{ "data": { "question": { "questionId": "3230", "questionFrontendId": "2957", "boundTopicId": null, "title": "Remove Adjacent Almost-Equal Characters", "titleSlug": "remove-adjacent-almost-equal-characters", "content": "

You are given a 0-indexed string word.

\n\n

In one operation, you can pick any index i of word and change word[i] to any lowercase English letter.

\n\n

Return the minimum number of operations needed to remove all adjacent almost-equal characters from word.

\n\n

Two characters a and b are almost-equal if a == b or a and b are adjacent in the alphabet.

\n\n

 

\n

Example 1:

\n\n
\nInput: word = "aaaaa"\nOutput: 2\nExplanation: We can change word into "acaca" which does not have any adjacent almost-equal characters.\nIt can be shown that the minimum number of operations needed to remove all adjacent almost-equal characters from word is 2.\n
\n\n

Example 2:

\n\n
\nInput: word = "abddez"\nOutput: 2\nExplanation: We can change word into "ybdoez" which does not have any adjacent almost-equal characters.\nIt can be shown that the minimum number of operations needed to remove all adjacent almost-equal characters from word is 2.
\n\n

Example 3:

\n\n
\nInput: word = "zyxyxyz"\nOutput: 3\nExplanation: We can change word into "zaxaxaz" which does not have any adjacent almost-equal characters. \nIt can be shown that the minimum number of operations needed to remove all adjacent almost-equal characters from word is 3.\n
\n\n

 

\n

Constraints:

\n\n\n", "translatedTitle": null, "translatedContent": null, "isPaidOnly": false, "difficulty": "Medium", "likes": 90, "dislikes": 14, "isLiked": null, "similarQuestions": "[{\"title\": \"Minimum Changes To Make Alternating Binary String\", \"titleSlug\": \"minimum-changes-to-make-alternating-binary-string\", \"difficulty\": \"Easy\", \"translatedTitle\": null}]", "exampleTestcases": "\"aaaaa\"\n\"abddez\"\n\"zyxyxyz\"", "categoryTitle": "Algorithms", "contributors": [], "topicTags": [ { "name": "String", "slug": "string", "translatedName": null, "__typename": "TopicTagNode" }, { "name": "Dynamic Programming", "slug": "dynamic-programming", "translatedName": null, "__typename": "TopicTagNode" }, { "name": "Greedy", "slug": "greedy", "translatedName": null, "__typename": "TopicTagNode" } ], "companyTagStats": null, "codeSnippets": [ { "lang": "C++", "langSlug": "cpp", "code": "class Solution {\npublic:\n int removeAlmostEqualCharacters(string word) {\n \n }\n};", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Java", "langSlug": "java", "code": "class Solution {\n public int removeAlmostEqualCharacters(String word) {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Python", "langSlug": "python", "code": "class Solution(object):\n def removeAlmostEqualCharacters(self, word):\n \"\"\"\n :type word: str\n :rtype: int\n \"\"\"\n ", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Python3", "langSlug": "python3", "code": "class Solution:\n def removeAlmostEqualCharacters(self, word: str) -> int:\n ", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "C", "langSlug": "c", "code": "int removeAlmostEqualCharacters(char* word) {\n \n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "C#", "langSlug": "csharp", "code": "public class Solution {\n public int RemoveAlmostEqualCharacters(string word) {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "JavaScript", "langSlug": "javascript", "code": "/**\n * @param {string} word\n * @return {number}\n */\nvar removeAlmostEqualCharacters = function(word) {\n \n};", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "TypeScript", "langSlug": "typescript", "code": "function removeAlmostEqualCharacters(word: string): number {\n \n};", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "PHP", "langSlug": "php", "code": "class Solution {\n\n /**\n * @param String $word\n * @return Integer\n */\n function removeAlmostEqualCharacters($word) {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Swift", "langSlug": "swift", "code": "class Solution {\n func removeAlmostEqualCharacters(_ word: String) -> Int {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Kotlin", "langSlug": "kotlin", "code": "class Solution {\n fun removeAlmostEqualCharacters(word: String): Int {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Dart", "langSlug": "dart", "code": "class Solution {\n int removeAlmostEqualCharacters(String word) {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Go", "langSlug": "golang", "code": "func removeAlmostEqualCharacters(word string) int {\n \n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Ruby", "langSlug": "ruby", "code": "# @param {String} word\n# @return {Integer}\ndef remove_almost_equal_characters(word)\n \nend", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Scala", "langSlug": "scala", "code": "object Solution {\n def removeAlmostEqualCharacters(word: String): Int = {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Rust", "langSlug": "rust", "code": "impl Solution {\n pub fn remove_almost_equal_characters(word: String) -> i32 {\n \n }\n}", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Racket", "langSlug": "racket", "code": "(define/contract (remove-almost-equal-characters word)\n (-> string? exact-integer?)\n )", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Erlang", "langSlug": "erlang", "code": "-spec remove_almost_equal_characters(Word :: unicode:unicode_binary()) -> integer().\nremove_almost_equal_characters(Word) ->\n .", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" }, { "lang": "Elixir", "langSlug": "elixir", "code": "defmodule Solution do\n @spec remove_almost_equal_characters(word :: String.t) :: integer\n def remove_almost_equal_characters(word) do\n \n end\nend", "__typename": "CodeSnippetNode" } ], "stats": "{\"totalAccepted\": \"15.4K\", \"totalSubmission\": \"31K\", \"totalAcceptedRaw\": 15378, \"totalSubmissionRaw\": 30995, \"acRate\": \"49.6%\"}", "hints": [ "For i > 0, if word[i] and word[i - 1] are adjacent, we will change word[i] to another character. Which character should we change it to?", "We will change word[i] to some character that is not adjacent to word[i - 1] nor word[i + 1] (if it exists). Such a character always exists. However, since the problem does not ask for the final state of the string, It is enough to prove that the character exists and we do not need to find it." ], "solution": null, "status": null, "sampleTestCase": "\"aaaaa\"", "metaData": "{\n \"name\": \"removeAlmostEqualCharacters\",\n \"params\": [\n {\n \"name\": \"word\",\n \"type\": \"string\"\n }\n ],\n \"return\": {\n \"type\": \"integer\"\n }\n}", "judgerAvailable": true, "judgeType": "large", "mysqlSchemas": [], "enableRunCode": true, "enableTestMode": false, "enableDebugger": true, "envInfo": "{\"cpp\": [\"C++\", \"

