Given a target integer T and an integer array A, A is sorted in ascending order first, then shifted by an arbitrary number of positions.
For Example, A = {3, 4, 5, 1, 2} (shifted left by 2 positions). Find the index i such that A[i] == T or return -1 if there is no such index.
Assumptions
There could be duplicate elements in the array.
Examples
A = {3, 4, 5, 1, 2}, T = 4, return 1
A = {3, 3, 3, 1, 3}, T = 1, return 3
A = {3, 1, 3, 3, 3}, T = 1, return 1
Corner Cases
What if A is null or A is of zero length? We should return -1 in this case.
class Solution(object):
def search(self, array, target):
if len(array) < 1:
return -1
left = 0
right = len(array) - 1
while left < right - 1:
mid = (left + right)/2
if array[mid] == target:
return mid
while left < mid and array[left] == array[mid]:
left += 1
if array[left] <= array[mid]:
if array[left] <= target < array[mid]:
right = mid - 1
else:
left = mid + 1
else:
if array[mid] < target <= array[right]:
left = mid + 1
else:
right = mid - 1
if array[left] == target:
return left
if array[right] == target:
return right
return -1
