|
| 1 | +## Explanation |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +### Strategy (The "Why") |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +**Restate the problem:** We need to flip a square submatrix of size k×k vertically by reversing the order of its rows. The submatrix starts at position (x, y) in the grid. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +**1.1 Constraints & Complexity:** |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +- **Input Size:** Grid dimensions m and n are at most 50, and k is at most min(m-x, n-y). |
| 10 | +- **Time Complexity:** O(k^2) - we perform k/2 row swaps, each touching k elements. |
| 11 | +- **Space Complexity:** O(1) - all swaps are done in-place. |
| 12 | +- **Edge Case:** If k = 1, no swaps are needed as there's only one row. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +**1.2 High-level approach:** |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +The goal is to swap the top row with the bottom row, the second row with the second-to-last row, and so on, within the k×k submatrix. |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +**1.3 Brute force vs. optimized strategy:** |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +- **Brute Force:** Create a new grid and copy elements in reversed order, which would be O(k^2) time and O(k^2) space. |
| 21 | +- **Optimized Strategy:** Swap rows in-place using Python's slice assignment, which is O(k^2) time but O(1) extra space. |
| 22 | +- **Optimization:** Using slice assignment allows us to swap entire row segments in one operation, making the code cleaner and more efficient. |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +**1.4 Decomposition:** |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +1. Iterate through the first half of the k rows (k//2 iterations). |
| 27 | +2. For each iteration i, identify the top row (x + i) and bottom row (x + k - 1 - i). |
| 28 | +3. Swap the k-element slice in these two rows using Python's slice assignment. |
| 29 | +4. Return the modified grid. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +### Steps (The "How") |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +**2.1 Initialization & Example Setup:** |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +Let's use the example: `grid = [[1,2,3,4],[5,6,7,8],[9,10,11,12],[13,14,15,16]]`, `x = 1`, `y = 0`, `k = 3` |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +- The submatrix to flip is rows 1-3, columns 0-2: `[[5,6,7],[9,10,11],[13,14,15]]` |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +**2.2 Start Processing:** |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +We iterate i from 0 to k//2 - 1 (i.e., 0 to 0 for k=3). |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +**2.3 Trace Walkthrough:** |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +| i | top | bottom | Before Swap | After Swap | |
| 46 | +| --- | --- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | |
| 47 | +| 0 | 1 | 3 | grid[1][0:3] = [5,6,7]<br>grid[3][0:3] = [13,14,15] | grid[1][0:3] = [13,14,15]<br>grid[3][0:3] = [5,6,7] | |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +**2.4 Increment and Loop:** |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +After swapping, the grid becomes: `[[1,2,3,4],[13,14,15,8],[9,10,11,12],[5,6,7,16]]` |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +**2.5 Return Result:** |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +The result is the grid with the submatrix flipped vertically: `[[1,2,3,4],[13,14,15,8],[9,10,11,12],[5,6,7,16]]` |
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