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#1046 - Last Stone Weight
Problem Description
You are given an array of integers stones where stones[i] is the weight of the ith stone.
We are playing a game with the stones. On each turn, we choose the heaviest two stones and smash them together. Suppose the heaviest two stones have weights x and y with x <= y. The result of this smash is:
- If x == y, both stones are destroyed, and
- If x != y, the stone of weight x is destroyed, and the stone of weight y has new weight y - x.
At the end of the game, there is at most one stone left.
Return the weight of the last remaining stone. If there are no stones left, return 0.
Solution
/**
* @param {number[]} stones
* @return {number}
*/
var lastStoneWeight = function(stones) {
const heap = stones.sort((a, b) => b - a);
while (heap.length > 1) {
const heaviest = heap.shift();
const secondHeaviest = heap.shift();
if (heaviest !== secondHeaviest) {
heap.push(heaviest - secondHeaviest);
heap.sort((a, b) => b - a);
}
}
return heap.length ? heap[0] : 0;
};