Example: Sum of Minimum Absolute Differences in Java

// Sum of Minimum Absolute Differences
import java.util.Arrays; // Required for sorting the array

// Main class containing the entry point of the program
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Step 1: Define the input array
        int[] arr = {5, 2, 8, 3};
        System.out.println("Original Array: " + Arrays.toString(arr));

        // Step 2: Sort the array
        // Sorting ensures that elements closest in value are adjacent,
        // which minimizes their absolute difference.
        Arrays.sort(arr);
        System.out.println("Sorted Array:   " + Arrays.toString(arr));

        // Step 3: Initialize a variable to store the sum of absolute differences
        long minAbsoluteDiffSum = 0; // Use long to handle potentially large sums

        // Step 4: Iterate through the sorted array and calculate the sum of
        //         absolute differences between adjacent elements
        for (int i = 0; i < arr.length - 1; i++) {
            // Calculate the absolute difference between the current element and the next
            long diff = Math.abs((long)arr[i] - arr[i + 1]);
            minAbsoluteDiffSum += diff;
        }

        // Step 5: Print the calculated sum
        System.out.println("Sum of minimum absolute differences: " + minAbsoluteDiffSum);

        // Example with another array
        int[] arr2 = {1, 10, 5, 2, 8};
        System.out.println("\nOriginal Array 2: " + Arrays.toString(arr2));
        Arrays.sort(arr2);
        System.out.println("Sorted Array 2:   " + Arrays.toString(arr2));
        long minAbsoluteDiffSum2 = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < arr2.length - 1; i++) {
            minAbsoluteDiffSum2 += Math.abs((long)arr2[i] - arr2[i + 1]);
        }
        System.out.println("Sum of minimum absolute differences for arr2: " + minAbsoluteDiffSum2);
    }
}