候，已经把很多没用的数给扔了，这样队列头部的数并不一定是窗口最左边的数。这里的技巧是，我们队列中存的是那个数在原数组中的下标，这样我们既可以直到这个数的值，也可以知道该数是不是窗口最左边的数。这里为什么时间复杂度是O(N)呢？因为每个数只可能被操作最多两次，一次是加入队列的时候，一次是因为有别的更大数在后面，所以被扔掉，或者因为出了窗口而被扔掉。

we scan the array from 0 to n-1, keep "promising" elements in the deque. The algorithm is amortized O(n) as each element is put and polled once.

At each i, we keep "promising" elements, which are potentially max number in window [i-(k-1),i] or any subsequent window. This means

If an element in the deque and it is out of i-(k-1), we discard them. We just need to poll from the head, as we are using a deque and elements are ordered as the sequence in the array

Now only those elements within [i-(k-1),i] are in the deque. We then discard elements smaller than a[i] from the tail. This is because if a[x] <a[i] and x<i, then a[x] has no chance to be the "max" in [i-(k-1),i], or any other subsequent window: a[i] would always be a better candidate.

As a result elements in the deque are ordered in both sequence in array and their value. At each step the head of the deque is the max element in [i-(k-1),i]

Code:

public class Solution {
    public int[] maxSlidingWindow(int[] nums, int k) {
            if(nums == null || nums.length == 0) return new int[0];
            Deque<Integer> deque = new LinkedList<Integer>();
            int[] res = new int[nums.length + 1 - k];
            for(int i = 0; i < nums.length; i++){
                // 每当新数进来时，如果发现队列头部的数的下标，是窗口最左边数的下标，则扔掉
                if(!deque.isEmpty() && deque.peekFirst() == i - k) deque.poll();
                // 把队列尾部所有比新数小的都扔掉，保证队列是降序的
                while(!deque.isEmpty() && nums[deque.peekLast()] < nums[i]) deque.removeLast();
                // 加入新数
                deque.offerLast(i);
                // 队列头部就是该窗口内第一大的
                if((i + 1) >= k) res[i + 1 - k] = nums[deque.peek()];
            }
            return res;
        }
}