JAVA SOLUTION || 100% FASTER || 100% MEMORY EFFICIENT || 1MS SOLUTION
Intuition\n Describe your first thoughts on how to solve this problem. \n\n# Approach\n Describe your approach to solving the problem. \n\n# Complexity\n- Time 
# Intuition\n<!-- Describe your first thoughts on how to solve this problem. -->\n\n# Approach\n<!-- Describe your approach to solving the problem. -->\n\n# Complexity\n- Time complexity:\n<!-- Add your time complexity here, e.g. $$O(n)$$ -->\n\n- Space complexity:\n<!-- Add your space complexity here, e.g. $$O(n)$$ -->\n\n# Code\n```\nclass Solution {\n    public int removeAlmostEqualCharacters(String word) {\n        \n        int ans = 0;\n        int c = 1;\n        \n        for(int i = 0; i < word.length() - 1; i++) {\n            if(Math.abs(word.charAt(i) - word.charAt(i + 1)) <= 1) c++;\n            else {\n                ans += c / 2;\n                c = 1;\n            }\n        }\n        \n        ans += c / 2;\n        \n        return ans;\n    }\n}\n```
['Java']