TopCoder problem "SkipRope" used in SRM 172 (Division II Level One)

Problem Statement

Every schoolgirl (and the occasional schoolboy) likes to skip rope. It's fine to go solo, but it's better still to have partners who can swing the rope and chant along. Ideally, the two children holding the rope are about as tall as the one doing the skipping.

In this problem, we shall measure height in centimeters. Given a int[] containing the heights of your prospective partners, return the two that are closest to your own height, which is specified by a separate int. Break ties in favor of taller candidates, and sort the return values in non-descending order.

Definition

Class:	SkipRope
Method:	partners
Parameters:	int[], int
Returns:	int[]
Method signature:	int[] partners(int[] candidates, int height)
(be sure your method is public)

Notes

It's possible for multiple candidates to have the same height.

Constraints

candidates contains between 2 and 50 elements, inclusive

each element of candidates is between 75 and 175, inclusive

height is between 75 and 175, inclusive

Examples

{102, 99, 104}

Returns: { 99,  102 }

The closest height is 99, and the second closest is 102.

{102, 97, 104}

Returns: { 97,  102 }

Now the closest is 102, and second closest is 97.

{101, 100, 99}

Returns: { 100,  101 }

The closest height is 100, while 99 and 101 are tied for second closest. Since we favor larger values in the event of a tie, our choice for second closest is 101.

{75, 117, 170, 175, 168, 167, 167, 142, 170, 85, 89, 170}

Returns: { 170,  170 }

The two heights closest to 169 are both 170.

{134, 79, 164, 86, 131, 78, 99, 150, 105, 163, 150, 110, 90, 137, 127, 130, 121, 
 93, 97, 131, 170, 137, 171, 153, 137, 138, 92, 103, 149, 110, 156}

Returns: { 79,  86 }

Problem url:

http://www.topcoder.com/stat?c=problem_statement&pm=1968

Problem stats url:

http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProblemDetail&rd=4665&pm=1968

Writer:

Eeyore

Testers:

lbackstrom , brett1479

Problem categories:

Simple Search, Iteration