Minimize the length of string by removing occurrence of only one character

Given a string str containing only lowercase alphabets, the task is to minimize the length of the string after performing the following operation: 

• Delete all occurrences of any one character from this string.

Examples:

Input: str = “abccderccwq”
Output: 7
character ‘c’ will be deleted since it has maximum occurrence.

Input: str = “dddded”
Output: 1
Explanation: character ‘d’ will be deleted

Approach:

1. Maintain the frequency of each and every character in an array.
2. Find the character with the maximum frequency.
3. Finally, subtract the length of the original string with the frequency of that character to get the desired answer.

Implementation:

C++

// C++ program to minimize the length of string by
// removing occurrence of only one character
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

// Function to find the minimum length
int minimumLength(string s)
{
    int maxOcc = 0, n = s.length();
    int arr[26] = {0};

    // Count the frequency of each alphabet
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
        arr[s[i] - 'a']++;

    // Find the alphabets with maximum frequency
    for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
        if (arr[i] > maxOcc)
            maxOcc = arr[i];

    // Subtract the frequency of character
    // from length of string
    return (n - maxOcc);
}

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    string str = "afddewqd";
    cout << minimumLength(str);

    return 0;
}

Java

// Java program to minimize the length of string
// by removing occurrence of only one character
import java.io.*;

class GFG {


// Function to find the minimum length
static int minimumLength(String s)
{
    int maxOcc = 0, n = s.length();
    int arr[] = new int[26];

    // Count the frequency of each alphabet
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
        arr[s.charAt(i) - 'a']++;

    // Find the alphabets with maximum frequency
    for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
        if (arr[i] > maxOcc)
            maxOcc = arr[i];

    // Subtract the frequency of character
    // from length of string
    return (n - maxOcc);
}

// Driver Code

    public static void main (String[] args) {
    String str = "afddewqd";
    System.out.println( minimumLength(str));
    }
}

//This code is contributed by chandan_jnu...

Python 3

# Python 3 program to minimize the length of string
# by removing occurrence of only one character

# Function to find the minimum length
def minimumLength(s) :

    maxOcc = 0
    n = len(s)
    arr = [0]*26

    # Count the frequency of each alphabet
    for i in range(n) :
        arr[ord(s[i]) -ord('a')] += 1

    # Find the alphabets with maximum frequency
    for i in range(26) :
        if arr[i] > maxOcc :
            maxOcc = arr[i]

    # Subtract the frequency of character
    # from length of string
    return n - maxOcc


# Driver Code
if __name__ == "__main__" :

    str = "afddewqd"
    print(minimumLength(str))


# This code is contributed by ANKITRAI1

C#

// C# program to minimize the
// length of string by removing
// occurrence of only one character
using System;

class GFG
{
    // Function to find the minimum length
    static int minimumLength(String s)
    {
        int maxOcc = 0, n = s.Length;
        int []arr = new int[26];

        // Count the frequency of each alphabet
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
            arr[s[i] - 'a']++;

        // Find the alphabets with
        // maximum frequency
        for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
            if (arr[i] > maxOcc)
                maxOcc = arr[i];

        // Subtract the frequency of character
        // from length of string
        return (n - maxOcc);
    }

    // Driver Code
    public static void Main (String[] args)
    {
        String str = "afddewqd";
        Console.WriteLine( minimumLength(str));
    }
}

// This code is contributed by
// PrinciRaj1992

Javascript

<script>

// Javascript program to minimize the length of string by
// removing occurrence of only one character

// Function to find the minimum length
function minimumLength(s)
{
    var maxOcc = 0, n = s.length;
    var arr = Array(26).fill(0);

    // Count the frequency of each alphabet
    for (var i = 0; i < n; i++)
        arr[s[i].charCodeAt(0) - 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]++;

    // Find the alphabets with maximum frequency
    for (var i = 0; i < 26; i++)
        if (arr[i] > maxOcc)
            maxOcc = arr[i];

    // Subtract the frequency of character
    // from length of string
    return (n - maxOcc);
}

// Driver Code
var str = "afddewqd";
document.write( minimumLength(str));

</script>

Output

5

Time complexity: O(n) where n is the length of string
Auxiliary space: O(1) since constant space is being used