maximum xor is with closest number - algorithm

If I have a list L of positive integers and I am given another number K, I need to find the number in the list with which XOR of K is maximum.
I have thought of an algorithm for this. I want to verify its correctness with counter arguments. My algorithm is:
Find P=K's complement (1's complement). Now find the number which is closest to P in the list L. Let this number be N. The XOR of K and N will be maximum.
Closest number to a number I in a given set of numbers is a number whose difference with I is minimum.
Lets say, it is not correct for the numbers greater than P in the list L. But isn't it correct for the numbers <=P ?
Please tell me whether I am correct or not by providing counter arguments/suggestions/ideas.

i think you need something called a Trie.
consider every bit of K, from higher to lower, of course we can be greedy when determine whether this bit of answer can be 1, i mean, first you try your best to get 1024(or even higher), and then 512, and then 256 and then......finally to the last bit 1.
So first you need to check whether some number in the list L has the opposite value to K in the highest bit, then among all the chosen numbers, then you need to find the numbers which has the opposite value to K in the second highest bit.
now the solution is obvious, build a Trie with L, determine the answer's bits from higher to lower, which corresponds to travel on that tree.

No, not right.
Let K = 0011, so that P = 1100. Let L = {0011, 1100}. Your algorithm would choose N = 1100, which is obviously incorrect since N^K = 0, while 0011^N = 3.

Coding and running the obvious brute-force algorithm would have taken far less time than you've already spent on this.

Related

Find minimum steps to convert all elements to zero

You are given an array of positive integers of size N. You can choose any positive number x such that x<=max(Array) and subtract it from all elements of the array greater than and equal to x.
This operation has a cost A[i]-x for A[i]>=x. The total cost for a particular step is the
sum(A[i]-x). A step is only valid if the sum(A[i]-x) is less than or equal to a given number K.
For all the valid steps find the minimum number of steps to make all elements of the array zero.
0<=i<10^5
0<=x<=10^5
0<k<10^5
Can anybody help me with any approach? DP will not work due to high constraints.
Just some general exploratory thoughts.
First, there should be a constraint on N. If N is 3, this is much easier than if it is 100. The naive brute force approach is going to be O(k^N)
Next, you are right that DP will not work with these constraints.
For a greedy approach, I would want to minimize the number of distinct non-zero values, and not maximize how much I took. Our worst case approach is take out the largest each time, for N steps. If you can get 2 pairs of entries to both match, then that shortened our approach.
The obvious thing to try if you can is an A* search. However that requires a LOWER bound (not upper). The best naive lower bound that I can see is ceil(log_2(count_distinct_values)). Unless you're incredibly lucky and the problem can be solved that quickly, this is unlikely to narrow your search enough to be helpful.
I'm curious what trick makes this problem actually doable.
I do have an idea. But it is going to take some thought to make it work. Naively we want to take each choice for x and explore the paths that way. And this is a problem because there are 10^5 choices for x. After 2 choices we have a problem, and after 3 we are definitely not going to be able to do it.
BUT instead consider the possible orders of the array elements (with ties both possible and encouraged) and the resulting inequalities on the range of choices that could have been made. And now instead of having to store a 10^5 choices of x we only need store the distinct orderings we get, and what inequalities there are on the range of choices that get us there. As long as N < 10, the number of weak orderings is something that we can deal with if we're clever.
It would take a bunch of work to flesh out this idea though.
I may be totally wrong, and if so, please tell me and I'm going to delete my thoughts: maybe there is an opportunity if we translate the problem into another form?
You are given an array A of positive integers of size N.
Calculate the histogram H of this array.
The highest populated slot of this histogram has index m ( == max(A)).
Find the shortest sequence of selections of x for:
Select an index x <= m which satisfies sum(H[i]*(i-x)) <= K for i = x+1 .. m (search for suitable x starts from m down)
Add H[x .. m] to H[0 .. m-x]
Set the new m as the highest populated index in H[0 .. x-1] (we ignore everything from H[x] up)
Repeat until m == 0
If there is only a "good" but not optimal solution sought for, I could imagine that some kind of spectral analysis of H could hint towards favorable x selections so that maxima in the histogram pile upon other maxima in the reduction step.

How can i make an array of integers all relatively prime by increasing each number in minimum steps?

