To solve the problem of finding the missing element in an array A
consisting of N
different integers from the range [1..(N + 1)]
, you can utilize the mathematical approach of calculating the expected sum versus the actual sum of the array elements.
Here’s the step-by-step explanation of the approach:
The sum of the first N+1
integers (which are [1, 2, ..., N+1]
) can be calculated using the formula:
This formula gives the sum of all integers from 1
to N+1
.
Compute the sum of all elements in array A
.
The missing element will be the difference between the expected sum and the actual sum of array A
.
Given the constraints (N can be up to 100,000), this approach is efficient with a time complexity of O(N) because it involves a single pass through the array to compute the sum.
Here is the implementation of the solution in JavaScript:
function solution(A) {
const N = A.length;
const expectedSum = (N + 1) * (N + 2) / 2;
let actualSum = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < N; i++) {
actualSum += A[i];
}
const missingElement = expectedSum - actualSum;
return missingElement;
}
// Example usage:
const A = [2, 3, 1, 5];
console.log(solution(A)); // Output: 4
Explanation of the Example:
For the array A = [2, 3, 1, 5]
, where N = 4
(since A.length = 4
), the expected sum of [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
is 15
.
The actual sum of elements in A
is 2 + 3 + 1 + 5 = 11
.
Therefore, the missing element is 15 - 11 = 4
.
This approach ensures that you find the missing element in linear time, making it optimal for large inputs as specified in the problem constraints.