I have a histogram with integer heights and constant width 1. I want to maximize the rectangular area under a histogram. e.g.:
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You can use O(n) method which uses stack to calculate the maximum area under the histogram.
long long histogramArea(vector &histo){
stack s;
long long maxArea=0;
long long area= 0;
int i =0;
for (i = 0; i < histo.size();) {
if(s.empty() || histo[s.top()] <= histo[i]){
s.push(i++);
}
else{
int top = s.top(); s.pop();
area= histo[top]* (s.empty()?i:i-s.top()-1);
if(area >maxArea)
maxArea= area;
}
}
while(!s.empty()){
int top = s.top();s.pop();
area= histo[top]* (s.empty()?i:i-s.top()-1);
if(area >maxArea)
maxArea= area;
}
return maxArea;
}
For explanation you can read here http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/largest-rectangle-under-histogram/