# 245 Shortest Word Distance III

This is a **follow up** of [Shortest Word Distance](https://leetcode.com/problems/shortest-word-distance). The only difference is now word1 could be the same as word2.

Given a list of words and two words word1 and word2, return the shortest distance between these two words in the list.

word1 and word2 may be the same and they represent two individual words in the list.

For example,\
Assume that words =`["practice", "makes", "perfect", "coding", "makes"]`.

Given word1=`“makes”`,word2=`“coding”`, return 1.\
Given word1=`"makes"`,word2=`"makes"`, return 3.

**Note:**\
You may assume word1 and word2 are both in the list.

**The Idea:** Same as the first except we account for whether the indices are the same (an indication that the words are also the same).

**Complexity:** O(2n) time and O(n) space

```python
from collections import defaultdict
import sys


class Solution:
    def shortestWordDistance(self, words, word1, word2):
        """
        :type words: List[str]
        :type word1: str
        :type word2: str
        :rtype: int
        """
        self.d = defaultdict(list)
        for i, word in enumerate(words):
            self.d[word].append(i)

        dist = sys.maxsize
        for loc1 in self.d[word1]:
            for loc2 in self.d[word2]:
                if loc1 != loc2:
                    dist = min(dist, abs(loc1 - loc2))
        return dist
```


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://maksimdan.gitbook.io/interview-practice-problems/leetcode_sessions/245-shortest-word-distance-iii.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.