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Alkesh Ghorpade
Alkesh Ghorpade

Posted on • Originally published at alkeshghorpade.me

LeetCode - Reverse Linked List II

Problem statement

Given the head of a singly linked list and two integers left and right where left <= right,
reverse the nodes of the list from position left to position right, and return the reversed list.

Problem statement taken from: https://leetcode.com/problems/reverse-linked-list-ii

Example 1:

Container

Input: head = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], left = 2, right = 4
Output: [1, 4, 3, 2, 5]
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Example 2:

Input: head = [5], left = 1, right = 1
Output: [5]
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Constraints:

- The number of nodes in the list is n.
- 1 <= n <= 500
- -500 <= Node.val <= 500
- 1 <= left <= right <= n
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Explanation

Iterative solution

The problem is similar to reverse a linked list but instead of a whole list we need to reverse
only a subset of this.
Let's say we consider a sublist 3 -> 4 -> 5 of the original list 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7
which we want to reverse. The sublist needs to be reversed as 3 <- 4 <- 5.
Lets point our current node to 4 and previous node to 3.
We can easily reverse the current next pointer to previous by setting

current->next = previous
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But in this case we won't be able to navigate to node 5. Hence we need one more pointer
let's call that as iterator that will help continue the link reversal process.
So we need to do the following:

iterator = current->next
current->next = prev
prev = current
current = iterator
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We continue doing the above steps till we reach the right node.
Let's check the algorithm now.

- return NUll if head == NULL

- return head if left == right

- set current = head, prev = NULL

- loop while left > 1
  - set prev = current
  - update current = current->next
  - decrement left--
  - decrement right--

- set tailPrev = prev, tail = current, iterator = NULL

- loop while right > 0
  - iterator = current->next
  - current->next = prev
  - prev = current
  - current = iterator
  - decrement right--

- if tailPrev != NULL
  - set tailPrev->next = prev
- else
  - head = prev

- set tail->next = current

- return head
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Let's check out our solutions in C++, Golang, and Javascript.

C++ solution

class Solution {
public:
    ListNode* reverseBetween(ListNode* head, int left, int right) {
        if(head == NULL) {
            return NULL;
        }

        if(left == right) {
            return head;
        }

        ListNode *current = head, *prev = NULL;

        while(left > 1) {
            prev = current;
            current = current->next;
            left--;
            right--;
        }

        ListNode *tailPrev = prev, *tail = current, *iterator = NULL;

        while(right > 0) {
            iterator = current->next;
            current->next = prev;
            prev = current;
            current = iterator;
            right--;
        }

        if(tailPrev != NULL) {
            tailPrev->next = prev;
        } else {
            head = prev;
        }

        tail->next = current;

        return head;
    }
};
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Golang solution

func reverseBetween(head *ListNode, left int, right int) *ListNode {
    if head == nil {
        return nil
    }

    if left == right {
        return head
    }

    current := head
    var prev *ListNode

    for left > 1 {
        prev = current
        current = current.Next
        left--
        right--
    }

    tailPrev, tail := prev, current
    var iterator *ListNode

    for right > 0 {
        iterator = current.Next
        current.Next = prev
        prev = current
        current = iterator
        right--
    }

    if tailPrev != nil {
        tailPrev.Next = prev
    } else {
        head = prev
    }

    tail.Next = current

    return head;
}
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Javascript solution

var reverseBetween = function(head, left, right) {
    if(head == null) {
        return null;
    }

    if(left == right) {
        return head;
    }

    let current = head, prev = null;

    while(left > 1) {
        prev = current;
        current = current.next;
        left--;
        right--;
    }

    let tailPrev = prev, tail = current, iterator = null;

    while(right > 0) {
        iterator = current.next;
        current.next = prev;
        prev = current;
        current = iterator;
        right--;
    }

    if(tailPrev != null) {
        tailPrev.next = prev;
    } else {
        head = prev;
    }

    tail.next = current;

    return head;
};
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Let's dry-run our algorithm to see how the solution works.

Input: head = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], left = 2, right = 4

    head - [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Step 1: head == NULL
        false

Step 2: left == right
        2 == 4
        false

Step 3: current = head, prev = null
             current
               |
       head - [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Step 3: loop while left > 1
        2 > 1
        true

        prev = current
        current = current->next

                current
                   |
        prev - [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

        left--
        left = 1

        right --
        right = 3

Step 4: loop while left > 1
        1 > 1
        false

Step 5: tailPrev = prev
                 = 1

        tail = current
             = 2

        iterator = NULL

Step 6: loop while right > 0
        3 > 0
        true

        iterator = current->next
                 = 3

                   iterator
                      |
        prev - [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

        current->next = prev
        2->next = 1

        prev = current
        prev = 2

        current = iterator
                = 3

        right--
        right = 2

           prev  --    --- iterator
                   |  |
               [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
                      |
                   current

Step 7: loop while right > 0
        2 > 0
        true

        iterator = current->next
                 = 4

                iterator
                     |
           [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

        current->next = prev
        3->next = 2

        prev = current
        prev = 3

        current = iterator
                = 4

        right--
        right = 1

               prev  --   --- iterator
                      |  |
               [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
                         |
                      current

Step 8: loop while right > 0
        1 > 0
        true

        iterator = current->next
                 = 5

                    iterator
                        |
           [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

        current->next = prev
        4->next = 3

        prev = current
        prev = 4

        current = iterator
                = 5

        right--
        right = 0

                  prev  --  --- iterator
                         |  |
               [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
                            |
                         current

Step 9: loop while right > 0
        0 > 0
        false

Step 10: tailPrev != NULL
           1 != NULL
           true

           tailPrev->next = prev
           1->next = 4

Step 11: tail->next = current
         2->next = 5

Step 12: return head

So we return the answer as [1, 4, 3, 2, 5].
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