Longest remaining array of distinct elements possible after repeated removal of maximum and minimum elements of triplets

Last Updated : 28 Mar, 2022

Given an array arr[] consisting of N integers, the task is to repeatedly select triplets and remove the maximum and minimum elements from the triplets in each operation, such that the remaining array is of longest possible length and consists only of distinct elements.

Examples:

Input: N = 5, arr[] = {1, 2, 1, 3, 7}<
Output: 3
Explanation: Select the triplet (1, 2, 1) and remove 1 and 2. The remaining array is [1, 3, 7] in which all elements are pairwise distinct.

Input: N = 6, arr[] = {8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9}
Output: 2

Approach: Follow the steps below to solve the problem:

Traverse the array arr[] and calculate the frequencies of each array element.
For each distinct element, check if its frequency is even or odd and perform the following operations accordingly:
- If frequency is odd (Except 1):
  - Remove 2 elements in each operation, by selecting same elements in triplets. After a series of operations, only 1 occurrence of the element will remain.
- If frequency is even (Except 2):
  - Remove 2 elements in each operation, by selecting the same values in triplets. After a series of operations, only two occurrences of the element will remain
  - Now, initialize a variable, say cnt, to store the count of all even frequent array elements.
  - If cnt is even, then make all even elements unique, without removing any unique element from the array by selecting triplets only from even frequent elements.
  - Otherwise, remove 1 unique element to make the array pairwise distinct.

C++

// C++ Program to implement
// the above approach
 
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
 
// Function to return length of longest
// remaining array of pairwise distinct
// array possible by removing triplets
int maxUniqueElements(int A[], int N)
{
    // Stores the frequency of array elements
    unordered_map<int, int> mp;
 
    // Traverse the array
    for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
        mp[A[i]]++;
    }
 
    // Iterate through the map
    int cnt = 0;
 
    for (auto x : mp) {
 
        // If frequency of current
        // element is even
        if (x.second % 2 == 0) {
            cnt++;
        }
    }
 
    // Stores the required count
    // of unique elements remaining
    int ans = mp.size();
 
    // If count is odd
    if (cnt % 2 == 1) {
        ans--;
    }
    return ans;
}
 
// Driver Code
int main()
{
    int N = 5;
    int A[] = { 1, 2, 1, 3, 7 };
    cout << maxUniqueElements(A, N);
}

Java

// Java Program to implement
// the above approach
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
class GFG 
{
   
    // Function to return length of longest
    // remaining array of pairwise distinct
    // array possible by removing triplets
    static int maxUniqueElements(int[] Arr, int N)
    {
       
        // Stores the frequency of array elements
        HashMap<Integer, Integer> mp = new HashMap<>();
 
        // Traverse the array
        for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
            if (mp.containsKey(Arr[i])) {
                mp.put(Arr[i], mp.get(Arr[i]) + 1);
            }
            else {
                mp.put(Arr[i], 1);
            }
        }
 
        // Iterate through the map
        int cnt = 0;
 
        for (Map.Entry<Integer, Integer> entry :
             mp.entrySet()) {
 
            // If frequency of current
            // element is even
            if ((entry.getValue()) % 2 == 0) {
                cnt++;
            }
        }
 
        // Stores the required count
        // of unique elements remaining
        int ans = mp.size();
 
        // If count is odd
        if (cnt % 2 == 1) {
            ans--;
        }
        return ans;
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
 
        int N = 5;
        int A[] = { 1, 2, 1, 3, 7 };
        System.out.println(maxUniqueElements(A, N));
    }
}
 
// This code is contributed by maddler.

Python3

# Python3 Program to implement
# the above approach
 
# Function to return length of longest
# remaining array of pairwise distinct
# array possible by removing triplets
def maxUniqueElements(A, N):
    # Stores the frequency of array elements
    mp  = {}
 
    # Traverse the array
    for i in range(N):
        if A[i] in mp:
            mp[A[i]] += 1
        else:
            mp[A[i]] = 1
 
    # Iterate through the map
    cnt = 0
 
    for key,value in mp.items():
        # If frequency of current
        # element is even
        if (value % 2 == 0):
            cnt += 1
 
    # Stores the required count
    # of unique elements remaining
    ans = len(mp)
 
    # If count is odd
    if (cnt % 2 == 1):
        ans -= 1
    return ans
 
# Driver Code
if __name__ == '__main__':
    N = 5
    A = [1, 2, 1, 3, 7]
    print(maxUniqueElements(A, N))
 
    # This code is contributed by SURENDRA_GANGWAR.

C#

// C# Program to implement
// the above approach
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
class GFG {
 
    // Function to return length of longest
    // remaining array of pairwise distinct
    // array possible by removing triplets
    static int maxUniqueElements(int[] Arr, int N)
    {
 
        // Stores the frequency of array elements
        Dictionary<int, int> mp
            = new Dictionary<int, int>();
 
        // Traverse the array
        for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
            if (mp.ContainsKey(Arr[i])) {
                mp[Arr[i]] += 1;
            }
            else {
                mp[Arr[i]] = 1;
            }
        }
 
        // Iterate through the map
        int cnt = 0;
 
        foreach(KeyValuePair<int, int> entry in mp)
        {
 
            // If frequency of current
            // element is even
            if ((entry.Value) % 2 == 0) {
                cnt++;
            }
        }
 
        // Stores the required count
        // of unique elements remaining
        int ans = mp.Count;
 
        // If count is odd
        if (cnt % 2 == 1) {
            ans--;
        }
        return ans;
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
 
        int N = 5;
        int[] A = { 1, 2, 1, 3, 7 };
        Console.Write(maxUniqueElements(A, N));
    }
}
 
// This code is contributed by ukasp.

Javascript

<script>
 
// JavaScript program to implement
// the above approach
 
// Function to return length of longest
// remaining array of pairwise distinct
// array possible by removing triplets
function maxUniqueElements(A, N) 
{
     
    // Stores the frequency of array elements
    let mp = new Map();
 
    // Traverse the array
    for(let i = 0; i < N; i++)
    {
        if (mp.has(A[i]))
        {
            mp.set(mp.get(A[i]), mp.get(A[i]) + 1);
        }
        else
        {
            mp.set(A[i], 1);
        }
    }
 
    // Iterate through the map
    let cnt = 0;
 
    for(let [key, value] of mp)
    {
         
        // If frequency of current
        // element is even
        if (value % 2 == 0) 
        {
            cnt++;
        }
    }
 
    // Stores the required count
    // of unique elements remaining
    let ans = mp.size;
 
    // If count is odd
    if (cnt % 2 == 1)
    {
        ans--;
    }
    return ans;
}
 
// Driver Code
let N = 5;
let A = [ 1, 2, 1, 3, 7 ];
 
document.write(maxUniqueElements(A, N));
 
// This code is contributed by Potta Lokesh
 
</script>