searching in 2d array as O(n) with unsorted rows

Question

I need to write a method that takes 2d array \'int [][] m\' and a value \'val\' and check if val is in the array in the complexity of O(n) while n defined as the num

Answer 1

It is possible iff. the matrix m is a square matrix of size n x n. Core idea is inspired by oleg.cherednik's answer. As soon as we find a row in m, such that m[row][0] >= val, we know that val must be in either row row or row - 1(since the same comparison on row - 1 was false). Thus, we have to find our candidate rows (O(n)) and then analyze only those two rows (also O(n)). If m is not square, but rectangular, the algorithm has a complexity of O(n + k), where n is the number of rows and k is the number of colums in m. This leads to the following algorithm.

public class Test {

  public static boolean contains(final int[][]m, final int value) {
    int candidateRow = m.length;
    for (int row = 1; row < m.length; ++row) {
      if (m[row][0] == value) {
        return true;
      }
      if (m[row][0] > value) {
        candidateRow = row;
        break;
      }
    }

    for (int val : m[candidateRow - 1]) {
      if (val == value) {
        return true;
      }
    }

    if (candidateRow < m.length) {
      for (int val : m[candidateRow]) {
        if (val == value) {
          return true;
        }
      }
    }
    return false;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    int [][] testArray = new int [][]{
        {   0,   2,   1,   2,   0,   5,   5,   5 },
        {  21,  21,   7,   7,   7,  21,  21,  21 },
        {  21,  21,  21,  21,  21,  21,  21,  21 },
        {  21,  21,  23,  42,  41,  23,  21,  21 },
        {  60,  56,  57,  58,  53,  52,  47,  51 },
        {  61,  65,  70,  72,  73,  78,  82,  98 },
        { 112, 121, 112, 134, 123, 100,  98, 111 },
        { 136, 136, 136, 134, 147, 150, 154, 134 }
    };
    for (int[] row : testArray) {
      for (int val : row) {
        System.out.print(contains(testArray, val) + " ");
      }
      System.out.println();

    }
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println();
    final int[] notInMatrix = { -1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 22, 30, 59, 71, 113, 135 };
    for (int val : notInMatrix) {
      System.out.print(contains(testArray, val) + " ");
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
}

We can improve the acutal runtime by determining the candidate lines through a binary search algorithm so that candidate lines are found in O(log(n)) instead of O(n). The asymptotical runtime will still be O(n) for square matrices and O(log(n) + k) for non-square n x k matrices. The idea for this was taken from Saeed Bolhasani's answer.

  private static int findCandidateRow(final int[][] m, final int value) {
    int lower = 0;
    int upper = m.length;
    int middle = (upper + 1) / 2;
    while (middle != m.length 
        && middle != 1
        && (m[middle][0] < value || m[middle - 1][0] > value)) {
      if (m[middle][0] < value) {
        lower = middle;
      } else {
        upper = middle;
      }
      middle = lower + (upper - lower + 1) / 2;
    }
    return middle;
  }