10(June) Nuts and Bolts Problem

10. Nuts and Bolts Problem

The problem can be found at the following link: Question Link

Problem Description

Given a set of n nuts and n bolts, you need to match them efficiently. Comparison between nuts to nuts or bolts to bolts is not allowed. It means a nut can only be compared with a bolt and vice versa. The elements should be ordered as: {'!', '#', '$', '%', '&', '*', '?', '@', '^'}.

Example:

Input:

n = 5
nuts[] = {@, %, $, #, ^}
bolts[] = {%, @, #, $ ^}

Output:

# $ % @ ^
# $ % @ ^

Explanation: As per the order, # should come first, followed by $, then %, @, and ^.

My Approach

1. Sorting:

   • Sort both the nuts and bolts arrays.

   • Since the allowed characters have a fixed order, we can simply use the standard sorting algorithm.

2. Implementation:

   • Use the standard sorting function available in the respective language (C++, Java, Python) to sort the arrays.

Time and Auxiliary Space Complexity

• Expected Time Complexity: (O(n \log n)), as we are sorting the arrays.

• Expected Auxiliary Space Complexity: (O(\log n)), due to the space complexity of the sorting algorithm used (typically quicksort).

Code

C++

class Solution {
public:
    void matchPairs(int n, char nuts[], char bolts[]) {
        // Sort the nuts and bolts arrays
        sort(nuts, nuts + n);
        sort(bolts, bolts + n);
    }
};

Java

class Solution {
    public void matchPairs(int n, char nuts[], char bolts[]) {
        // Sort the nuts and bolts arrays
        Arrays.sort(nuts);
        Arrays.sort(bolts);
    }
}

Python

from typing import List

class Solution:
    def matchPairs(self, n, nuts, bolts):
        # Sort the nuts and bolts arrays
        nuts.sort()
        bolts.sort()

Contribution and Support

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