Difference Check

The term for this coding construct could be “Array Traversal with Constant Difference Check.” It refers to going through an array while keeping track of a constant difference between the element and its index. This specific construct doesn’t have a standard, widely-recognized name, but the description captures its essence. It is useful for pattern recognition within an array.

The idea is to initialize a variable, diff, with the value of the first element in the array minus its index (which is 0). As we traverse the array, we compare this diff with the difference between each subsequent array element and its index. If all elements in the array have the same diff, then they adhere to a specific pattern; otherwise, they do not.

Example Code in Java

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] array = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
        int diff = array[0] - 0;
        boolean sameDiff = true;

        for(int i = 1; i < array.length; i++) {
            if(array[i] - i != diff) {
                sameDiff = false;
                break;
            }
        }
        System.out.println("All elements have the same diff: " + sameDiff);
    }
}

Example Code in C++

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    int array[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    int size = sizeof(array) / sizeof(array[0]);
    int diff = array[0] - 0;
    bool sameDiff = true;

    for(int i = 1; i < size; i++) {
        if(array[i] - i != diff) {
            sameDiff = false;
            break;
        }
    }
    cout << "All elements have the same diff: " << (sameDiff ? "true" : "false") << endl;
    return 0;
}

Example Code in Python

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
diff = array[0] - 0
same_diff = True

for i in range(1, len(array)):
    if array[i] - i != diff:
        same_diff = False
        break

print(f"All elements have the same diff: {same_diff}")

This coding construct helps you quickly determine if all elements in the array adhere to a particular pattern, which could be useful in various types of pattern recognition problems.