Canadian Computing Competition: 2012 Stage 1, Senior #3
You are gathering readings of acidity level in a very long river in
order to determine the health of the river. You have placed sensors
in the river, and each sensor gives an integer
reading
. For the purposes of your research, you
would like to know the frequency of each reading, and find the absolute
difference between the two most frequent readings.
If there are more than two readings that have the highest frequency, the difference computed should be the largest such absolute difference between two readings with this frequency. If there is only one reading with the largest frequency, but more than one reading with the second largest frequency, the difference computed should be the largest absolute difference between the most frequently occurring reading and any of the readings which occur with second-highest frequency.
Input Specification
The first line of input will be the integer
,
the number of sensors. The next
lines each contain the reading for
that sensor, which is an integer
. You
should assume that there are at least two different readings in the
input.
Output Specification
Output the positive integer value representing the absolute difference between the two most frequently occurring readings, subject to the tie-breaking rules outlined above.
Sample Input 1
5
1
1
1
4
3
Output for Sample Input 1
3
Sample Input 2
4
10
6
1
8
Output for Sample Input 2
9
Comments
My first try I got AC on test case 3-5 but WA on 1-2 . . . my second try I got AC 1-2, 4-5, but WA 3 . . .
Quick question, when it says "absolute" does it mean "the absolute biggest value it can be"?
EDIT: Sorry, I'm an idiot. I didn't read the other bit.
No, it means the absolute difference
Absolute difference like [x - y]?
yes
What should be the output if there is only one highest frequency? Eg: 5 1 1 1 1 1
If you're asking about 5 readings that are all 1's, the problem statement says
If you're asking about 6 readings (a 5 and multiple 1's), the problem statement's first paragraph has already defined the correct output.