1848. Minimum Distance to the Target Element

Problem

Given an integer array nums (0-indexed) and two integers target and start, find an index i such that nums[i] == target and abs(i - start) is minimized. Note that abs(x) is the absolute value of x.

Return abs(i - start).

It is guaranteed that target exists in nums.

  Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,2,3,4,5], target = 5, start = 3
Output: 1
Explanation: nums[4] = 5 is the only value equal to target, so the answer is abs(4 - 3) = 1.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1], target = 1, start = 0
Output: 0
Explanation: nums[0] = 1 is the only value equal to target, so the answer is abs(0 - 0) = 0.

Example 3:

Input: nums = [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], target = 1, start = 0
Output: 0
Explanation: Every value of nums is 1, but nums[0] minimizes abs(i - start), which is abs(0 - 0) = 0.

  Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 1000

• 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^4

• 0 <= start < nums.length

• target is in nums.

Solution (Java)

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

Explain:

nope.

Complexity:

• Time complexity : O(n).
• Space complexity : O(n).