# 462. Minimum Moves to Equal Array Elements II
Given a non-empty integer array, find the minimum number of moves required to make all array elements equal, where a move is incrementing a selected element by 1 or decrementing a selected element by 1.
You may assume the array's length is at most 10,000.
Example:
Input:
[1,2,3]
Output:
2
Explanation:
Only two moves are needed (remember each move increments or decrements one element):
[1,2,3] => [2,2,3] => [2,2,2]
# Solution
Approach 1: the middle ground is the median.
# Code (Python)
Approach 1:
def minMoves2(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
# the middle ground is the median (for odd length, anywhere between the middle two numbers of even length), because when you pick and move a pivot, half the the numbers each +1 and the other half each -1
nums.sort()
median = nums[len(nums) // 2]
return sum(abs(num - median) for num in nums)
# Code (C++)
Approach 1:
Approach 2: