Leetcode 75: Day 3: 21. Merge Two Sorted Lists

Question:

You are given the heads of two sorted linked lists list1 and list2.

Merge the two lists in a one sorted list. The list should be made by splicing together the nodes of the first two lists.

Return the head of the merged linked list.

Example 1:

Input: list1 = [1,2,4], list2 = [1,3,4] Output: [1,1,2,3,4,4]

Example 2:

Input: list1 = [], list2 = [] Output: []

Example 3:

Input: list1 = [], list2 = [0] Output: [0]

Constraints:

The number of nodes in both lists is in the range [0, 50]. -100 <= Node.val <= 100 Both list1 and list2 are sorted in non-decreasing order.

Solution:

• Use recursion to solve the subproblems.
• Compare the first nodes of both the lists.
• Once the smaller node is found, pass it to the recursive function (with new list starting from the second node of that list: list.next node).

Code:

class Solution {
    public ListNode mergeTwoLists(ListNode l1, ListNode l2) {

        if(l1 == null) return l2;
        if(l2 == null) return l1;

        if(l1.val < l2.val){

            l1.next = mergeTwoLists(l1.next, l2);
            return l1;

        } else{

            l2.next = mergeTwoLists(l1, l2.next);
            return l2;

        }

    }
}

Complexity:

• Time: O(m + n)
• Space: O(1)