leetcode-grind/problems/1347/main.py

class Solution:
    def minSteps(self, s, t):
        # as it's only lowercase letters, we can simply count both then compare
        s_letters = [0] * 26
        t_letters = [0] * 26
        
        for a in s:
            s_letters[ord(a) - 97] += 1
            
        for a in t:
            t_letters[ord(a) - 97] += 1
            
        # we could go either way and the answer should be the same but let's turn t into s:
        # we could count the deletions needed and the additions needed, and they should cancel
        # out because they are equal length
        # so easier to count absolute difference and then halve it.
        edit = 0
        for x in range(0, 26):
            edit += abs(s_letters[x] - t_letters[x])
            
        return edit // 2

s = Solution()
print("Expected: 1")
print("Got:", s.minSteps("aba", "bba"))