#243 - Shortest Word Distance

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Problem Description

Given an array of strings wordsDict and two different strings that already exist in the array word1 and word2, return the shortest distance between these two words in the list.

Solution

/**
 * @param {string[]} wordsDict
 * @param {string} word1
 * @param {string} word2
 * @return {number}
 */
var shortestDistance = function(wordsDict, word1, word2) {
  let result = Infinity;
  let index1 = -1;
  let index2 = -1;

  for (let i = 0; i < wordsDict.length; i++) {
    if (wordsDict[i] === word1) {
      index1 = i;
      if (index2 !== -1) {
        result = Math.min(result, index1 - index2);
      }
    } else if (wordsDict[i] === word2) {
      index2 = i;
      if (index1 !== -1) {
        result = Math.min(result, index2 - index1);
      }
    }
  }

  return result;
};