class Solution {
public:
    int maxLengthBetweenEqualCharacters(string s) {
        vector<int> ans(26,-1);
        int maxlen = -1;
        for(int i=0;i<s.size();i++)
        {
            if(ans[s[i]-'a'] < 0)
            {
                ans[s[i]-'a'] = i;
            }
            else
            {
                maxlen = max(maxlen, i-ans[s[i]-'a']-1);
            }
        }
        return maxlen;
    }
};