"content":"<p>You are given a <strong>0-indexed</strong> array <code>words</code> containing <code>n</code> strings.</p>\n\n<p>Let's define a <strong>join</strong> operation <code>join(x, y)</code> between two strings <code>x</code> and <code>y</code> as concatenating them into <code>xy</code>. However, if the last character of <code>x</code> is equal to the first character of <code>y</code>, one of them is <strong>deleted</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>For example <code>join("ab", "ba") = "aba"</code> and <code>join("ab", "cde") = "abcde"</code>.</p>\n\n<p>You are to perform <code>n - 1</code> <strong>join</strong> operations. Let <code>str<sub>0</sub> = words[0]</code>. Starting from <code>i = 1</code> up to <code>i = n - 1</code>, for the <code>i<sup>th</sup></code> operation, you can do one of the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li>Make <code>str<sub>i</sub> = join(str<sub>i - 1</sub>, words[i])</code></li>\n\t<li>Make <code>str<sub>i</sub> = join(words[i], str<sub>i - 1</sub>)</code></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Your task is to <strong>minimize</strong> the length of <code>str<sub>n - 1</sub></code>.</p>\n\n<p>Return <em>an integer denoting the minimum possible length of</em> <code>str<sub>n - 1</sub></code>.</p>\n\n<p> </p>\n<p><strong class=\"example\">Example 1:</strong></p>\n\n<pre>\n<strong>Input:</strong> words = ["aa","ab","bc"]\n<strong>Output:</strong> 4\n<strong>Explanation: </strong>In this example, we can perform join operations in the following order to minimize the length of str<sub>2</sub>: \nstr<sub>0</sub> = "aa"\nstr<sub>1</sub> = join(str<sub>0</sub>, "ab") = "aab"\nstr<sub>2</sub> = join(str<sub>1</sub>, "bc") = "aabc" \nIt can be shown that the minimum possible length of str<sub>2</sub> is 4.</pre>\n\n<p><strong class=\"example\">Example 2:</strong></p>\n\n<pre>\n<strong>Input:</strong> words = ["ab","b"]\n<strong>Output:</strong> 2\n<strong>Explanation:</strong> In this example, str<sub>0</sub> = "ab", there are two ways to get str<sub>1</sub>: \njoin(str<sub>0</sub>, "b") = "ab" or join("b", str<sub>0</sub>) = "bab". \nThe first string, "ab", has the minimum length. Hence, the answer is 2.\n</pre>\n\n<p><strong class=\"example\">Example 3:</strong></p>\n\n<pre>\n<strong>Input:</strong> words = ["aaa","c","aba"]\n<strong>Output:</strong> 6\n<strong>Explanation:</strong> In this example, we can perform join operations in the following order to minimize the length of str<sub>2</sub>: \nstr<sub>0</sub> = "aaa"\nstr<sub>1</sub> = join(str<sub>0</sub>, "c") = "aaac"\nstr<sub>2</sub> = join("aba", str<sub>1</sub>) = "abaaac"\nIt can be shown that the minimum possible length of str<sub>2</sub> is 6.\n</pre>\n\n<div class=\"notranslate\" style=\"all: initial;\"> </div>\n\n<p> </p>\n<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li><code>1 <= words.length <= 1000</code></li>\n\t<li><code>1 <= words[i].length <= 50</code></li>\n\t<li>Each character in <code>words[i]</code> is an English lowercase letter</li>\n</ul>\n",
"Notice that the first and last characters of a string are sufficient to determine the length of its concatenation with any other string.",
"Define dp[i][first][last] as the shortest concatenation length of the first i words starting with a character first and ending with a character last. Convert characters to their ASCII codes if your programming language cannot implicitly convert them to array indices."
"envInfo":"{\"cpp\": [\"C++\", \"<p>Compiled with <code> clang 11 </code> using the latest C++ 20 standard.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Your code is compiled with level two optimization (<code>-O2</code>). <a href=\\\"https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizer\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">AddressSanitizer</a> is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.</p>\"], \"java\": [\"Java\", \"<p><code>OpenJDK 17</code>. Java 8 features such as lambda expressions and stream API can be used. </p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.</p>\\r\\n<p>Includes <code>Pair</code> class from https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/util/Pair.html.</p>\"], \"python\": [\"Python\", \"<p><code>Python 2.7.12</code>.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Most libraries are already imported automatically for your convenience, such as <a href=\\\"https://docs.python.org/2/library/array.html\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">array</a>, <a href=\\\"https://docs.python.org/2/library/bisect.html\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">bisect</a>, <a href=\\\"https://docs.python.org/2/library/collections.html\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">collections</a>. If you need more libraries, you can import it yourself.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>For Map/TreeMap data structure, you may use <a href=\\\"http://www.grantjenks.com/docs/sortedcontainers/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">sortedcontainers</a> library.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Note that Python 2.7 <a href=\\\"https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0373/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">will not be maintained past 2020</a>. For the latest Python, please choose Python3 instead.</p>\"], \"c\": [\"C\", \"<p>Compiled with <code>gcc 8.2</code> using the gnu11 standard.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Your code is compiled with level one optimization (<code>-O1</code>). <a href=\\\"https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizer\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">AddressSanitizer</a> is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>For hash table operations, you may use <a href=\\\"https://troydhanson.github.io/uthash/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">uthash</a>. \\\"uthash.h\\\" is included by default. Below are some examples:</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p><b>1. Adding an item to a hash.</b>\\r\\n<pre>\\r\\nstruct hash_entry {\\r\\n int id; /* we'll use this field as the key */\\r\\n char name[10];\\r\\n UT_hash_handle hh; /* makes this structure hashable */\\r\\n};\\r\\n\\r\\nstruct hash_entry *users = NULL;\\r\\n\\r\\nvoid add_user(struct hash_entry *s) {\\r\\n HASH_ADD_INT(users, id, s);\\r\\n}\\r\\n</pre>\\r\\n</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p><b>2. Looking up an item in a hash:</b>\\r\\n<pre>\\r\\nstruct hash_entry *find_user(int user_id) {\\r\\n struct hash_entry *s;\\r\\n HASH_FIND_INT(users, &user_id, s);\\r\\n return s;\\r\\n}\\r\\n</pre>\\r\\n</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p><b>3. Deleting an item in a hash:</b>\\r\\n<pre>\\r\\nvoid delete_user(struct hash_entry *user) {\\r\\n HASH_DEL(users, user); \\r\\n}\\r\\n</pre>\\r\\n</p>\"], \"csharp\": [\"C#\", \"<p><a href=\\\"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/whats-new/csharp-10\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">C# 10 with .NET 6 runtime</a></p>\"], \"javascript\": [\"JavaScript\", \"<p><code>Node.js 16.13.2</code>.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>Your code is run with <code>--harmony</code> flag, enabling <a href=\\\"http://node.green/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">new ES6 features</a>.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p><a href=\\\"https://lodash.com\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">lodash.js</a> library is included by default.</p>\\r\\n\\r\\n<p>For Priority Queue / Queue data structures, you may use 5.3.0 version of <a href=\\\"https://github.com/datastructures-js/priority-queue/tree/fb4fdb984834421279aeb081df7af624d17c2a03\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\">datastructures-js/priority-queue</a> and 4.2.1 version of <a href=\\\"https://githu
