697. Degree of an Array

class Solution:
    def findShortestSubArray(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
        occurances = {} # degree of numbers --> key: num | value: occurances
        start_index = {}
        end_index = {}
        result = [] # store candidate subarrays

        # populate occruances and start/end indexes
        for i,v in enumerate(nums):
            if v not in occurances:
                occurances[v] = 1
                # since first time seing this, also do start/end
                start_index[v] = i
                end_index[v] = i # could be case where its single digit
            else:
                occurances[v] += 1
                end_index[v] = i # reassign to new ending
        
        degree = max(occurances.values())
        
        # find candidate subarrays
        for key,val in occurances.items():
            # only care about nums that have our degree
            if val == degree:
                # pot. candidate
                lengthSubarray = end_index[key] - start_index[key] + 1
                result.append(lengthSubarray)
        
        # take smallest subarray that fulfills the degree
        return min(result)


'''
hashmap -> store counts
        -> store start index
        -> store ending index

then take max degree from counts

go through counts again
    get length of current array by subtracting indexes
    append to result anytime we see occurance value == max degree (potential candidate)

take the minimum length from result (as this is our min subarray)


'''