public static int makeAnagram(String a, String b) {
    // Write your code here
    // simply adding and deleting might delete duplicate values from our second word 
    

    int[] alphabet = new int[26];
    
    //count up for characters in our first word
    for(int i = 0; i < a.length(); i++){
        int index = Math.abs(a.charAt(i)-'a');
        alphabet[index]++; 
    }
    
    //the subtract for charcters in our second word, duplicate characters will show as negative numbers
    for(int j = 0;  j< b.length(); j++){
        int indexB = Math.abs(b.charAt(j)-'a');
        alphabet[indexB]--;
    }
    
    int differences = 0; 
    //ignore the sign of the integer to get a count
    for(int count : alphabet){
        differences += Math.abs(count);
    }
    
    return differences; 
    }

}