BrowserUk:

Something like this?

$ cat 938978.pl 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my ($x, $y) = split /\s+/,$_;
    last if ! defined $y;
    print robo_1($x,$y), "  <$x> <$y>\n";
}

sub robo_1 {
    my %h;
    $h{$_}++ for split//,shift;
    $h{$_}-- for split//,shift;
    my $t=0;
    $t += ($_>0 ? $_ : -$_) for values %h;
    return $t;
}
__DATA__
123456 abcdefghijkl
ARF_ARF_ARF BARKBARKBARK
doom gloom
heartbreak anguish

$ perl 938978.pl
18  <123456> <abcdefghijkl>
11  <ARF_ARF_ARF> <BARKBARKBARK>
3  <doom> <gloom>
13  <heartbreak> <anguish>

[download]

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

In reply to Re: The sum of absolute differences in the counts of chars in two strings. by roboticus
in thread The sum of absolute differences in the counts of chars in two strings. by BrowserUk

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