LeetCode 389. Find the Difference

Description

Given two strings s and t which consist of only lowercase letters.

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

Find the letter that was added in t.

Analysis

Let $hs[i]$ and $ht[i]$ record how many times the $i^{th}$ letters appears in string s,t, respectively. And map $hs$ and $ht$ to find the only different value. The $char(key+97)$ is the answer.
Also, someone used XOR to find the different letter because the even-time appearance of the same part of $s$, $t$. The following example is easy to understand.

$$(A\oplus B)\oplus (A\oplus B\oplus C)=0 \oplus C=C$$

Code

class Solution {
public:
    char findTheDifference(string s, string t) {
        short ht[26] = { 0 }, hs[26] = { 0 };
        for (char c : s)   hs[c - 97]++;
        for (char c : t)   ht[c - 97]++;
        for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++)
            if (hs[i] != ht[i])
                return char(i+97);
    }
};

Appendix

• Link:https://leetcode.com/problems/find-the-difference/
• Run Time: 3ms