4Sum Ii

To solve this coding challenge, you need to find the number of tuples (i, j, k, l) for four integer arrays such that the sum of the elements from each array is zero. The optimal approach leverages the use of a hash map to efficiently count and check the required sums. Here's a step-by-step explanation and methodology to solve this challenge:
# Explanation
  1. Understand the Problem:
    • We are given four arrays: nums1, nums2, nums3, and nums4.
    • We need to find the count of tuples (i, j, k, l) where indices i, j, k, l come from arrays nums1, nums2, nums3, and nums4 respectively, and the sum of the elements at these indices is zero.
  2. Optimal Approach:
    • Use a hash map to store and count the sums of pairs of elements.
    • First, calculate the sums of all pairs from nums1 and nums2, and store the sum in a hash map.
    • The key in this hash map will be the sum, and the value will be the count of how many times this sum appears.
    • Then, for each pair from nums3 and nums4, check if the negative of their sum exists in the hash map. If it does, it means that those pairs from nums1 and nums2 complement the pairs from nums3 and nums4 to sum to zero.
    • Count how many times these complementary sums appear.
    Detailed Steps in Pseudocode
  3. Initialize a Count and a Hash Map:
    • Set
      count
      to zero. This will store the final count of tuples.
    • Initialize an empty hash map
      sum_map
      .
  4. Populate the Hash Map with Pairs from nums1 and nums2:
    • Iterate over each element
      i
      in
      nums1
      .
    • For each element
      i
      , iterate over each element
      j
      in
      nums2
      .
    • Calculate the sum of
      i
      and
      j
      .
    • If this sum already exists in
      sum_map
      , increment its count.
    • If it does not exist, add it to
      sum_map
      with an initial count of 1.
  5. Check for Complementary Pairs from nums3 and nums4:
    • Iterate over each element
      k
      in
      nums3
      .
    • For each element
      k
      , iterate over each element
      l
      in
      nums4
      .
    • Calculate the sum of
      k
      and
      l
      .
    • Check if the negative of this sum exists in
      sum_map
      .
    • If it exists, increase the count by the value from the hash map, as this value represents how many pairs from nums1 and nums2 can complement the current pair from nums3 and nums4 to sum to zero.
  6. Return the Count:
    • Finally, return the total
      count
      of such tuples.
# Pseudocode
                                            
# Initialize count to store the final number of valid tuples
count = 0 

# Initialize an empty hash map to store sums of pairs from nums1 and nums2
sum_map = {}

# Compute all sums of pairs from nums1 and nums2
for each element in nums1:
    for each element in nums2:
        pair_sum = element from nums1 + element from nums2
        if pair_sum in sum_map:
            sum_map[pair_sum] = sum_map[pair_sum] + 1  # Increase count of this sum
        else:
            sum_map[pair_sum] = 1  # Initialize this sum in the map

# Check all pairs from nums3 and nums4
for each element in nums3:
    for each element in nums4:
        pair_sum = element from nums3 + element from nums4
        complement_sum = -pair_sum
        if complement_sum in sum_map:
            count = count + sum_map[complement_sum]  # Increment the count by the number of ways to get this complementary sum

# Return the total count of tuples
return count

                                        
The above pseudocode provides a detailed plan to solve the problem by efficiently computing the count of tuples that sum up to zero. The use of the hash map ensures that the solution is optimized for performance, avoiding the need for a brute-force approach which would be computationally expensive given the constraints.