Find Index of Unique element in Array with duplicate elements

By | September 27, 2023

Given an array of size N, print the index of the distinct element from the array, provided the array has only one distinct element and rest other elements are same.

Examples:

Input: Arr[]={10,10,10,10,20}
Output: Distinct Element found at index : 4

Input: Arr[]={7,7,7,0,7,7,7,7}
Output: Distinct Element found at index : 3

Approach:
Linearly traverse through the array and find the element which is not equal to its neighbouring element and return its index.

Below is the C++ implementation of the above approach:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int distnctInd(int arr[],int n){
    int itr = arr[0];
    for (int i=1; i<n; i++){
        if (itr!=arr[i] && arr[i+1]!=arr[i]){
            return i;
        }else if (itr!=arr[i] && arr[i+1]==arr[i]){
            return i-1;
        }else if (itr==arr[i] && arr[i+1]!=arr[i]){
            return i+1;
        }else{
            itr=arr[i];
        }
    }
}

int main() {

    int arr[]={9,9,9,9,6,9,9};
    int arrsize=sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);
    cout<< "Distinct Element found at index : " << distnctInd(arr,arrsize) <<endl;
    return 0;
}

Output:

Distinct Element found at index : 4

Time Complexity: O(N)
Space Complexity: O(1)

Author: Mithlesh Upadhyay

Mithlesh Upadhyay is a Computer Science and AI expert from Madhya Pradesh with strong academic background (BE in CSE and M.Tech in AI) and over six years of experience in technical content development. He has contributed tech articles, led teams, and worked in Full Stack Development and Data Science. He founded the w3colleges.org portal for learning resources.