Find largest rectangle containing only zeros in an N×N binary matrix

Question

Given an NxN binary matrix (containing only 0\'s or 1\'s), how can we go about finding largest rectangle containing all 0\'s?

Example:

      I
    0          


        

Answer 1

Please take a look at Maximize the rectangular area under Histogram and then continue reading the solution below.

Traverse the matrix once and store the following;

For x=1 to N and y=1 to N    
F[x][y] = 1 + F[x][y-1] if A[x][y] is 0 , else 0

Then for each row for x=N to 1 
We have F[x] -> array with heights of the histograms with base at x.
Use O(N) algorithm to find the largest area of rectangle in this histogram = H[x]

From all areas computed, report the largest.

Time complexity is O(N*N) = O(N²) (for an NxN binary matrix)

Example:

Initial array    F[x][y] array
 0 0 0 0 1 0     1 1 1 1 0 1
 0 0 1 0 0 1     2 2 0 2 1 0
 0 0 0 0 0 0     3 3 1 3 2 1
 1 0 0 0 0 0     0 4 2 4 3 2
 0 0 0 0 0 1     1 5 3 5 4 0
 0 0 1 0 0 0     2 6 0 6 5 1

 For x = N to 1
 H[6] = 2 6 0 6 5 1 -> 10 (5*2)
 H[5] = 1 5 3 5 4 0 -> 12 (3*4)
 H[4] = 0 4 2 4 3 2 -> 10 (2*5)
 H[3] = 3 3 1 3 2 1 -> 6 (3*2)
 H[2] = 2 2 0 2 1 0 -> 4 (2*2)
 H[1] = 1 1 1 1 0 1 -> 4 (1*4)

 The largest area is thus H[5] = 12