You are given a 0-indexed array words containing n strings.
Let's define a join operation join(x, y) between two strings x and y as concatenating them into xy. However, if the last character of x is equal to the first character of y, one of them is deleted.
For example join("ab", "ba") = "aba" and join("ab", "cde") = "abcde".
You are to perform n - 1 join operations. Let str0 = words[0]. Starting from i = 1 up to i = n - 1, for the ith operation, you can do one of the following:
stri = join(stri - 1, words[i])stri = join(words[i], stri - 1)Your task is to minimize the length of strn - 1.
Return an integer denoting the minimum possible length of strn - 1.
\n
Example 1:
\n\n\nInput: words = ["aa","ab","bc"]\nOutput: 4\nExplanation: In this example, we can perform join operations in the following order to minimize the length of str2: \nstr0 = "aa"\nstr1 = join(str0, "ab") = "aab"\nstr2 = join(str1, "bc") = "aabc" \nIt can be shown that the minimum possible length of str2 is 4.\n\n
Example 2:
\n\n\nInput: words = ["ab","b"]\nOutput: 2\nExplanation: In this example, str0 = "ab", there are two ways to get str1: \njoin(str0, "b") = "ab" or join("b", str0) = "bab". \nThe first string, "ab", has the minimum length. Hence, the answer is 2.\n\n\nExample 3:
\n\n\nInput: words = ["aaa","c","aba"]\nOutput: 6\nExplanation: In this example, we can perform join operations in the following order to minimize the length of str2: \nstr0 = "aaa"\nstr1 = join(str0, "c") = "aaac"\nstr2 = join("aba", str1) = "abaaac"\nIt can be shown that the minimum possible length of str2 is 6.\n\n\n\n
Constraints:
\n\n1 <= words.length <= 10001 <= words[i].length <= 50words[i] is an English lowercase letterCompiled with clang 11 using the latest C++ 20 standard.
Your code is compiled with level two optimization (-O2). AddressSanitizer is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.
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.
Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.
\\r\\nIncludes Pair class from https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/api/javafx/util/Pair.html.
Python 2.7.12.
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\\nFor Map/TreeMap data structure, you may use sortedcontainers library.
\\r\\n\\r\\nNote 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.
Your code is compiled with level one optimization (-O1). AddressSanitizer is also enabled to help detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs.
Most standard library headers are already included automatically for your convenience.
\\r\\n\\r\\nFor hash table operations, you may use uthash. \\\"uthash.h\\\" is included by default. Below are some examples:
\\r\\n\\r\\n1. 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\\n2. 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\\n3. 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#\", \"\"], \"javascript\": [\"JavaScript\", \"Node.js 16.13.2.
Your code is run with --harmony flag, enabling new ES6 features.
lodash.js library is included by default.
\\r\\n\\r\\nFor 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
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.
Go 1.21
Support https://godoc.org/github.com/emirpasic/gods@v1.18.1 library.
\"], \"python3\": [\"Python3\", \"Python 3.10.
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\\nFor Map/TreeMap data structure, you may use sortedcontainers library.
\"], \"scala\": [\"Scala\", \"Scala 2.13.7.
Kotlin 1.9.0.
Rust 1.58.1
Supports rand v0.6\\u00a0from crates.io
\"], \"php\": [\"PHP\", \"PHP 8.1.
With bcmath module
\"], \"typescript\": [\"Typescript\", \"TypeScript 5.1.6, Node.js 16.13.2.
Your code is run with --harmony flag, enabling new ES2022 features.
lodash.js library is included by default.
\"], \"racket\": [\"Racket\", \"Run with Racket 8.3.
Dart 2.17.3
\\r\\n\\r\\nYour code will be run directly without compiling
\"]}", "libraryUrl": null, "adminUrl": null, "challengeQuestion": null, "__typename": "QuestionNode" } } }