<p>Given a string <code>s</code>, return <em>the length of the longest substring between two equal characters, excluding the two characters.</em> If there is no such substring return <code>-1</code>.</p>

<p>A <strong>substring</strong> is a contiguous sequence of characters within a string.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;aa&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> 0
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The optimal substring here is an empty substring between the two <code>&#39;a&#39;s</code>.</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;abca&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> 2
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The optimal substring here is &quot;bc&quot;.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;cbzxy&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> -1
<strong>Explanation:</strong> There are no characters that appear twice in s.
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= s.length &lt;= 300</code></li>
	<li><code>s</code> contains only lowercase English letters.</li>
</ul>

class Solution:
    def maxLengthBetweenEqualCharacters(self, s: str) -> int:
        longest = -1
        letterPosition = {}
        for index,value in enumerate(s):
            if value in letterPosition:
                letterPosition[value].append(index)
            else:
                letterPosition[value] = [index]
        for values in letterPosition.values():
            if len(values) >= 2:
                longest = max(longest, values[-1] - values[0] - 1)


        return longest
        
16300