Intuition :
The main intuition behind this problem is sorting. Now, are we gonna apply merge sort, quick sort, selection sort 🤔?
No…
It will be a custom sorting. Means we are gonna sort according to our problem statement.
-> Custom sorting, also known as comparator-based sorting, allows you to define your own comparison logic for sorting elements. In Java, you can achieve custom sorting by providing a comparator function.
Algorithm :
Input: The method takes an array of integers nums[] as input.
Convert Integers to Strings: Initialize a string array arr[] of the same length as nums[]. Iterate through each integer in nums[] and convert it into a string, storing it in the corresponding index of arr[].
Custom Sorting: Sort the string array arr[] in non-ascending order based on a custom comparator. The comparator concatenates two strings s1 and s2 in two different orders (s2+s1 and s1+s2) and compares them lexicographically. This ensures that when sorted, the resulting order will form the largest number.
Build the Largest Number: Initialize a StringBuilder to build the largest number. Append each string from the sorted arr[] to the StringBuilder.
Check for Leading Zeros: If the first element of the sorted array is “0”, it means that all elements are zeros. In this case, return “0” as the largest possible number.
Return Largest Number: Convert the StringBuilder to a string and return it as the result.
Code
public String largestNumber(int[] nums) {
int n = nums.length;
String arr[] = new String[n];
for(int i=0; i<n; i++){
arr[i] = String.valueOf(nums[i]);
}
Arrays.sort(arr, (s1, s2) -> (s2+s1).compareTo(s1+s2));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for(String s : arr)
sb.append(s);
if(arr[0].equals(“0”))
return “0”;
return sb.toString();
}
}
PS : Do try to learn more about lambda functions in Java as it might come in handy.
Thanks for reading🥰.
Feel free to comment🖌️ and like the post💓
Follow for more 🤝 && Happy Coding🚀👩💻
Don’t forget to check-out my other socials😍:
Github
Hashnode
Medium
Twitter(X)
