Check if any interval completely overlaps the other in Python

Suppose, we are given a set of intervals that consists of values (a,b) where a represents the starting time and b represents the ending time of an event. Our task is to check whether any of these intervals completely overlap any other interval in this set. If any of the intervals overlap, we return the result as True, otherwise we return False.

So, if the input is like [(4,6), (10,12), (7,9), (13,16)], then the output will be False. If the input is like [(4,6), (4,9), (7,11), (5,8)], then the output will be True.

To solve this, we will follow these steps −

• sort the list intervals
• for i in range 1 to size of intervals, do
  • if intervals[i, 1] <= intervals[i- 1, 1], then
    • return True
  • return False

Let us see the following implementation to get better understanding −

Example

 Live Demo

def solve(intervals):
intervals.sort()
for i in range(1, len(intervals)):
   if intervals[i][1] <= intervals[i- 1][1]:
      return True
   return False
intervals = [(4,6),(10,12),(7,9),(13,16)] 
intervals2 = [(4,6), (4,9), (7,11), (5,8)] 
print(solve(intervals))
print(solve(intervals2))

Input

[(4,6),(10,12),(7,9),(13,16)] [(4,6), (4,9), (7,11), (5,8)]

Output

False
True

Arnab Chakraborty

Updated on: 30-Dec-2020

1K+ Views

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