243. Shortest Word Distance

Description

Given an array of strings wordsDict and two different strings that already exist in the array word1 and word2, return the shortest distance between these two words in the list.

 

Example 1:

Input: wordsDict = ["practice", "makes", "perfect", "coding", "makes"], word1 = "coding", word2 = "practice"
Output: 3

Example 2:

Input: wordsDict = ["practice", "makes", "perfect", "coding", "makes"], word1 = "makes", word2 = "coding"
Output: 1

 

Constraints:

  • 2 <= wordsDict.length <= 3 * 104
  • 1 <= wordsDict[i].length <= 10
  • wordsDict[i] consists of lowercase English letters.
  • word1 and word2 are in wordsDict.
  • word1 != word2

Solutions

Solution 1

Python Code
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class Solution:
    def shortestDistance(self, wordsDict: List[str], word1: str, word2: str) -> int:
        i = j = -1
        ans = inf
        for k, w in enumerate(wordsDict):
            if w == word1:
                i = k
            if w == word2:
                j = k
            if i != -1 and j != -1:
                ans = min(ans, abs(i - j))
        return ans

Java Code
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class Solution {
    public int shortestDistance(String[] wordsDict, String word1, String word2) {
        int ans = 0x3f3f3f3f;
        for (int k = 0, i = -1, j = -1; k < wordsDict.length; ++k) {
            if (wordsDict[k].equals(word1)) {
                i = k;
            }
            if (wordsDict[k].equals(word2)) {
                j = k;
            }
            if (i != -1 && j != -1) {
                ans = Math.min(ans, Math.abs(i - j));
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
}

C++ Code
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class Solution {
public:
    int shortestDistance(vector<string>& wordsDict, string word1, string word2) {
        int ans = INT_MAX;
        for (int k = 0, i = -1, j = -1; k < wordsDict.size(); ++k) {
            if (wordsDict[k] == word1) {
                i = k;
            }
            if (wordsDict[k] == word2) {
                j = k;
            }
            if (i != -1 && j != -1) {
                ans = min(ans, abs(i - j));
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }
};

Go Code
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func shortestDistance(wordsDict []string, word1 string, word2 string) int {
	ans := 0x3f3f3f3f
	i, j := -1, -1
	for k, w := range wordsDict {
		if w == word1 {
			i = k
		}
		if w == word2 {
			j = k
		}
		if i != -1 && j != -1 {
			ans = min(ans, abs(i-j))
		}
	}
	return ans
}

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