I have a list of numbers like this (array)
1 2 3 4
So my goal is the check given another array if this array if a permutation of the origin
Two possible solutions are:
(1) O(n)
space & average time solution will be to create a histogram, based on a hash table, of the data - and check if the histograms are identicals. The idea is - count how many each element appears in each list, and then check to see each element appears exactly the same times in each array.
pseudo code:
map1 = new map //first histogram
map2 = new map //second histogram
for each element in arr1: //create first histogram
if (element in map1):
map1.put(element,map1.get(element)+1)
else:
map1.put(element,1)
for each element in arr2: //create second histogram
if (element in map2):
map2.put(element,map2.get(element)+1)
else:
map2.put(element,1)
for each key in map 1: //check all elements in arr1 appear in arr2
if map1.get(key) != map2.get(key):
return false
//make sure the sizes also match, it means that each element in arr2 appears in arr1.
return arr1.length == arr2.length
(2) O(nlogn)
time solution will be to sort both arrays, and then iterate and check if they are identical.