Least Operators to Express Number
Given a single positive integer x, we will write an expression of the form x (op1) x (op2) x (op3) x ...
Given a single positive integer x, we will write an expression of the form x (op1) x (op2) x (op3) x ... where each operator op1, op2, etc. is either addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division (+, -, *, or /). For example, with x = 3, we might write 3 * 3 / 3 + 3 - 3 which is a value of 3.
When writing such an expression, we adhere to the following conventions:
We would like to write an expression with the least number of operators such that the expression equals the given target. Return the least number of operators used.
Example 1
Input: x = 3, target = 19
Output: 5
Explanation: 3 * 3 + 3 * 3 + 3 / 3. The expression contains 5 operations.
Example 2
Input: x = 5, target = 501
Output: 8
Explanation: 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 - 5 * 5 * 5 + 5 / 5. The expression contains 8 operations.
Example 3
Input: x = 100, target = 100000000
Output: 3
Explanation: 100 * 100 * 100 * 100. The expression contains 3 operations.
Constraints
- 2 <= x <= 100
- 1 <= target <= 2 * 10^8
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