Skip to content

Files

Latest commit

author
Shuo
Nov 27, 2021
cb30580 · Nov 27, 2021

History

History

minimum-length-of-string-after-deleting-similar-ends

Folders and files

NameName
Last commit message
Last commit date

parent directory

..
Nov 27, 2021

< Previous                  Next >

Given a string s consisting only of characters 'a', 'b', and 'c'. You are asked to apply the following algorithm on the string any number of times:

  1. Pick a non-empty prefix from the string s where all the characters in the prefix are equal.
  2. Pick a non-empty suffix from the string s where all the characters in this suffix are equal.
  3. The prefix and the suffix should not intersect at any index.
  4. The characters from the prefix and suffix must be the same.
  5. Delete both the prefix and the suffix.

Return the minimum length of s after performing the above operation any number of times (possibly zero times).

 

Example 1:

Input: s = "ca"
Output: 2
Explanation: You can't remove any characters, so the string stays as is.

Example 2:

Input: s = "cabaabac"
Output: 0
Explanation: An optimal sequence of operations is:
- Take prefix = "c" and suffix = "c" and remove them, s = "abaaba".
- Take prefix = "a" and suffix = "a" and remove them, s = "baab".
- Take prefix = "b" and suffix = "b" and remove them, s = "aa".
- Take prefix = "a" and suffix = "a" and remove them, s = "".

Example 3:

Input: s = "aabccabba"
Output: 3
Explanation: An optimal sequence of operations is:
- Take prefix = "aa" and suffix = "a" and remove them, s = "bccabb".
- Take prefix = "b" and suffix = "bb" and remove them, s = "cca".

 

Constraints:

  • 1 <= s.length <= 105
  • s only consists of characters 'a', 'b', and 'c'.

Related Topics

[Two Pointers] [String]

Hints

Hint 1 If both ends have distinct characters, no more operations can be made. Otherwise, the only operation is to remove all of the same characters from both ends. We will do this as many times as we can.
Hint 2 Note that if the length is equal 1 the answer is 1