LeetCode11：Container With Most Water

Given n non-negative integers a1, a2, ..., an , where each represents a point at coordinate (i, ai). n vertical lines are drawn such that the two endpoints of line i is at (i, ai) and (i, 0). Find two lines, which together with x-axis forms a container, such that the container contains the most water.

Note: You may not slant the container and n is at least 2.

The above vertical lines are represented by array [1,8,6,2,5,4,8,3,7]. In this case, the max area of water (blue section) the container can contain is 49.

Example:

Input: [1,8,6,2,5,4,8,3,7]
Output: 49

LeetCode：链接

解题思路：最大盛水量取决于两边中较短的那条边，而且如果将较短的边换为更短边的话，盛水量只会变少。所以我们可以用两个头尾指针，计算出当前最大的盛水量后，将较短的边向中间移，因为我们想看看能不能把较短的边换长一点。这样一直计算到左边大于右边为止就行了。

class Solution(object):
    def maxArea(self, height):
        """
        :type height: List[int]
        :rtype: int
        """
        max_area = 0
        start = 0
        end = len(height) - 1
        while start < end:
            if height[start] <= height[end]:
                temp = (end - start) * height[start]
                start += 1
            else:
                temp = (end - start) * height[end]
                end -= 1
            if temp > max_area:
                max_area = temp
        return max_area