How can i make an array of integers all relatively prime by increasing each number in minimum steps?
Till now, i have come up this kind of strategy:
1) divide by their common multiples (say k, then each step i perform will equal k afterwards)
2) incrementing the number which is "closest" to a prime
But, i am not sure the correctness of this strategy.
Does anyone has a better idea?
For example, a[5]={2,4,6,7,8}
the solution should be {2,5,9,7,11} in 7 moves.
You can use that gcd(n, n+1) = 1 for all integers n. Therefore, one possible strategy will be to take the two numbers with smallest absolute difference and make the smaller equal to the_value_of_the_bigger_one - 1.
By the way, I think your second strategy is incorrect. Imagine that the next prime is p. Then you can construct an array, in which all the numbers (besides that, which you are increasing) can have p as а factor. And when you increase it, the gcd of the array will be equal to p. Example array can be (24, 2, 48) -- current gcd is 2, but when you try your second strategy, the array will become (24, 3, 48), which has gcd equal to 3.

Algorithm to check for a linear sum to zero

Given a list of N non-negative integers, propose an algorithm to check if the sum of X numbers from the list equals the remaining N-X.
In other words, a simpler case of the Subset sum problem which involves the entire set.
An attempted solution
Sort the elements of the list in descending order. Initialize a variable SUM to the first element. Remove first element (largest, a(1)). Let a(n) denote the n-th element in current list.
While list has more than one element,
Make SUM equal to SUM + a(1) or SUM - a(1), whichever is closest to a(2). (where closest means |a(2) - SUM_POSSIBLE| is minimum).
Remove a(1).
If the SUM equals -a(1) or a(1), there exists a linear sum.
The problem
I cannot seem to resolve above algorithm, if it is correct, I would like a proof.
If it is wrong (more likely), is there a way to get this done in linear time?
PS: If I'm doing something wrong please forgive :S
Notice that you want the sum of x numbers to be equal to the sum of the other N-x numbers.
You can simplify this by saying you want to see if there's a subset which sums up to S/2 where S is the total sum of the whole set.
So, you can calculate the Sum you need to get to with one iteration (O(n)).
Then just use a known algorithm like Knapsack to find a subset that meets your sum.
Another more "mathematical" explanation: Dynamic Programming – 3 : Subset Sum
Edit:
As an answer to your other question, your algorithm is wrong. consider this list of numbers:
{3,3,4,4}
The total sum is 14, so you're looking for a subset with the sum of 7. Obviously it will be 3+4.
Your algorithm will return false after examining the 2 3's

Does a combination of K integers exist, so that their sum is equal to a given number?

I've been breaking a sweat over this question I've been asked to answer (it's technically homework).
I've considered a hashtable but I'm kind of stuck on the exact specifics of how I'd make this work
Here's the question:
Given k sets of integers A1,A2,..,Ak of total size O(n), you should determine whether exist
a1 ϵ A1, a2 ϵ A2,..,ak ϵ Ak, such that a1+a2+..+ak−1 =ak. Your algorithm should run in Tk(n)
time, where Tk(n) = O(nk/2 × log n) for even k, and O(n(k+1)/2) for odd values of k.
Can anyone give me a general direction so that I can come closer to solving this?
Divide the k sets into two groups. For even k, both groups have k/2 sets each. For odd k, one group has (k+1)/2 and the other has (k-1)/2 sets. Compute all possible sums (taking one element from each set) within each group. For even k, you will get two arrays, each with nk/2 elements. For odd k, one array has n(k+1)/2 and the other array has n(k-1)/2 elements. The problem is reduced to the standard one "Given two arrays, check if a specified sum can be reached by taking one element from each array".

Generate all subset sums within a range faster than O((k+N) * 2^(N/2))?

