Leetcode 389. Find the Difference

Problem

You are given two strings s and t.

String t is generated by random shuffling string s and then add one more letter at a random position.

Return the letter that was added to t.

Algorithm

Use a list to count the letters in “s”. Then remove the letter in “t” from the list. If the letter only appear in “t” return it.

Code

class Solution:
    def findTheDifference(self, s: str, t: str) -> str:
        sCnts = [0] * 26
        for c in s:
            sCnts[ord(c) - ord('a')] += 1
        
        for c in t:
            if sCnts[ord(c) - ord('a')] > 0:
                sCnts[ord(c) - ord('a')] -= 1
            else:
                return c
        
        return ""