Stick Lengths

There are n sticks with some lengths. Your task is to modify the sticks so that each stick has the same length.

You can either lengthen and shorten each stick. Both operations cost x where x is the difference between the new and original length.

What is the minimum total cost?

Example:

Input:  n = 5, arr = {2, 3, 1, 5, 2}
Output: 5

Approach

C++

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

long long stickLengths(long long n,
                       vector<long long> &arr)
{

    sort(arr.begin(), arr.end());
    long long med = arr[n / 2];
    long long ans = 0;
    for (long long x : arr)
    {
        ans += abs(x - med);
    }
    return ans;
}

int main()
{
    long long n = 5;

    vector<long long> arr = {2, 3, 1, 5, 2};

    cout << stickLengths(n, arr) << "\n";

    return 0;
}