Given an array of characters
chars
, compress it using the following algorithm:
Begin with an empty string
s
. For each group of
consecutive repeating characters in
chars
:
If the group’s length is 1
, append the character to s
.
Otherwise, append the character followed by the group’s length.
The compressed string
s
should not be returned separately, but instead, be stored
in the input character array chars
. Note that group lengths that are
10
or longer will be split into multiple characters in
chars
.
After you are done
modifying the input array, return
the new length of the array.
You must write an algorithm that uses only constant extra space.
Example 1:Input: chars = [“a”,”a”,”b”,”b”,”c”,”c”,”c”]
Output: Return 6, and the first 6 characters of the input array should be: [“a”,”2”,”b”,”2”,”c”,”3”]
Explanation: The groups are “aa”, “bb”, and “ccc”. This compresses to “a2b2c3”.
Example 2:Input: chars = [“a”]
Output: Return 1, and the first character of the input array should be: [“a”]
Explanation: The only group is “a”, which remains uncompressed since it’s a single character.
Example 3:Input: chars = [“a”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”,”b”]
Output: Return 4, and the first 4 characters of the input array should be: [“a”,”b”,”1”,”2”].
Explanation: The groups are “a” and “bbbbbbbbbbbb”. This compresses to “ab12”.
Example 4:Input: chars = [“a”,”a”,”a”,”b”,”b”,”a”,”a”]
Output: Return 6, and the first 6 characters of the input array should be: [“a”,”3”,”b”,”2”,”a”,”2”].
Explanation: The groups are “aaa”, “bb”, and “aa”. This compresses to “a3b2a2”. Note that each group is independent even if two groups have the same character.
Constraints: 1 <= chars.length <= 2000
chars[i]
is a lowercase English letter, uppercase English letter, digit, or symbol.