Stick Lengths

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
 
using namespace std;
 
// variables used for the current problem
int n, median;
vector<int> p;
long long ans, cnt;
 
void solve() {
	cin >> n;
	p.resize(n);
	for (int &x : p) { cin >> x; }
	sort(p.begin(), p.end());
	median = p[n / 2];
	for (const int &x : p) {
		ans += abs(median - x);  // Calculate the cost to modify the stick
		                         // length
	}
	cout << ans << "\n";
	return;
}
 
int main() {
	ios_base::sync_with_stdio(false);
	cin.tie(nullptr);
	solve();
	return 0;
}

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
public class StickLengths {
	// CodeSnip{Kattio}
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Kattio io = new Kattio();
		int N = io.nextInt();
		int[] arr = new int[N];
		for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { arr[i] = io.nextInt(); }
		Arrays.sort(arr);
 
		/*
		 * Take the median stick length,
		 * and calculate the cost to change each stick length to the median.
		 */
		int median = arr[N / 2];
		long costs = 0;
		for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { costs += Math.abs(arr[i] - median); }
		io.println(costs);
		io.close();
	}
}

n = int(input())
sticks = sorted(list(map(int, input().split())))
median = sticks[n // 2]
ans = 0
for x in sticks:
	ans += abs(median - x)
print(ans)