Shortest Distance To Character Solution Explanation
David Godfrey
53

In the solution to Shortest Distance to a Character they give an example like this:

class Solution {
    public int[] shortestToChar(String S, char C) {
        int N = S.length();
        int[] ans = new int[N];
        int prev = Integer.MIN_VALUE / 2;

        for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i) {
            if (S.charAt(i) == C) prev = i;
            ans[i] = i - prev;
        }

        prev = Integer.MAX_VALUE / 2;
        for (int i = N-1; i >= 0; --i) {
            if (S.charAt(i) == C) prev = i;
            ans[i] = Math.min(ans[i], prev - i);
        }

        return ans;
    }
}

Why do they set prev initially to Integer.MIN_VALUE / 2? When I remove the / 2 the code no longer works.

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