Find the longest path in a matrix with given constraints in C++

Suppose we have one square matrix of order n. It has all distinct elements. So we have to find the maximum length path, such that all cells along the path are in increasing order with a difference of 1. From one cell we can move to four directions. Left, Right, Top and Bottom. So if the matrix is like −

So the output will be 4. As the longest path is 6→7→8→ 9

To solve this problem, we will follow this idea. We will calculate longest path beginning with every cell. Once we have got the longest for all cells, we return maximum of all longest paths.

One important observation in this approach is many overlapping sub-problems. So this problem can be solved using Dynamic Programming. Here we will use a lookup table dp[][] to check if a problem is already solved or not.

Example

#include <iostream>
#define n 3
using namespace std;
int getLongestPathLengthUtil(int i, int j, int matrix[n][n], int table[n][n]) {
   if (i < 0 || i >= n || j < 0 || j >= n)
   return 0;
   if (table[i][j] != -1)
      return table[i][j];
   int x = INT_MIN, y = INT_MIN, z = INT_MIN, w = INT_MIN;
   if (j < n - 1 && ((matrix[i][j] + 1) == matrix[i][j + 1]))
      x = 1 + getLongestPathLengthUtil(i, j + 1, matrix, table);
   if (j > 0 && (matrix[i][j] + 1 == matrix[i][j - 1]))
      y = 1 + getLongestPathLengthUtil(i, j - 1, matrix, table);
   if (i > 0 && (matrix[i][j] + 1 == matrix[i - 1][j]))
      z = 1 + getLongestPathLengthUtil(i - 1, j, matrix, table);
   if (i < n - 1 && (matrix[i][j] + 1 == matrix[i + 1][j]))
      w = 1 + getLongestPathLengthUtil(i + 1, j, matrix, table);
      return table[i][j] = max(x, max(y, max(z, max(w, 1))));
}
int getLongestPathLength(int matrix[n][n]) {
   int result = 1;
   int table[n][n];
   for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
   for(int j = 0; j < n; j++)
   table[i][j] = -1;
   for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
      for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
         if (table[i][j] == -1)
         getLongestPathLengthUtil(i, j, matrix, table);
         result = max(result, table[i][j]);
      }
   }
   return result;
}
int main() {
   int mat[n][n] = { { 1, 2, 9 },
   { 5, 3, 8 },
   { 4, 6, 7 } };
   cout << "Length of the longest path is "<< getLongestPathLength(mat);
}

Output

Length of the longest path is 4