How to know that a triangle triple exists in our array?

Question

I was stuck in solving the following interview practice question:
I have to write a function:

int triangle(int[] A);

that given a zero-

Answer 1

Here's simple solution in java with 100/100 score

class Solution {
  public int solution(int[] A) {
    // write your code in Java SE 8
    Arrays.sort(A);
    for (int i = 0; i < A.length - 2; ++i) {
      long a = A[i] + (long) A[i + 1];
      long b = A[i + 2];
      if (a > b) {
        return 1;
      }
    }
    return 0;
  }
}

Answer 2

I have got another solution to count triangles. Its time complexity is O(N**3) and takes long time to process long arrays.

Private Function solution(A As Integer()) As Integer
    ' write your code in VB.NET 4.0
    Dim result, size, i, j, k As Integer
        size = A.Length
        Array.Sort(A)
        For i = 0 To Size - 3
            j = i + 1
            While j < size
                k = j + 1
                While k < size
                    If A(i) + A(j) > A(k) Then
                        result += 1
                    End If
                    k += 1
                End While
                j += 1
            End While
        Next
        Return result
End Function

Answer 3

PHP Solution :

function solution($x){
    sort($x);
    if (count($x) < 3) return 0; 
    for($i = 2; $i < count($x); $i++){
        if($x[$i] < $x[$i-1] + $x[$i-2]){
            return 1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 4

First of all, you can sort your sequence. For the sorted sequence it's enough to check that A[i] + A[j] > A[k] for i < j < k, because A[i] + A[k] > A[k] > A[j] etc., so the other 2 inequalities are automatically true.

(From now on, i < j < k.)

Next, it's enough to check that A[i] + A[j] > A[j+1], because other A[k] are even bigger (so if the inequality holds for some k, it holds for k = j + 1 as well).

Next, it's enough to check that A[j-1] + A[j] > A[j+1], because other A[i] are even smaller (so if inequality holds for some i, it holds for i = j - 1 as well).

So, you have just a linear check: you need to check whether for at least one j A[j-1] + A[j] > A[j+1] holds true.

Altogether O(N log N) {sorting} + O(N) {check} = O(N log N).

---

Addressing the comment about negative numbers: indeed, this is what I didn't consider in the original solution. Considering the negative numbers doesn't change the solution much, since no negative number can be a part of triangle triple. Indeed, if A[i], A[j] and A[k] form a triangle triple, then A[i] + A[j] > A[k], A[i] + A[k] > A[j], which implies 2 * A[i] + A[j] + A[k] > A[k] + A[j], hence 2 * A[i] > 0, so A[i] > 0 and by symmetry A[j] > 0, A[k] > 0.

This means that we can safely remove negative numbers and zeroes from the sequence, which is done in O(log n) after sorting.

Answer 5

Reversing the loop from Vlad solution for me seems to be easier to understand.

The equation A[j-1] + A[j] > A[j+1] could be changed to A[k-2]+A[k-1]>A[k]. Explained in words, the sum of the last two largest numbers should be bigger than current largest value being checked (A[k]). If the result of adding the last two largest numbers(A[k-2] and A[k-1]) is not bigger than A[k], we can go to the next iteration of the loop.

In addition, we can add the check for negative numbers that Vlad mentioned, and stop the loop earlier.

int solution(vector<int> &A) {
    sort(A.begin(),A.end());
    for (int k = A.size()-1; k >= 2 && A[k-2] > 0 ; --k) {
        if ( A[k-2]+A[k-1] > A[k] )
            return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 6

Do a quick sort first, this will generally take nlogn. And you can omit the third loop by binary search, which can take log(n). So altogether, the complexity is reduced to n^2log(n).