Minimum Common Value

Problem Statement - link #

Given two integer arrays nums1 and nums2, sorted in non-decreasing order, return the minimum integer common to both arrays. If there is no common integer amongst nums1 and nums2, return -1.

Note that an integer is said to be common to nums1 and nums2 if both arrays have at least one occurrence of that integer.

Examples #

Example 1:

Input: nums1 = [1,2,3], nums2 = [2,4]
Output: 2
Explanation: The smallest element common to both arrays is 2, so we return 2.

Example 2:

Input: nums1 = [1,2,3,6], nums2 = [2,3,4,5]
Output: 2
Explanation: There are two common elements in the array 2 and 3 out of which 2 is the smallest, so 2 is returned.

Constraints #

• 1 <= nums1.length, nums2.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= nums1[i], nums2[j] <= 10^9
• Both nums1 and nums2 are sorted in non-decreasing order.

Solutions #

class Solution {
public:
    int getCommon(vector<int>& nums1, vector<int>& nums2) {
        int i = 0, j = 0;
        while(i < nums1.size() && j < nums2.size()) {
            if(nums1[i] < nums2[j]) {
                i++;
            }
            else if(nums1[i] > nums2[j]) {
                j++;
            }
            else {
                return nums1[i];
            }
        }
        return -1;
    }
};