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Sliding Window: Fixed

A subset of the Two Pointer Method, but uses left and right pointers to define the bounds of a "window" in iterable data structures like arrays. The window defines the subcomponent, like subarray or substring, and it slides across the data structure in one direction, searching for a subcomponent that meets a certain requirement. 

sliding_window_fixed.gif

When to use:

  • Data Structure: Linear such as Array, Linked List
  • Find a Subcomponent of a length

Brute Force:

  • Finding all possible subcomponents for an answer using a Nested Loop
    • Outer Loop traverses the array for the first element of the pair
    • Inner Loop traverses the rest of the array to find second element 
  • Time Complexity is O(n^2) where n is length of the loop ( Two Loops )
def sliding_window_fixed(nums, window_size):
    n = len(nums)
    # Slide the window from the start of the array until the end.
    for i in range(n - window_size + 1):
        window = nums[i:i + window_size]
        print(f"Window indices: [{i}, {i + window_size - 1}] -> Values: {window}")

# Example usage:
nums = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
window_size = 3
sliding_window_fixed(nums, window_size)

 

Real-World Example:

Buffering in Video Streaming

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