🔒 optimizing leetcode #18, 4sum

[runic sundial]

class Solution:
    def fourSum(self, nums, target):
        nums.sort()
        results = []

        for i, num in enumerate(nums):
            for j, num2 in enumerate(nums):
                if i == j:
                    continue
                else:
                    start = num + num2

                    left = 0
                    right = len(nums) - 1
                    
                    while left < right:
                        if left == i or left == j:
                            left += 1
                            continue
                        if right == i or right == j:
                            right -= 1
                            continue

                        total = start + nums[right] + nums[left]
                        if total == target:
                            result = [num, num2, nums[right], nums[left]]
                            result.sort()
                            if result not in results:
                                results.append(result)
                            right -= 1
                            left += 1
                        elif total > target:  # maker smaller
                            right -= 1
                        elif total < target:  # make bigger
                            left += 1
        return results

I feel like this makes sense to me (just one more loop over 3sum) but my result always gets scrambled up and this overall is O(N^3) which obviously isn't ideal
I realize i could go online and look at solutions-- but i'd rather keep working here iteratively until I get it fr

[frail pulsar]

@runic sundial

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[frail pulsar]

@runic sundial

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