#1887
Reduction Operations to Make the Array Elements Equal
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Description
Given an integer array nums, your goal is to make all elements in nums equal. To complete one operation, follow these steps:
- Find the largest value in nums. Let its index be i (0-indexed) and its value be largest. If there are multiple elements with the largest value, pick the smallest i.
- Find the next largest value in nums strictly smaller than largest. Let its value be nextLargest.
- Reduce nums[i] to nextLargest.
Return the number of operations to make all elements in nums equal.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [5,1,3]
Output: 3
Explanation: It takes 3 operations to make all elements in nums equal:
1. largest = 5 at index 0. nextLargest = 3. Reduce nums[0] to 3. nums = [3,1,3].
2. largest = 3 at index 0. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[0] to 1. nums = [1,1,3].
3. largest = 3 at index 2. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[2] to 1. nums = [1,1,1].
Example 2:
Input: nums = [1,1,1]
Output: 0
Explanation: All elements in nums are already equal.
Example 3:
Input: nums = [1,1,2,2,3]
Output: 4
Explanation: It takes 4 operations to make all elements in nums equal:
1. largest = 3 at index 4. nextLargest = 2. Reduce nums[4] to 2. nums = [1,1,2,2,2].
2. largest = 2 at index 2. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[2] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,2,2].
3. largest = 2 at index 3. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[3] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,1,2].
4. largest = 2 at index 4. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[4] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,1,1].
Solution