Alternating Characters


Problem Statement :


You are given a string containing characters A and B only. Your task is to change it into a string such that there are no matching adjacent characters. To do this, you are allowed to delete zero or more characters in the string.

Your task is to find the minimum number of required deletions.


Function Description

Complete the alternatingCharacters function in the editor below.

alternatingCharacters has the following parameter(s):

string s: a string

Returns

int: the minimum number of deletions required


Input Format

The first line contains an integer q, the number of queries.
The next q lines each contain a string s to analyze.

Constraints

1  <=   q   <=   10
1  <=  length of s  <=  10^5
Each string s will consist only of characters A and B.


Sample Input

5
AAAA
BBBBB
ABABABAB
BABABA
AAABBB


Sample Output

3
4
0
0
4


Solution :



title-img 


                            Solution in C :

In C++ :





#include <cmath>
#include <cstdio>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;


int main() {
    int t;
    cin>>t;
    while(t--)
        {
        string s;int c=0,a=0;
        cin>>s;
        for(int i=1;s[i]!='\0';i++)
            {
            if((s[i]==65 && s[a]==66)||(s[i]==66 &&s[a]==65))
            {
                a=i;
               // cout<<a<<endl;
               }
                else{
                    c++;
                    //cout<<c<<" "<<i<<endl;
                   
                }
                
            }
        cout<<c<<endl;
        
    }
    return 0;
}







In Java :





import java.util.Scanner;
public class Solution {

	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
		int t = s.nextInt();
		s.nextLine();
		while(t-- > 0)
		{
			int count = 0;
			String str = s.nextLine();
			for(int i=1;i<str.length();i++)
			{
				if(str.charAt(i)==str.charAt(i-1))
				{
					count++;
				}
			}
			System.out.println(count);	
		}
	}

}







In  C :





#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main() 
{
    int t;
    long i=0;
    unsigned int count=0;
    char * c;
    scanf("%d",&t);
    c=(char *)malloc(sizeof(char)*(100002));
    while(t--)
    {
        scanf("%s",c);
        for(i=0; *(c+i); i++)
        {
            if(c[i]==c[i+1])
            {
                count++;
            }
        }
        printf("%u\n",count);
        count=0;
    }
      
    return 0;
}








In  Python3 :




def f(s):
    return sum(1 for c1, c2 in zip(s, s[1:]) if c1 == c2)

t = int(input())
for _ in range(t):
    print(f(input()))








View More Similar Problems

Insert a Node at the Tail of a Linked List

You are given the pointer to the head node of a linked list and an integer to add to the list. Create a new node with the given integer. Insert this node at the tail of the linked list and return the head node of the linked list formed after inserting this new node. The given head pointer may be null, meaning that the initial list is empty. Input Format: You have to complete the SinglyLink

View Solution →

Insert a Node at the head of a Linked List

Given a pointer to the head of a linked list, insert a new node before the head. The next value in the new node should point to head and the data value should be replaced with a given value. Return a reference to the new head of the list. The head pointer given may be null meaning that the initial list is empty. Function Description: Complete the function insertNodeAtHead in the editor below

View Solution →

Insert a node at a specific position in a linked list

Given the pointer to the head node of a linked list and an integer to insert at a certain position, create a new node with the given integer as its data attribute, insert this node at the desired position and return the head node. A position of 0 indicates head, a position of 1 indicates one node away from the head and so on. The head pointer given may be null meaning that the initial list is e

View Solution →

Delete a Node

Delete the node at a given position in a linked list and return a reference to the head node. The head is at position 0. The list may be empty after you delete the node. In that case, return a null value. Example: list=0->1->2->3 position=2 After removing the node at position 2, list'= 0->1->-3. Function Description: Complete the deleteNode function in the editor below. deleteNo

View Solution →

Print in Reverse

Given a pointer to the head of a singly-linked list, print each data value from the reversed list. If the given list is empty, do not print anything. Example head* refers to the linked list with data values 1->2->3->Null Print the following: 3 2 1 Function Description: Complete the reversePrint function in the editor below. reversePrint has the following parameters: Sing

View Solution →

Reverse a linked list

Given the pointer to the head node of a linked list, change the next pointers of the nodes so that their order is reversed. The head pointer given may be null meaning that the initial list is empty. Example: head references the list 1->2->3->Null. Manipulate the next pointers of each node in place and return head, now referencing the head of the list 3->2->1->Null. Function Descriptio

View Solution →