Given a sorted array and a number x, find a pair in array whose sum is closest to x.
Examples:
Input: arr[] = {10, 22, 28, 29, 30, 40}, x = 54 Output: 22 and 30 Input: arr[] = {1, 3, 4, 7, 10}, x = 15 Output: 4 and 10
A simple solution is to consider every pair and keep track of closest pair (absolute difference between pair sum and x is minimum). Finally print the closest pair. Time complexity of this solution is O(n2)
An efficient solution can find the pair in O(n) time. The idea is similar to method 2 of this post. Following is detailed algorithm.
1) Initialize a variable diff as infinite (Diff is used to store the difference between pair and x). We need to find the minimum diff. 2) Initialize two index variables l and r in the given sorted array. (a) Initialize first to the leftmost index: l = 0 (b) Initialize second the rightmost index: r = n-1 3) Loop while l < r. (a) If abs(arr[l] + arr[r] - sum) < diff then update diff and result (b) Else if(arr[l] + arr[r] < sum ) then l++ (c) Else r--[ad type=”banner”]