Solution: Merge Sorted Array
Explore how to merge two sorted arrays into one sorted array using an optimized k-way merge method. Understand setting pointers at the end of arrays, comparing and placing elements in reverse order, and completing the merge with an in-place approach that ensures time complexity of O(m + n) and constant space. This lesson teaches you practical skills to handle merge problems efficiently during coding interviews.
Statement
You are given two integer arrays, nums1 and nums2, both sorted in non-decreasing order. You are also given two integers, m and n, representing the number of elements in nums1 and nums2, respectively.
Your task is to merge the elements of nums2 into nums1 so that nums1 becomes a single array sorted in non-decreasing order.
The merged result is stored in nums1, which has a total length of m + n. The first m positions contain the initial elements, the last n positions are placeholders (initialized to 0), and nums2 contains the n elements to merge.
Constraints:
nums1.length