650. 2 Keys Keyboard

Difficulty: Medium

Topics: Math, Dynamic Programming

There is only one character 'A' on the screen of a notepad. You can perform one of two operations on this notepad for each step:

• Copy All: You can copy all the characters present on the screen (a partial copy is not allowed).
• Paste: You can paste the characters which are copied last time.

Given an integer n, return the minimum number of operations to get the character 'A' exactly n times on the screen.

Example 1:

• Input: n = 3
• Output: 3
• Explanation: Initially, we have one character 'A'.
  • In step 1, we use Copy All operation.
  • In step 2, we use Paste operation to get 'AA'.
  • In step 3, we use Paste operation to get 'AAA'.

Example 2:

• Input: n = 1
• Output: 0

Example 3:

• Input: n = 10
• Output: 7

Example 2:

• Input: n = 24
• Output: 9

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 1000

Hint:

1. How many characters may be there in the clipboard at the last step if n = 3? n = 7? n = 10? n = 24?

Solution:

We need to find the minimum number of operations to get exactly n characters 'A' on the screen. We'll use a dynamic programming approach to achieve this.

1. Understanding the Problem:

   • We start with one 'A' on the screen.
   • We can either "Copy All" (which copies the current screen content) or "Paste" (which pastes the last copied content).
   • We need to determine the minimum operations required to have exactly n characters 'A' on the screen.

2. Dynamic Programming Approach:

   • Use a dynamic programming (DP) array dp where dp[i] represents the minimum number of operations required to get exactly i characters on the screen.
   • Initialize dp[1] = 0 since it takes 0 operations to have one 'A' on the screen.
   • For each number of characters i from 2 to n, calculate the minimum operations by checking every divisor of i. If i is divisible by d, then:
     • The number of operations needed to reach i is the sum of the operations to reach d plus the operations required to multiply d to get i.

3. Steps to Solve:

   • Initialize a DP array with INF (or a large number) for all values except dp[1].
   • For each i from 2 to n, iterate through possible divisors of i and update dp[i] based on the operations needed to reach i by copying and pasting.

Let's implement this solution in PHP: 650. 2 Keys Keyboard

<?php
// Example usage
echo minOperations(3); // Output: 3
echo minOperations(1); // Output: 0
echo minOperations(10) . "\n"; // Output: 7
echo minOperations(24) . "\n"; // Output: 9
?>

Explanation:

• Initialization: dp is initialized with a large number (PHP_INT_MAX) to represent an initially unreachable state.
• Divisor Check: For each number i, check all divisors d. Update dp[i] by considering the operations required to reach d and then multiplying to get i.
• Output: The result is the value of dp[n], which gives the minimum operations required to get exactly n characters on the screen.

This approach ensures we compute the minimum operations efficiently for the given constraints.

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