Solution: Minimum Number of Moves to Make Palindrome
Explore how to determine the minimum number of adjacent swaps needed to convert a string into a palindrome. This lesson teaches the two-pointer technique to match characters iteratively from both ends toward the center while tracking moves, helping you understand efficient string manipulation and palindrome formation.
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Statement
Given a string s, return the minimum number of moves required to transform s into a palindrome. In each move, you can swap any two adjacent characters in s.
Note: The input string is guaranteed to be convertible into a palindrome.
Constraints:
s.lengthsconsists of only lowercase English letters.sis guaranteed to be converted into a palindrome in a finite number of moves.
Solution
The main strategy for solving this problem is to use a two-pointer approach to progressively match characters from the outer ends of the string toward the center, while minimizing adjacent swaps to transform the string into a palindrome. For each character on the left side, the algorithm searches for its matching counterpart on the right side and moves it into place by repeatedly swapping adjacent ...