Max subarray with start and end index - c++

Question

I'm trying to find the maximum contiguous subarray with start and end index. The method I've adopted is divide-and-conquer, with O(nlogn) time complexity.
I have tested with several test cases, and the start and end index always work correctly. However, I found that if the array contains an odd-numbered of elements, the maximum sum is sometimes correct, sometimes incorrect(seemingly random). But for even cases, it is always correct. Here is my code:
int maxSubSeq(int A[], int n, int &s, int &e)
{
// s and e stands for start and end index respectively,
// and both are passed by reference
if(n == 1){
return A[0];
}
int sum = 0;
int midIndex = n / 2;
int maxLeftIndex = midIndex - 1;
int maxRightIndex = midIndex;
int leftMaxSubSeq = A[maxLeftIndex];
int rightMaxSubSeq = A[maxRightIndex];
int left = maxSubSeq(A, midIndex, s, e);
int right = maxSubSeq(A + midIndex, n - midIndex, s, e);
for(int i = midIndex - 1; i >= 0; i--){
sum += A[i];
if(sum > leftMaxSubSeq){
leftMaxSubSeq = sum;
s = i;
}
}
sum = 0;
for(int i = midIndex; i < n; i++){
sum += A[i];
if(sum > rightMaxSubSeq){
rightMaxSubSeq = sum;
e = i;
}
}
return max(max(leftMaxSubSeq + rightMaxSubSeq, left),right);
}
Below is two of the test cases I was working with, one has odd-numbered elements, one has even-numbered elements.
Array with 11 elements:
1, 3, -7, 9, 6, 3, -2, 4, -1, -9,
2,
Array with 20 elements:
1, 3, 2, -2, 4, 5, -9, -4, -8, 6,
5, 9, 7, -1, 5, -2, 6, 4, -3, -1,
Edit: The following are the 2 kinds of outputs:
// TEST 1
Test file : T2-Data-1.txt
Array with 11 elements:
1, 3, -7, 9, 6, 3, -2, 4, -1, -9,
2,
maxSubSeq : A[3..7] = 32769 // Index is correct, but sum should be 20
Test file : T2-Data-2.txt
Array with 20 elements:
1, 3, 2, -2, 4, 5, -9, -4, -8, 6,
5, 9, 7, -1, 5, -2, 6, 4, -3, -1,
maxSubSeq : A[9..17] = 39 // correct
// TEST 2
Test file : T2-Data-1.txt
Array with 11 elements:
1, 3, -7, 9, 6, 3, -2, 4, -1, -9,
2,
maxSubSeq : A[3..7] = 20
Test file : T2-Data-2.txt
Array with 20 elements:
1, 3, 2, -2, 4, 5, -9, -4, -8, 6,
5, 9, 7, -1, 5, -2, 6, 4, -3, -1,
maxSubSeq : A[9..17] = 39
Can anyone point out why this is occurring? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Assuming that n is the correct size of your array (we see it being passed in as a parameter and later used to initialize midIndexbut we do not see its actual invocation and so must assume you're doing it correctly), the issue lies here:
int midIndex = n / 2;
In the case that your array has an odd number of elements, which we can represented as
n = 2k + 1
we can find that your middle index will always equate to
(2k + 1) / 2 = k + (1/2)
which means that for every integer, k, you'll always have half of an integer number added to k.
C++ doesn't round integers that receive floating-point numbers; it truncates. So while you'd expect k + 0.5 to round to k+1, you actually get k after truncation.
This means that, for example, when your array size is 11, midIndex is defined to be 5. Therefore, you need to adjust your code accordingly.