Swift Coding Test Course, Fast Travel with Time Machine

Problem Description

Problem: Time Machine

You are an engineer who can operate a time machine. However, the time machine is broken, and you have been given a list of retrieved times. Your task is to output the shortest time difference within the given time intervals based on this list.

You will be given N time entries as input. Each time entry is presented in the format HH:MM, and you need to convert this time into an integer to calculate the difference between two times. In this case, the difference is always assumed to be positive.

Input example: [“12:30”, “14:15”, “09:00”, “16:45”]

The result should output the minimum difference between two times in minutes.

Problem Solving Process

1. Problem Analysis

When given pairs of times, you need to compare the intervals to find the smallest value. One method to calculate time intervals is to convert the time into consumed minutes and then find the absolute difference between the two times.

2. Algorithm Design

First, convert the given list of times into values stored in minutes. Next, you can use a method to compare all pairs of times to find the shortest time interval. This process can be broken down into the following steps:

Convert time strings into time values
Compare all time combinations and store their differences
Output the minimum difference

3. Implementation


import Foundation

func timeToMinutes(time: String) -> Int {
    let components = time.split(separator: ":").map { Int($0)! }
    return components[0] * 60 + components[1]
}

func minTimeDifference(times: [String]) -> Int {
    var minutesList = times.map { timeToMinutes(time: $0) }.sorted()
    var minDiff = Int.max

    for i in 0..


4. Results and Interpretation
Running the above code will calculate the minimum time interval within the given list of times. By utilizing the described algorithm, we were able to effectively solve the time machine problem.
Conclusion
In this lecture, we addressed an algorithm problem of calculating time intervals using Swift. We understood the basic time conversion logic and the importance of time comparison, and we explored the code implementation for solving real problems. We hope to continue solving various algorithm problems using Swift in the future.



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