Given an array of integers, find the first missing positive integer in linear time and constant space

Question

In other words, find the lowest positive integer that does not exist in the array. The array can contain duplicates and negative numbers as well. This question was asked by Stri

Answer 1

Here's a Python 3 implementation of pmcarpan's answer.

def missing_int(nums: MutableSequence[int]) -> int:
    # If empty array or doesn't have 1, return 1
    if not next((x for x in nums if x == 1), 0):
        return 1

    lo: int = 0
    hi: int = len(nums) - 1
    i: int = 0
    pivot: int = 1

    while i <= hi:
        if nums[i] < pivot:
            swap(nums, i, hi)
            hi -= 1
        elif nums[i] > pivot:
            swap(nums, i, lo)
            i += 1
            lo += 1
        else:
            i += 1

    x = 0
    while x <= hi:  # hi is the index of the last positive number
        y: int = abs(nums[x])
        if 0 < y <= hi + 1 and nums[y - 1] > 0:  # Don't flip sign if already negative
            nums[y - 1] *= -1
        x += 1

    return next((i for i, v in enumerate(nums[:hi + 1]) if v >= 0), x) + 1

Tests:

def test_missing_int(self):
    assert func.missing_int([1, 2, 1, 0]) == 3
    assert func.missing_int([3, 4, -1, 1]) == 2
    assert func.missing_int([7, 8, 9, 11, 12]) == 1
    assert func.missing_int([1]) == 2
    assert func.missing_int([]) == 1
    assert func.missing_int([0]) == 1
    assert func.missing_int([2, 1]) == 3
    assert func.missing_int([-1, -2, -3]) == 1
    assert func.missing_int([1, 1]) == 2
    assert func.missing_int([1000, -1]) == 1
    assert func.missing_int([-10, -3, -100, -1000, -239, 1]) == 2
    assert func.missing_int([1, 1]) == 2