Solution: Merge Sorted Array
Explore how to merge two sorted arrays into one sorted array stored in the first array using an optimized backward-pointer technique. Understand the process of pointer initialization, element comparison, and in-place modification. This lesson helps you master time and space-efficient merging algorithms suited for 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