Biggest Single Number

LeetCode 619 | Difficulty: Easy

Easy

Problem Description

Table: MyNumbers

+-------------+------+
| Column Name | Type |
+-------------+------+
| num         | int  |
+-------------+------+
This table may contain duplicates (In other words, there is no primary key for this table in SQL).
Each row of this table contains an integer.

A single number is a number that appeared only once in the MyNumbers table.

Find the largest single number. If there is no single number, report null.

The result format is in the following example.

Example 1:

Input: 
MyNumbers table:
+-----+
| num |
+-----+
| 8   |
| 8   |
| 3   |
| 3   |
| 1   |
| 4   |
| 5   |
| 6   |
+-----+
Output: 
+-----+
| num |
+-----+
| 6   |
+-----+
Explanation: The single numbers are 1, 4, 5, and 6.
Since 6 is the largest single number, we return it.

Example 2:

Input: 
MyNumbers table:
+-----+
| num |
+-----+
| 8   |
| 8   |
| 7   |
| 7   |
| 3   |
| 3   |
| 3   |
+-----+
Output: 
+------+
| num  |
+------+
| null |
+------+
Explanation: There are no single numbers in the input table so we return null.

Topics: Database

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Approach

Direct Approach

This problem can typically be solved with straightforward iteration or simple data structure usage. Focus on correctness first, then optimize.

When to use

Basic problems that test fundamental programming skills.

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Solutions

Solution 1: MySQL (Best: 403 ms)

Metric	Value
Runtime	403 ms
Memory	N/A
Date	2018-05-08

Solution

# Write your MySQL query statement below

select (select num from number group by num having count(*) = 1 order by num desc limit 1) as num

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Complexity Analysis

Approach	Time	Space
Solution	$O(n)$	$O(1) to O(n)$

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Interview Tips

Key Points

• Start by clarifying edge cases: empty input, single element, all duplicates.