Compiled with clang 11 using the latest C++ 20 standard.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Your code is compiled with level two optimization (-O2). AddressSanitizer is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.

\"], \"java\": [\"Java\", \"

OpenJDK 17. Java 8 features such as lambda expressions and stream API can be used.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.

\\r\\n

Includes Pair class from https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/util/Pair.html.

\"], \"python\": [\"Python\", \"

Python 2.7.12.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Most libraries are already imported automatically for your convenience, such as array, bisect, collections. If you need more libraries, you can import it yourself.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

For Map/TreeMap data structure, you may use sortedcontainers library.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Note that Python 2.7 will not be maintained past 2020. For the latest Python, please choose Python3 instead.

\"], \"c\": [\"C\", \"

Compiled with gcc 8.2 using the gnu11 standard.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Your code is compiled with level one optimization (-O1). AddressSanitizer is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

For hash table operations, you may use uthash. \\\"uthash.h\\\" is included by default. Below are some examples:

\\r\\n\\r\\n

1. Adding an item to a hash.\\r\\n

\\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
\\r\\n

\\r\\n\\r\\n

2. Looking up an item in a hash:\\r\\n

\\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
\\r\\n

\\r\\n\\r\\n

3. Deleting an item in a hash:\\r\\n

\\r\\nvoid delete_user(struct hash_entry *user) {\\r\\n    HASH_DEL(users, user);  \\r\\n}\\r\\n
\\r\\n

\"], \"csharp\": [\"C#\", \"

C# 10 with .NET 6 runtime

\"], \"javascript\": [\"JavaScript\", \"

Node.js 16.13.2.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Your code is run with --harmony flag, enabling new ES6 features.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

lodash.js library is included by default.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

For Priority Queue / Queue data structures, you may use 5.3.0 version of datastructures-js/priority-queue and 4.2.1 version of datastructures-js/queue.

\"], \"ruby\": [\"Ruby\", \"

Ruby 3.1

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Some common data structure implementations are provided in the Algorithms module: https://www.rubydoc.info/github/kanwei/algorithms/Algorithms

\"], \"swift\": [\"Swift\", \"

Swift 5.5.2.

\"], \"golang\": [\"Go\", \"

Go 1.21

\\r\\n

Support https://godoc.org/github.com/emirpasic/gods@v1.18.1 library.

\"], \"python3\": [\"Python3\", \"

Python 3.10.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Most libraries are already imported automatically for your convenience, such as array, bisect, collections. If you need more libraries, you can import it yourself.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

For Map/TreeMap data structure, you may use sortedcontainers library.

\"], \"scala\": [\"Scala\", \"

Scala 2.13.7.

\"], \"kotlin\": [\"Kotlin\", \"

Kotlin 1.9.0.

\"], \"rust\": [\"Rust\", \"

Rust 1.58.1

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Supports rand v0.6\\u00a0from crates.io

\"], \"php\": [\"PHP\", \"

PHP 8.1.

\\r\\n

With bcmath module

\"], \"typescript\": [\"Typescript\", \"

TypeScript 5.1.6, Node.js 16.13.2.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Your code is run with --harmony flag, enabling new ES2022 features.

\\r\\n\\r\\n

lodash.js library is included by default.

\"], \"racket\": [\"Racket\", \"

Run with Racket 8.3.

\"], \"erlang\": [\"Erlang\", \"Erlang/OTP 25.0\"], \"elixir\": [\"Elixir\", \"Elixir 1.13.4 with Erlang/OTP 25.0\"], \"dart\": [\"Dart\", \"

Dart 2.17.3

\\r\\n\\r\\n

Your code will be run directly without compiling

\"]}", "libraryUrl": null, "adminUrl": null, "challengeQuestion": null, "__typename": "QuestionNode" } } }