443. String Compression

Given an array of characters, compress it in-place.

The length after compression must always be smaller than or equal to the original array.

Every element of the array should be a character (not int) of length 1.

After you are done modifying the input array in-place, return the new length of the array.

Follow up: Could you solve it using only O(1) extra space?

Example 1:

Input:
["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:
"aa" is replaced by "a2". "bb" is replaced by "b2". "ccc" is replaced by "c3".

Example 2:

Input:
["a"]

Output:
Return 1, and the first 1 characters of the input array should be: ["a"]

Explanation:
Nothing is replaced.

Example 3:

Input:
["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:
Since the character "a" does not repeat, it is not compressed. "bbbbbbbbbbbb" is replaced by "b12".
Notice each digit has it's own entry in the array.

Note:

1. All characters have an ASCII value in [35, 126].

2. 1 <= len(chars) <= 1000.

int compress(vector<char>& chars) { // time: O(n); space: O(1)
    int n = chars.size(), cur = 0;
    for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < n; i = j) {
        while (j < n && chars[i] == chars[j]) ++j;
        chars[cur++] = chars[i];
        if (j - i == 1) continue;
        for (char c : to_string(j - i)) chars[cur++] = c;
    }
    return cur;
}