js-concepts: minDistance voz

distance.js

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/**
+ * A problem collected from Voz =))
+ * 
+ * Given an array of strings, write a function return the minimum distance between a and b in array
+ */
+
+function solution(list = [], a = '', b = '') {
+  if (list.length === 0) return -1;
+  if (a.length === 0 || b.length === 0) return -1;
+
+  let firstIdx = -1, secondIdx = -1;
+  let minDist = list.length;
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < list.length; ++i) {
+    if (list[i] === a) {
+      firstIdx = i
+      minDist = Math.min(Math.abs(firstIdx - secondIdx), minDist);
+    } else if (list[i] === b) {
+      secondIdx = i
+      minDist = Math.min(Math.abs(firstIdx - secondIdx), minDist);
+    }
+  }
+
+  return minDist;
+}
+
+console.log(solution(["cat", "dog", "bird", "fish", "cat","duck","chicken","dog"], 'dog', 'duck'));