LeetCode 1848: Minimum Distance to the Target Element Solution

Master LeetCode problem 1848 (Minimum Distance to the Target Element), a easy challenge, with our optimized solutions in Java, C++, and Python. Explore detailed explanations, test your code in our interactive editor, and prepare for coding interviews.

1848. Minimum Distance to the Target Element

Easy

Array

Problem Explanation

Explanation

To solve this problem, we can iterate through the array nums and keep track of the minimum absolute different abs(i - start) whenever we encounter an element equal to the target. We initialize minDist to a large value and update it if a closer index to start is found.

Algorithm

Initialize minDist to a large value.
Iterate through the array nums.
If nums[i] == target, calculate abs(i - start) and update minDist if the calculated value is smaller.
Finally, return the value of minDist.

Time Complexity

The time complexity of this algorithm is O(n), where n is the number of elements in the input array nums.

Space Complexity

The space complexity is O(1) as we are using only a constant amount of extra space.

Solution Code

class Solution {
    public int getMinDistance(int[] nums, int target, int start) {
        int minDist = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
        
        for (int i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
            if (nums[i] == target) {
                minDist = Math.min(minDist, Math.abs(i - start));
            }
        }
        
        return minDist;
    }
}

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