Solution: Find the Difference
Explore how to find the index of an extra character in two strings by applying bitwise XOR operations. This lesson guides you step-by-step through an optimized approach that compares ASCII values to efficiently solve the problem with linear time and constant space complexity.
Statement
Given two strings, str1 and str2, find the index of the extra character that is present in only one of the strings.
Note: If multiple instances of the extra character exist, return the index of the first occurrence of the character in the longer string.
Constraints:
-
str1.length,str2.length - Either
str2.lengthstr1.length + 1, or,str1.length