Discussion on Find the Running Median Challenge

3 years ago+ 1 comment

This follows Gayle Laakmann McDowell's approach published by HackerRank (see here) but in Python 3:

import heapq

def addNum(num, lowers, highers):
    if not lowers or num < -lowers[0]:
        heapq.heappush(lowers,-num)
    else:
        heapq.heappush(highers,num)
    
def rebalance(lowers, highers):
    if len(lowers) - len(highers) >= 2:
        heapq.heappush(highers,-heapq.heappop(lowers))
    elif len(highers) - len(lowers) >= 2:
        heapq.heappush(lowers,-heapq.heappop(highers))

def getMedian(lowers, highers):
    if len(lowers) == len(highers):
        return (-lowers[0] + highers[0])/2
    if len(lowers) > len(highers):
        return float(-lowers[0])
    else:
        return float(highers[0])


def runningMedian(a):
    lowers = []  # max heap, vals should go in and come out negated
    highers = []  # min heap, vals should go in positive
    result = []
    for v in a:
        addNum(v, lowers, highers)
        rebalance(lowers, highers)
        result.append(round(getMedian(lowers, highers),1))
    return result

Unfortunately, the heapq module is not object-oriented, only implements a min-heap discipline, and does not provide the ability to use a custom comparator, which would make this way easier with regard to the max-heap.