1929. Concatenation of Array - Explanation

Description

You are given an integer array nums of length n. Create an array ans of length 2n where ans[i] == nums[i] and ans[i + n] == nums[i] for 0 <= i < n (0-indexed).

Specifically, ans is the concatenation of two nums arrays.

Return the array ans.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,4,1,2]

Output: [1,4,1,2,1,4,1,2]

Example 2:

Input: nums = [22,21,20,1]

Output: [22,21,20,1,22,21,20,1]

Constraints:

1 <= nums.length <= 1000.
1 <= nums[i] <= 1000

Topics

Array Simulation

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Prerequisites

Before attempting this problem, you should be comfortable with:

Arrays - Understanding array indexing and how to create arrays of a specific size
Basic Iteration - Using loops to traverse and populate arrays

1. Iteration (Two Pass)

Intuition

To concatenate an array with itself, we need to create a new array that contains all elements of the original array twice, maintaining the same order. The elements at indices $0$ to $n - 1$ are followed by the same elements at indices $n$ to $2n - 1$ .

For example, if nums = [1, 2, 3]:

The first three elements of ans will be nums[0], nums[1], nums[2] -> [1, 2, 3]
The next three elements of ans will also be nums[0], nums[1], nums[2] -> [1, 2, 3]
Result: [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]

Algorithm

Initialize an empty result list or an array ans of size 2n, where n is the length of the input array.
Use a loop that runs twice.
Inside that loop, iterate through every element num in the input array nums.
Append num to the result list or assign it to the next available index in the result array.
Return the resulting array.

class Solution:
    def getConcatenation(self, nums: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        ans = []
        for i in range(2):
            for num in nums:
                ans.append(num)
        return ans

public class Solution {
    public int[] getConcatenation(int[] nums) {
        int[] ans = new int[2 * nums.length];
        int idx = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
            for (int num : nums) {
                ans[idx++] = num;
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> getConcatenation(vector<int>& nums) {
        vector<int> ans;
        for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) {
            for (int num : nums) {
                ans.push_back(num);
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
};

class Solution {
    /**
     * @param {number[]} nums
     * @return {number[]}
     */
    getConcatenation(nums) {
        let ans = [];
        for (let i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
            for (let num of nums) {
                ans.push(num);
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

public class Solution {
    public int[] GetConcatenation(int[] nums) {
        int[] ans = new int[2 * nums.Length];
        int idx = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
            foreach (int num in nums) {
                ans[idx++] = num;
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

func getConcatenation(nums []int) []int {
    ans := make([]int, 0, 2*len(nums))
    for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
        for _, num := range nums {
            ans = append(ans, num)
        }
    }
    return ans
}

class Solution {
    fun getConcatenation(nums: IntArray): IntArray {
        val ans = IntArray(2 * nums.size)
        var idx = 0
        for (i in 0 until 2) {
            for (num in nums) {
                ans[idx++] = num
            }
        }
        return ans
    }
}

class Solution {
    func getConcatenation(_ nums: [Int]) -> [Int] {
        var ans = [Int]()
        for _ in 0..<2 {
            for num in nums {
                ans.append(num)
            }
        }
        return ans
    }
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time complexity: $O(n)$ where $n$ is the length of the input array. We iterate through the array twice, performing $2n$ operations.
Space complexity: $O(n)$ if we consider the space required for the output array of size $2n$ .

2. Iteration (One Pass)

Intuition

The problem defines the result array ans such that ans[i] == nums[i] and ans[i + n] == nums[i] for 0 <= i < n. Instead of looping through the input twice, we can fill both required positions in the result array simultaneously while iterating through the input array just once. This utilizes the index mapping i and i + n directly.

Algorithm

Determine the length n of the input array.
Initialize a result array ans of size 2n.
Iterate through the input array nums using an index i from 0 to n - 1.
For each element at index i:
- Set ans[i] = nums[i].
- Set ans[i + n] = nums[i].
Return the resulting array.

class Solution:
    def getConcatenation(self, nums: List[int]) -> List[int]:
        n = len(nums)
        ans = [0] * (2 * n)
        for i, num in enumerate(nums):
            ans[i] = ans[i + n] = num
        return ans

public class Solution {
    public int[] getConcatenation(int[] nums) {
        int n = nums.length;
        int[] ans = new int[2 * n];
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            ans[i] = ans[i + n] = nums[i];
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

class Solution {
public:
    vector<int> getConcatenation(vector<int>& nums) {
        int n = nums.size();
        vector<int> ans(2 * n);
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            ans[i] = ans[i + n] = nums[i];
        }
        return ans;
    }
};

class Solution {
    /**
     * @param {number[]} nums
     * @return {number[]}
     */
    getConcatenation(nums) {
        let n = nums.length;
        let ans = new Array(2 * n);
        for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            ans[i] = ans[i + n] = nums[i];
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

public class Solution {
    public int[] GetConcatenation(int[] nums) {
        int n = nums.Length;
        int[] ans = new int[2 * n];
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            ans[i] = ans[i + n] = nums[i];
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

class Solution {
    fun getConcatenation(nums: IntArray): IntArray {
        val n = nums.size
        val ans = IntArray(2 * n)
        for (i in nums.indices) {
            ans[i] = nums[i]
            ans[i + n] = nums[i]
        }
        return ans
    }
}

class Solution {
    func getConcatenation(_ nums: [Int]) -> [Int] {
        let n = nums.count
        var ans = [Int](repeating: 0, count: 2 * n)
        for i in 0..<n {
            ans[i] = nums[i]
            ans[i + n] = nums[i]
        }
        return ans
    }
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time complexity: $O(n)$ where $n$ is the length of the input array. Although we iterate through the input once, we still perform $2n$ total writes to the output array.
Space complexity: $O(n)$ as we must allocate an array of size $2n$ for the output.

Common Pitfalls

Incorrect Result Array Size

Allocating an array of size n instead of 2n causes an index out of bounds error when writing to the second half.

# Wrong
ans = [0] * n

# Correct
ans = [0] * (2 * n)

Off-by-One When Using Index Offset

When using the one-pass approach with ans[i + n] = nums[i], forgetting that indices are zero-based or miscalculating the offset leads to incorrect placement of elements in the second half.