Path With Minimum Effort
<p>You are a hiker preparing for an upcoming hike. You are given <code>heights</code>, a 2D array of size <code>rows x columns</code>, where <code>heights[row][col]</code> represents the height of cell <code>(row, col)</code>. You are situated in the top-left cell, <code>(0, 0)</code>, and you hope to travel to the bottom-right cell, <code>(rows-1, columns-1)</code> (i.e.,&nbsp;<strong>0-indexed</strong>). You can move <strong>up</strong>, <strong>down</strong>, <strong>left</strong>, or <strong>right</strong>, and you wish to find a route that requires the minimum <strong>effort</strong>.</p>

<p>A route&#39;s <strong>effort</strong> is the <strong>maximum absolute difference</strong><strong> </strong>in heights between two consecutive cells of the route.</p>

<p>Return <em>the minimum <strong>effort</strong> required to travel from the top-left cell to the bottom-right cell.</em></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/doocs/leetcode@main/solution/1600-1699/1631.Path%20With%20Minimum%20Effort/images/ex1.png" style="width: 300px; height: 300px;" /></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> heights = [[1,2,2],[3,8,2],[5,3,5]]
<strong>Output:</strong> 2
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The route of [1,3,5,3,5] has a maximum absolute difference of 2 in consecutive cells.
This is better than the route of [1,2,2,2,5], where the maximum absolute difference is 3.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/doocs/leetcode@main/solution/1600-1699/1631.Path%20With%20Minimum%20Effort/images/ex2.png" style="width: 300px; height: 300px;" /></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> heights = [[1,2,3],[3,8,4],[5,3,5]]
<strong>Output:</strong> 1
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The route of [1,2,3,4,5] has a maximum absolute difference of 1 in consecutive cells, which is better than route [1,3,5,3,5].
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/doocs/leetcode@main/solution/1600-1699/1631.Path%20With%20Minimum%20Effort/images/ex3.png" style="width: 300px; height: 300px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> heights = [[1,2,1,1,1],[1,2,1,2,1],[1,2,1,2,1],[1,2,1,2,1],[1,1,1,2,1]]
<strong>Output:</strong> 0
<strong>Explanation:</strong> This route does not require any effort.
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>rows == heights.length</code></li>
	<li><code>columns == heights[i].length</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= rows, columns &lt;= 100</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= heights[i][j] &lt;= 10<sup>6</sup></code></li>
</ul>
Depth-First Search; Breadth-First Search; Union Find; Array; Binary Search; Matrix; Heap (Priority Queue)
type unionFind struct {
	p, size []int
}

func newUnionFind(n int) *unionFind {
	p := make([]int, n)
	size := make([]int, n)
	for i := range p {
		p[i] = i
		size[i] = 1
	}
	return &unionFind{p, size}
}

func (uf *unionFind) find(x int) int {
	if uf.p[x] != x {
		uf.p[x] = uf.find(uf.p[x])
	}
	return uf.p[x]
}

func (uf *unionFind) union(a, b int) bool {
	pa, pb := uf.find(a), uf.find(b)
	if pa == pb {
		return false
	}
	if uf.size[pa] > uf.size[pb] {
		uf.p[pb] = pa
		uf.size[pa] += uf.size[pb]
	} else {
		uf.p[pa] = pb
		uf.size[pb] += uf.size[pa]
	}
	return true
}

func (uf *unionFind) connected(a, b int) bool {
	return uf.find(a) == uf.find(b)
}

func minimumEffortPath(heights [][]int) int {
	m, n := len(heights), len(heights[0])
	edges := make([][3]int, 0, m*n*2)
	dirs := [3]int{0, 1, 0}
	for i, row := range heights {
		for j, h := range row {
			for k := 0; k < 2; k++ {
				x, y := i+dirs[k], j+dirs[k+1]
				if x >= 0 && x < m && y >= 0 && y < n {
					edges = append(edges, [3]int{abs(h - heights[x][y]), i*n + j, x*n + y})
				}
			}
		}
	}
	sort.Slice(edges, func(i, j int) bool { return edges[i][0] < edges[j][0] })
	uf := newUnionFind(m * n)
	for _, e := range edges {
		uf.union(e[1], e[2])
		if uf.connected(0, m*n-1) {
			return e[0]
		}
	}
	return 0
}

func abs(x int) int {
	if x < 0 {
		return -x
	}
	return x
}