Solution to TCS Pan India Hiring Drive - Python [ Coding Round ]

 Question:

Minimum Absolute Difference (100 Marks)

You have an array of size N. Calculate the sum of minimum absolute differences for all the elements of the given array.

Note: N will always be an even number.

Input Format

The first line contains a single integer N, the size of the array.

The second line contains N integers, the elements of the array.

Constraints

2 <= N <= 103

0 <= Ai <= 103

Output Format

Print the sum of minimum absolute differences.

Note: There is a new line at the end of the output.

Sample TestCase 1

Input

4

5 10 10 15

Output

10

Explanation

Minimum absolute difference for element 1 = 5

Minimum absolute difference for element 2 and 3 = 0

Minimum absolute difference for element 4 = 5

Sum of minimum absolute differences = 5 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 10

Sample TestCase 2

Input

6

1 3 3 7 4 7

Output

3

Solution:

def main():

    def absDifferenceMinSum(a, num):

        sum = 0

        a.sort()

        

        sum += abs(a[0] - a[1])

        sum += abs(a[num - 1] - a[num - 2])

        for i in range(1, num - 1):

            sum += min(abs(a[i] - a[i - 1]),

                    abs(a[i] - a[i + 1]))

        return sum

    size_of_list = int(input(""))

    a = list(map(int, input().split()))

    num = len(a)

    print(absDifferenceMinSum(a, num))

main()