LeetCode #402: Remove K Digits

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.