Introduction to Sliding Window
Let’s go over the Sliding Window pattern, its real-world applications, and some problems we can solve with it.
We'll cover the following...
About the pattern
The sliding window pattern is used to process sequential data, arrays, and strings, for example, to efficiently solve subarray or substring problems. It involves maintaining a dynamic window that slides through the array or string, adjusting its boundaries as needed to track relevant elements or characters. The window is used to slide over the data in chunks corresponding to the window size, and this can be set according to the problem’s requirements. It may be viewed as a variation of the two pointers pattern, with the pointers being used to set the window bounds.
Imagine you’re in a long hallway lined with paintings, and you’re looking through a narrow frame that only reveals a portion of this hallway at any time. As you move the frame along the hallway, new paintings come into view while others leave the frame. This process of moving and adjusting what’s visible through the frame is akin to how the sliding window technique operates over data.
Why is this method more efficient? Consider we need to find