Day 6 - Set Matrix Zeroes.md

Difficulty	Source	Tags
Medium	160 Days of Problem Solving	Matrix

🚀 Day 6. Set Matrix Zeroes 🧠

The problem can be found at the following link: Problem Link

💡 Problem Description:

You are given a 2D matrix mat[][] of size n x m. Modify the matrix in such a way that:

1. If any cell in the matrix mat[i][j] is 0, then all the elements in the i-th row and j-th column are set to 0.
2. Do this in-place, i.e., without using extra space for another matrix.

🔍 Example Walkthrough:

Example 1:

Input:
mat[][] = [[1, -1, 1], [-1, 0, 1], [1, -1, 1]]

Output:
[[1, 0, 1], [0, 0, 0], [1, 0, 1]]

Explanation:
In the given matrix, mat[1][1] = 0. Thus, row 1 and column 1 are updated to zeroes.

Example 2:

Input:
mat[][] = [[0, 1, 2, 0], [3, 4, 5, 2], [1, 3, 1, 5]]

Output:
[[0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 4, 5, 0], [0, 3, 1, 0]]

Explanation:
In the given matrix, mat[0][0] and mat[0][3] are 0. Therefore, row 0, column 0, and column 3 are updated to zeroes.

Constraints

• 1 ≤ n, m ≤ 500
• -2^31 ≤ mat[i][j] ≤ 2^31 - 1

🎯 My Approach:

1. Efficient Space Management Using Markers:

   • Instead of using additional space for row and column markers, leverage the first row and the first column of the matrix as markers to indicate whether a particular row or column needs to be set to zero.

2. Steps:

   • Traverse the matrix. If any cell mat[i][j] == 0, mark mat[i][0] and mat[0][j] as 0.
   • Traverse the matrix again in reverse (from bottom-right to top-left). For each cell, check the marker values (mat[i][0] and mat[0][j]); if either is 0, set the cell to 0.
   • Use an additional variable col0 to track if the first column needs to be zeroed.

🕒 Time and Auxiliary Space Complexity

Expected Time Complexity:

• O(n * m)
  • We traverse the matrix twice: once to mark the rows and columns and another to update the cells.
  • Each traversal takes O(n * m), where n is the number of rows and m is the number of columns.

Expected Auxiliary Space Complexity:

• O(1)
  • The algorithm uses only a few extra variables (col0, i, j), regardless of the matrix size. No additional data structures are used.

📝 Solution Code

Code (C++)

class Solution {
public:
    void setMatrixZeroes(vector<vector<int>>& mat) {
        int n = mat.size(), m = mat[0].size(), col0 = 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            if (mat[i][0] == 0) col0 = 0;
            for (int j = 1; j < m; ++j)
                if (mat[i][j] == 0)
                    mat[i][0] = mat[0][j] = 0;
        }
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
            for (int j = m - 1; j >= 1; --j)
                if (mat[i][0] == 0 || mat[0][j] == 0)
                    mat[i][j] = 0;
            if (col0 == 0) mat[i][0] = 0;
        }
    }
};

Code (Java)

class Solution {
    public void setMatrixZeroes(int[][] mat) {
        int n = mat.length, m = mat[0].length, col0 = 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            if (mat[i][0] == 0) col0 = 0;
            for (int j = 1; j < m; j++)
                if (mat[i][j] == 0)
                    mat[i][0] = mat[0][j] = 0;
        }
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
            for (int j = m - 1; j >= 1; j--)
                if (mat[i][0] == 0 || mat[0][j] == 0)
                    mat[i][j] = 0;
            if (col0 == 0) mat[i][0] = 0;
        }
    }
}

Code (Python)

class Solution:
    def setMatrixZeroes(self, mat):
        n, m, col0 = len(mat), len(mat[0]), 1
        for i in range(n):
            if mat[i][0] == 0: col0 = 0
            for j in range(1, m):
                if mat[i][j] == 0:
                    mat[i][0] = mat[0][j] = 0
        for i in range(n - 1, -1, -1):
            for j in range(m - 1, 0, -1):
                if mat[i][0] == 0 or mat[0][j] == 0:
                    mat[i][j] = 0
            if col0 == 0: mat[i][0] = 0

🎯 Contribution and Support:

For discussions, questions, or doubts related to this solution, feel free to connect on LinkedIn: Any Questions. Let’s make this learning journey more collaborative!

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