Minimum Time to Type Word Using Special Typewriter

There is a special typewriter with lowercase English letters 'a' to 'z' arranged in a circle with a pointer. A character can only be typed if the pointer is pointing to that character. The pointer is initially pointing to the character 'a'.

Each second, you may perform one of the following operations

1. Move the pointer one character counterclockwise or clockwise.

2. Type the character the pointer is currently on.

Given a string word, return the minimum number of seconds to type out the characters in a word.

Example 1:

Input: word = "abc"
Output: 5
Explanation: 
The characters are printed as follows:
- Type the character 'a' in 1 second since the pointer is initially on 'a'.
- Move the pointer clockwise to 'b' in 1 second.
- Type the character 'b' in 1 second.
- Move the pointer clockwise to 'c' in 1 second.
- Type the character 'c' in 1 second.

Example 2:

Input: word = "bza"
Output: 7
Explanation:
The characters are printed as follows:
- Move the pointer clockwise to 'b' in 1 second.
- Type the character 'b' in 1 second.
- Move the pointer counterclockwise to 'z' in 2 seconds.
- Type the character 'z' in 1 second.
- Move the pointer clockwise to 'a' in 1 second.
- Type the character 'a' in 1 second.

Approach

Java

public class MinTimeToTypeWord {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String word = "bza";

        System.out.println(minTimeToType(word));

    }

    static int minTimeToType(String word) {

        int totalTime = 0;

        // initially start character is 'a'
        int start = 'a';

        // iterate through whole string
        for (int i = 0; i < word.length(); i++) {
            // check for which direction we need to go
            int clockDir = Math.abs((word.charAt(i) - 'a') - 
                (start - 'a'));

            // update the clockdir as min of clockwise and
            // anti clockwise
            clockDir = Math.min(clockDir, 26 - clockDir);

            // add clockDir value to final result +1 for type 
            //that character
            totalTime += clockDir + 1;

            // update the start character as current character
            start = word.charAt(i);
        }

        return totalTime;
    }

}

C++

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

int minTimeToType(string word)
{

    int totalTime = 0;

    //initially start character is 'a'
    int start = 'a';

    //itearate through whole string
    for (int i = 0; i < word.size(); i++)
    {
        //check for which direction we need to go
        int clockDir = abs((word[i] - 'a') - (start - 'a'));

        //update the clockdir as min of clockwise and
        //anticlockwise
        clockDir = min(clockDir, 26 - clockDir);

        //add clockDir value to final result +1 for 
        //type that character
        totalTime += clockDir + 1;

        //update the start character as current character
        start = word[i];
    }

    return totalTime;
}

int main()
{
    string word = "bza";

    cout << minTimeToType(word) << "\n";

    return 0;
}