UVa 231 - Testing the CATCHER

231 - Testing the Catcher
[ ACM UVA 231]

Summary
Summary of the problem statement goes here.

Explanation
This problem is based in the idea of selecting a sequence of non decreasing integer elements from an array in such a way that its length is maximised.

An $$O(n^2)$$ algorithm is fast enough for the problem to be accepted.

A dynamic programming method can be used if executed as described below:

Let $$H_i$$ be the height of the missile (i) The missile 0 is at height infinity. Let $$V_i$$ be the interception count after i missiles have been faced by the catcher. Notice that $$V_0$$ = 0.

Then $$Vi+1$$ can be calculated as the maximum of the elements of V indexed from 0 to i whose height is smaller than or equal to the height $$Hi+1$$ added of 1 (the current interception).

That way, if 5 missiles at heights 5 10 9 7 16 face the catcher, the arrays can be defined as follows:

H = infinity 5 10 9 7 16

V = 0 1 1 2 3 1

To extract the result, get the largest element of V.

--Schultz 15:32, 10 Oct 2006 (EDT)