Contained Ranges - Coding in a Smart Way
A range [x1, x2] is contained in a range [y1, y2] if y1 ≤ x1 ≤ x2 ≤ y2. Given a list of ranges A, check whether there exists a pair of ranges such that one range is contained in the other range.
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A range [x1, x2] is contained in a range [y1, y2] if y1 ≤ x1 ≤ x2 ≤ y2. Given a list of ranges A, check whether there exists a pair of ranges such that one range is contained in the other range.
Since the condition of range [x1, x2] is contained in range [y1, y2] is that y1 ≤ x1 ≤ x2 ≤ y2, we want to sort ranges by start of range in increasing order. Sorting only takes O(NlogN).
Yes we can. Given A[i], do we need to check all A[j] where j < i whether A[i] is contained in A[j]? Actually, it is sufficient to check whether A[i] is contained in A[i-1]. Given any range A[j] before A[i-1], since A[i-1] is not contained by A[j], the end of range A[i-1] must greater than the end of range A[j]. Therefore, if A[i] is contained in A[j], it is also contained in A[i-1]. This is similar to the range [7, 8] is contained in [5, 9] and also [6, 10].
public class Range{    public int start;    public int end;    public Range(int s, int e){        start = s;        end = e;    }         @Override    public String toString() {        return "[" + start + "," + end + "]";    }         @Override    public boolean equals(Object o) {          if (o == this) {            return true;        }        if (!(o instanceof Range)) {            return false;        }        Range c = (Range) o;        return start == c.start && end == c.end;                 }}//compare two range by start, used to sort list of ranges by their startspublic class RangeComparator implements Comparator<Range> {    public int compare(Range range1, Range range2) {         return Integer.compare(range1.start, range2.start);    }}public boolean hasContainedRange(List<Range> ranges){    if (ranges.size() < 2){        return false;    }         ranges.sort(new RangeComparator());    for(int i = 1; i < ranges.size(); i++) {        if (ranges.get(i).end <= ranges.get(i - 1).end){            return true;        }    }         return false;}