Is there a way to generate all of the subset sums s1, s2, ..., sk that fall in a range [A,B] faster than O((k+N)*2N/2), where k is the number of sums there are in [A,B]? Note that k is only known after we have enumerated all subset sums within [A,B].
I'm currently using a modified Horowitz-Sahni algorithm. For example, I first call it to for the smallest sum greater than or equal to A, giving me s1. Then I call it again for the next smallest sum greater than s1, giving me s2. Repeat this until we find a sum sk+1 greater than B. There is a lot of computation repeated between each iteration, even without rebuilding the initial two 2N/2 lists, so is there a way to do better?
In my problem, N is about 15, and the magnitude of the numbers is on the order of millions, so I haven't considered the dynamic programming route.
Check the subset sum on Wikipedia. As far as I know, it's the fastest known algorithm, which operates in O(2^(N/2)) time.
Edit:
If you're looking for multiple possible sums, instead of just 0, you can save the end arrays and just iterate through them again (which is roughly an O(2^(n/2) operation) and save re-computing them. The value of all the possible subsets is doesn't change with the target.
Edit again:
I'm not wholly sure what you want. Are we running K searches for one independent value each, or looking for any subset that has a value in a specific range that is K wide? Or are you trying to approximate the second by using the first?
Edit in response:
Yes, you do get a lot of duplicate work even without rebuilding the list. But if you don't rebuild the list, that's not O(k * N * 2^(N/2)). Building the list is O(N * 2^(N/2)).
If you know A and B right now, you could begin iteration, and then simply not stop when you find the right answer (the bottom bound), but keep going until it goes out of range. That should be roughly the same as solving subset sum for just one solution, involving only +k more ops, and when you're done, you can ditch the list.
More edit:
You have a range of sums, from A to B. First, you solve subset sum problem for A. Then, you just keep iterating and storing the results, until you find the solution for B, at which point you stop. Now you have every sum between A and B in a single run, and it will only cost you one subset sum problem solve plus K operations for K values in the range A to B, which is linear and nice and fast.
s = *i + *j; if s > B then ++i; else if s < A then ++j; else { print s; ... what_goes_here? ... }
No, no, no. I get the source of your confusion now (I misread something), but it's still not as complex as what you had originally. If you want to find ALL combinations within the range, instead of one, you will just have to iterate over all combinations of both lists, which isn't too bad.
Excuse my use of auto. C++0x compiler.
std::vector<int> sums;
std::vector<int> firstlist;
std::vector<int> secondlist;
// Fill in first/secondlist.
std::sort(firstlist.begin(), firstlist.end());
std::sort(secondlist.begin(), secondlist.end());
auto firstit = firstlist.begin();
auto secondit = secondlist.begin();
// Since we want all in a range, rather than just the first, we need to check all combinations. Horowitz/Sahni is only designed to find one.
for(; firstit != firstlist.end(); firstit++) {
for(; secondit = secondlist.end(); secondit++) {
int sum = *firstit + *secondit;
if (sum > A && sum < B)
sums.push_back(sum);
}
}
It's still not great. But it could be optimized if you know in advance that N is very large, for example, mapping or hashmapping sums to iterators, so that any given firstit can find any suitable partners in secondit, reducing the running time.
It is possible to do this in O(N*2^(N/2)), using ideas similar to Horowitz Sahni, but we try and do some optimizations to reduce the constants in the BigOh.
We do the following
Step 1: Split into sets of N/2, and generate all possible 2^(N/2) sets for each split. Call them S1 and S2. This we can do in O(2^(N/2)) (note: the N factor is missing here, due to an optimization we can do).
Step 2: Next sort the larger of S1 and S2 (say S1) in O(N*2^(N/2)) time (we optimize here by not sorting both).
Step 3: Find Subset sums in range [A,B] in S1 using binary search (as it is sorted).
Step 4: Next, for each sum in S2, find using binary search the sets in S1 whose union with this gives sum in range [A,B]. This is O(N*2^(N/2)). At the same time, find if that corresponding set in S2 is in the range [A,B]. The optimization here is to combine loops. Note: This gives you a representation of the sets (in terms of two indexes in S2), not the sets themselves. If you want all the sets, this becomes O(K + N*2^(N/2)), where K is the number of sets.
Further optimizations might be possible, for instance when sum from S2, is negative, we don't consider sums < A etc.
Since Steps 2,3,4 should be pretty clear, I will elaborate further on how to get Step 1 done in O(2^(N/2)) time.
For this, we use the concept of Gray Codes. Gray codes are a sequence of binary bit patterns in which each pattern differs from the previous pattern in exactly one bit.
Example: 00 -> 01 -> 11 -> 10 is a gray code with 2 bits.
