Question

Given a collection of intervals, merge all overlapping intervals.

Example 1:

Input: [[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Output: [[1,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Explanation: Since intervals [1,3] and [2,6] overlaps, merge them into [1,6].

Example 2:

Input: [[1,4],[4,5]]
Output: [[1,5]]
Explanation: Intervals [1,4] and [4,5] are considerred overlapping.

Intuition

If we sort the intervals by their start value, then each set of intervals that can be merged will appear as a contiguous “run” in the sorted list.

Solution

# Definition for an interval.
# class Interval:
#     def __init__(self, s=0, e=0):
#         self.start = s
#         self.end = e

class Solution:
    def merge(self, intervals):
        """
        :type intervals: List[Interval]
        :rtype: List[Interval]
        """
        if len(intervals) <= 1:
            return intervals

        intervals.sort(key=lambda x: x.start)
        res = list()
        current = intervals[0]
        for intv in intervals[1:]:
            if intv.start > current.end:
                res.append(current)
                current = intv
            else:
                current.end = intv.end if intv.end > current.end else current.end

        res.append(current)
        return res