Algorithm: Max Counters

Question

I have the following problem:

You are given N counters, initially set to 0, and you have two possible operations on them:

• increase(X) − counter X is increa

Answer 1

Remember:

"Making your code readable is as important as making it executable."

-- Robert C Martin

Even when trying to solve a hard problem...

So trying to achieve a better readability I've created a class to encapsulate the counters array and its operations (Law of Demeter). Sadly my first solution got only 60% in the performance test, so at the cost of a bit of readability I've improved it with a smarter solution and finally got 100%.

Here are my two implementations with comments:

O(N*M) Correctness 100% / Performance 60% (high redability)

//I didn't refactored the names of the variables N and A
//to maintain it aligned with the question description
public int[] solution(int N, int[] A)
{
    var counters = new Counters(N);

    for (int k = 0; k < A.Length; k++)
    {
        if (A[k] <= N)
            counters.IncreaseCounter(A[k]);
        else
            counters.MaxAllCounters();
    }

    return counters.ToArray();
}

public class Counters
{
    private int[] counters;
    private int greaterValueInCounter = 0;

    public Counters(int length)
    {
        counters = new int[length];
    }

    public void MaxAllCounters()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < counters.Length; i++)
        {
            counters[i] = greaterValueInCounter;
        }
    }

    public void IncreaseCounter(int counterPosition)
    {
        //The counter is one-based, but our array is zero-based
        counterPosition--;

        //Increments the counter
        counters[counterPosition]++;

        if (counters[counterPosition] > greaterValueInCounter)
            greaterValueInCounter = counters[counterPosition];
    }

    //The counters array is encapsuled in this class so if we provide external 
    //acess to it anyone could modify it and break the purpose of the encapsulation
    //So we just exposes a copy of it :)
    public int[] ToArray()
    {
        return (int[])counters.Clone();
    }
} 

Codility result

O(N+M) Correctness 100% / Performance 100% (not so high redability)

Note the beauty of the encapsulation: to improve the algorithm I just have to edit some methods of the Counters class without changing a single character on the solution method.

Methods edited in the Counters class:

• IncreaseCounter()
• MaxAllCounters()
• ToArray()

Final code:

//Exactly the same code
public int[] solution(int N, int[] A)
{
    var counters = new Counters(N);

    for (int k = 0; k < A.Length; k++)
    {
        if (A[k] <= N)
            counters.IncreaseCounter(A[k]);
        else
            counters.MaxAllCounters();
    }

    return counters.ToArray();
}

public class Counters
{
    private int[] counters;
    private int greaterValueInCounter = 0;
    private int currentEquilibratedScore = 0;

    public Counters(int length)
    {
        counters = new int[length];
    }

    public void MaxAllCounters()
    {
        //We don't update the entire array anymore - that was what caused the O(N*M)
        //We just save the current equilibrated score value
        currentEquilibratedScore = greaterValueInCounter;
    }

    public void IncreaseCounter(int counterPosition)
    {
        //The counter is one-based, but our array is zero-based
        counterPosition--;

        //We need to add this "if" here because with this new solution the array
        //is not always updated, so if we detect that this position is lower than
        //the currentEquilibratedScore, we update it before any operation
        if (counters[counterPosition] < currentEquilibratedScore)
            counters[counterPosition] = currentEquilibratedScore + 1;
        else
            counters[counterPosition]++;

        if (counters[counterPosition] > greaterValueInCounter)
            greaterValueInCounter = counters[counterPosition];
    }

    //The counters array is encapsuled in this class so if we provide external 
    //acess to it anyone could modify it and break the purpose of the encapsulation
    //So we just exposes a copy of it :)
    public int[] ToArray()
    {
        //Now we need to fix the unupdated values in the array
        //(the values that are less than the equilibrated score)
        for (int i = 0; i < counters.Length; i++)
        {
            if (counters[i] < currentEquilibratedScore)
                counters[i] = currentEquilibratedScore;
        }

        return (int[])counters.Clone();
    }
}

Codility result