How to Efficiently Rotate an Array in Place with Python Considering Edge Cases?
I'm not sure how to approach I'm getting frustrated with I'm working on a project in Python 3.9 where I need to rotate a list (array) of integers in place by a given number of steps... However, I'm working with some issues, particularly with edge cases like negative rotation values and rotating by the length of the array. I thought about using slicing, but I want to avoid creating additional lists for performance reasons. Here’s what I’ve tried so far: ```python def rotate_array(arr, k): n = len(arr) k = k % n # Handle rotation greater than array length arr[:] = arr[-k:] + arr[:-k] # Attempt to rotate using slicing ``` This code works fine for positive values of `k`, but I haven’t yet handled negative values, and I’m not sure how to adjust for them without breaking the in-place requirement. When I use a negative value, I just get unexpected results. For example, if I run `rotate_array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], -2)`, I get `[4, 5, 1, 2, 3]` instead of what I intended. I also need to consider the scenario where `k` is equal to the length of the array or 0. I want to ensure that the array remains unchanged in those cases. Could anyone suggest an efficient way to handle these edge cases while maintaining the in-place requirement? Any performance tips would also be greatly appreciated! I'm developing on Ubuntu 20.04 with Python. Thanks in advance! My development environment is CentOS. What am I doing wrong? This is part of a larger REST API I'm building.