Problem Statement

Given two strings word1 and word2, return the least number of edits needed to transform word1 to word2.

You can perform any one edit from below three in a single operation on Word:

• Insert a character
• Delete a character
• Replace a character

Examples

• Example 1:

  • Input: word1 = "cat", word2 = "cut"
  • Expected Output: 1
  • Justification: Only one operation is needed, replacing 'a' with 'u' in "cat" to make it "cut".

• Example 2:

  • Input: word1 = "sun", word2 = "satur"
  • Expected Output: 3
  • Justification: Three operations needed: 1) Insert 'a' after 's', 2) Insert 't' after 'a', and 3) Replace 'n' with 'r'.

• Example 3:

  • Input: word1 = "book", word2 = "back"
  • Expected Output: 2
  • Justification: Two operations are required: 1) Replace 'o' with 'a', and 2) Replace the second 'o' with 'c'. This changes "book" to "back".

Try it yourself

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