Leetcode – XOR Operation in an Array Solution

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The “XOR Operation in an Array” is a classic bit-manipulation problem frequently encountered on Leetcode and similar platforms. This problem may seem straightforward at first glance, but it’s a useful exercise for understanding bitwise operations and the properties of XOR. In this article, we’ll dissect the problem, evaluate multiple solutions, consider time and space complexity, and explore its real-world applications.

Problem Statement

Given two integers, n and start, the task is to create an array nums of length n such that nums[i] = start + 2 * i (0-based). Then, bitwise XOR the elements of nums and return that value.

Example

Input: n = 5, start = 0
Output: 8
Explanation: Array nums is [0, 2, 4, 6, 8], and XOR of all these elements gives 8.

Naive Approach: Loop and XOR

A naive approach to solving this problem is to create the array as specified and then loop through it, using the XOR operator to find the bitwise XOR of all elements.

Python Code:

def xorOperation(n, start):
    nums = [(start + 2 * i) for i in range(n)]
    xor_result = 0
    for num in nums:
        xor_result ^= num
    return xor_result

# Test the function
print(xorOperation(5, 0))  # Output should be 8

Time Complexity

The time complexity of this naive approach is O(n).

Space Complexity

The space complexity is also O(n) because we create an array of size n.

Optimized Approach: In-place XOR

Since we only care about the XOR result, we don’t really need to store the array. We can calculate and XOR the numbers in-place.

Python Code:

def xorOperation(n, start):
    xor_result = 0
    for i in range(n):
        xor_result ^= (start + 2 * i)
    return xor_result

# Test the function
print(xorOperation(5, 0))  # Output should be 8

Time Complexity

The time complexity is O(n).

Space Complexity

The space complexity is O(1) as we are not using extra space for the array.

Real-world Applications of Bitwise XOR

Understanding bitwise operations like XOR can have several applications:

  1. Cryptography: XOR is used in simple encryption and decryption algorithms.
  2. Error Correction: XOR can be used in checksums and to correct errors in data transmission.
  3. Data Compression: XOR can be used to find repeating sequences in data and compress them.

Edge Cases and Further Considerations

  • Negative Numbers: The problem statement doesn’t specify if n or start could be negative. If they are, the algorithm would still work but may produce different results due to the way negative numbers are represented in binary.
  • Zero Values: If n or start is zero, the function should handle these gracefully. For n=0, the XOR of an empty set is generally considered to be 0.
  • Large Inputs: The algorithm is linear in time complexity, but be aware of potential overflow errors for very large input values.

Conclusion

The “XOR Operation in an Array” problem is a straightforward but instructive problem that introduces bitwise XOR operations and how they can be efficiently applied. Starting from a naive approach, we optimized the solution to operate in-place, thus saving space. Although this problem may not directly exploit all the interesting properties of XOR, understanding those properties can be useful for more complex problems.

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