C Exercises: Return the largest span found in the leftmost and rightmost appearances of same value in a given array

Last update on March 18 2025 13:23:12 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

98. Largest Span Between Same Values

Write a program in C to return the largest span found in the leftmost and rightmost appearances of the same value (values are inclusive) in a given array.

Expected Output:
The given array is:
17 42 19 7 27 24 17 54 73
The span between the same values in the array is: 7

The task is to write a C program that returns the largest span between the leftmost and rightmost appearances of the same value in a given array. The span is defined as the inclusive distance between the first and last occurrences of any value. The program should traverse the array, calculate the spans for all values, and then display the largest span found.

Sample Solution:

C Code:

#include<stdio.h>

// Function to calculate the maximum span between the same values in the array
int maxSpan(int arr1[], int n) 
{
    int l = n;
    if (l > 0) 
    {
        int maxSpanCtr = 1;

        // Loop through the array to find the maximum span between same values
        for (int i = 0; i < l; i++)
        {
            for (int j = l - 1; j > i; j--)
            {
                if (arr1[j] == arr1[i]) 
                {
                    int count = (j - i) + 1;
                    if (count > maxSpanCtr) 
                        maxSpanCtr = count;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        return maxSpanCtr;
    } 
    else 
        return 0;
}

int main() 
{ 
    int arr1[] = {17, 42, 19, 7, 27, 24, 17, 54, 73}; 
    int arr_size = sizeof(arr1) / sizeof(arr1[0]); 
    int i = 0; 

    // Print the original array
    printf("The given array is:  \n");
    for (i = 0; i < arr_size; i++)
    {
        printf("%d  ", arr1[i]);
    }
    printf("\n");

    // Calculate and display the maximum span between same values in the array
    printf("The span between the same values in the array is:  %d", maxSpan(arr1, arr_size)); 
    return 0; 
}

Output:

The given array is:  
17  42  19  7  27  24  17  54  73  
The span between the same values in the array is:  7

Visual Presentation:

Flowchart:/p>

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a C program to compute the largest span between the first and last occurrence of any element using a hash table.
• Write a C program to find the maximum span for each unique element in an array and then return the overall maximum.
• Write a C program to calculate the span of repeated elements using nested loops and then determine the maximum span.
• Write a C program to find the largest span by first sorting the array and then comparing indices of identical elements.

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