#859
Easy Algorithms Buddy strings
Hash Table String
33.9% acceptance
Feb 22, 2026
3348
1849
Given two strings s and goal, return true if you can swap two letters in s so the result is equal to goal, otherwise, return false.
Swapping letters is defined as taking two indices i and j (0-indexed) such that i != j and swapping the characters at s[i] and s[j].
For example, swapping at indices 0 and 2 in "abcd" results in "cbad".
Solution
Rust
Time O(n)
Space O(n)
/*
* Given two strings s and goal, return true if you can swap two letters in s so the result is equal to goal, otherwise, return false.
* Swapping letters is defined as taking two indices i and j (0-indexed) such that i != j and swapping the characters at s[i] and s[j].
* For example, swapping at indices 0 and 2 in "abcd" results in "cbad".
* Example 1:
* Input: s = "ab", goal = "ba"
* Output: true
* Explanation: You can swap s[0] = 'a' and s[1] = 'b' to get "ba", which is equal to goal.
* Example 2:
* Input: s = "ab", goal = "ab"
* Output: false
* Explanation: The only letters you can swap are s[0] = 'a' and s[1] = 'b', which results in "ba" != goal.
* Example 3:
* Input: s = "aa", goal = "aa"
* Output: true
* Explanation: You can swap s[0] = 'a' and s[1] = 'a' to get "aa", which is equal to goal.
* Constraints:
* 1 <= s.length, goal.length <= 2 * 104
* s and goal consist of lowercase letters.
*/
impl Solution {
pub fn buddy_strings(s: String, goal: String) -> bool {
if s.len() != goal.len() { return false; }
let sb = s.as_bytes();
let gb = goal.as_bytes();
let diffs: Vec<usize> = (0..sb.len()).filter(|&i| sb[i] != gb[i]).collect();
if diffs.is_empty() {
// Need a repeated character to swap
let mut seen = [false; 26];
return sb.iter().any(|&b| {
let idx = (b - b'a') as usize;
let r = seen[idx];
seen[idx] = true;
r
});
}
diffs.len() == 2 && sb[diffs[0]] == gb[diffs[1]] && sb[diffs[1]] == gb[diffs[0]]
}
}