Problem Statement
Given a non-negative integer num represented as a string, remove k digits from the number so that the new number is the smallest possible.
Note:
- The length of num is less than 105 and will be ≥ k.
- The given num does not contain any leading zero.
Example 1:
Input: num = "1432219", k = 3 Output: "1219" Explanation: Remove the three digits 4, 3, and 2 to form the new number 1219 which is the smallest.
Example 2:
Input: num = "10200", k = 1 Output: "200" Explanation: Remove the leading 1 and the number is 200. Note that the output must not contain leading zeroes.
Example 3:
Input: num = "10", k = 2 Output: "0" Explanation: Remove all the digits from the number and it is left with nothing which is 0.
Solution
class Solution(object):
def removeKdigits(self, num, k):
"""
:type num: str
:type k: int
:rtype: str
"""
from collections import deque
sta = deque()
sta.append(num[0])
index, n = 1, len(num)
cnt = k
while cnt > 0 and index < n:
x = num[index]
if x >= sta[-1]:
if len(sta) < n - k:
sta.append(x)
else:
cnt -= 1
else:
while sta and sta[-1] > x and len(sta) + n - index - 1 >= n - k:
sta.pop()
cnt -= 1
sta.append(x)
index += 1
while index < n:
sta.append(num[index])
index += 1
while cnt > 0:
sta.pop()
cnt -= 1
res = ''.join(list(sta)).lstrip('0')
if not res:
return '0'
return res
Complexity analysis
- Time complexity: O(n+k) . One-pass scan of the input num, with at most k pop operations from the stack.
- Space complexity:
O(k) . At most k elements would be in stack.