There are gray codes which go through all possible N/2 bit numbers and these can be generated iteratively (see the wiki page I linked to), in O(1) time for each step (total O(2^(N/2)) steps), given the previous bit pattern, i.e. given current bit pattern, we can generate the next bit pattern in O(1) time.
This enables us to form all the subset sums, by using the previous sum and changing that by just adding or subtracting one number (corresponding to the differing bit position) to get the next sum.
If you modify the Horowitz-Sahni algorithm in the right way, then it's hardly slower than original Horowitz-Sahni. Recall that Horowitz-Sahni works two lists of subset sums: Sums of subsets in the left half of the original list, and sums of subsets in the right half. Call these two lists of sums L and R. To obtain subsets that sum to some fixed value A, you can sort R, and then look up a number in R that matches each number in L using a binary search. However, the algorithm is asymmetric only to save a constant factor in space and time. It's a good idea for this problem to sort both L and R.
In my code below I also reverse L. Then you can keep two pointers into R, updated for each entry in L: A pointer to the last entry in R that's too low, and a pointer to the first entry in R that's too high. When you advance to the next entry in L, each pointer might either move forward or stay put, but they won't have to move backwards. Thus, the second stage of the Horowitz-Sahni algorithm only takes linear time in the data generated in the first stage, plus linear time in the length of the output. Up to a constant factor, you can't do better than that (once you have committed to this meet-in-the-middle algorithm).
Here is a Python code with example input:
# Input
terms = [29371, 108810, 124019, 267363, 298330, 368607,
438140, 453243, 515250, 575143, 695146, 840979, 868052, 999760]
(A,B) = (500000,600000)
# Subset iterator stolen from Sage
def subsets(X):
yield []; pairs = []
for x in X:
pairs.append((2**len(pairs),x))
for w in xrange(2**(len(pairs)-1), 2**(len(pairs))):
yield [x for m, x in pairs if m & w]
# Modified Horowitz-Sahni with toolow and toohigh indices
L = sorted([(sum(S),S) for S in subsets(terms[:len(terms)/2])])
R = sorted([(sum(S),S) for S in subsets(terms[len(terms)/2:])])
(toolow,toohigh) = (-1,0)
for (Lsum,S) in reversed(L):
while R[toolow+1][0] < A-Lsum and toolow < len(R)-1: toolow += 1
while R[toohigh][0] <= B-Lsum and toohigh < len(R): toohigh += 1
for n in xrange(toolow+1,toohigh):
print '+'.join(map(str,S+R[n][1])),'=',sum(S+R[n][1])
"Moron" (I think he should change his user name) raises the reasonable issue of optimizing the algorithm a little further by skipping one of the sorts. Actually, because each list L and R is a list of sizes of subsets, you can do a combined generate and sort of each one in linear time! (That is, linear in the lengths of the lists.) L is the union of two lists of sums, those that include the first term, term[0], and those that don't. So actually you should just make one of these halves in sorted form, add a constant, and then do a merge of the two sorted lists. If you apply this idea recursively, you save a logarithmic factor in the time to make a sorted L, i.e., a factor of N in the original variable of the problem. This gives a good reason to sort both lists as you generate them. If you only sort one list, you have some binary searches that could reintroduce that factor of N; at best you have to optimize them somehow.
At first glance, a factor of O(N) could still be there for a different reason: If you want not just the subset sum, but the subset that makes the sum, then it looks like O(N) time and space to store each subset in L and in R. However, there is a data-sharing trick that also gets rid of that factor of O(N). The first step of the trick is to store each subset of the left or right half as a linked list of bits (1 if a term is included, 0 if it is not included). Then, when the list L is doubled in size as in the previous paragraph, the two linked lists for a subset and its partner can be shared, except at the head:
0
|
v
1 -> 1 -> 0 -> ...
Actually, this linked list trick is an artifact of the cost model and never truly helpful. Because, in order to have pointers in a RAM architecture with O(1) cost, you have to define data words with O(log(memory)) bits. But if you have data words of this size, you might as well store each word as a single bit vector rather than with this pointer structure. I.e., if you need less than a gigaword of memory, then you can store each subset in a 32-bit word. If you need more than a gigaword, then you have a 64-bit architecture or an emulation of it (or maybe 48 bits), and you can still store each subset in one word. If you patch the RAM cost model to take account of word size, then this factor of N was never really there anyway.
So, interestingly, the time complexity for the original Horowitz-Sahni algorithm isn't O(N*2^(N/2)), it's O(2^(N/2)). Likewise the time complexity for this problem is O(K+2^(N/2)), where K is the length of the output.

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