leetcode:402. Remove K Digits

Remove K Digits
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 10002 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.

class Solution:
    def removeKdigits(self, num, k):
        """
        :type num: str
        :type k: int
        :rtype: str
        """
        if not num or k == 0:
            return num
        if len(num) == k:
            return "0"
        stk = []
        stk.append(num[0])
        for n in num[1:]:
            while stk and int(n) < int(stk[-1]) and k > 0:
                stk.pop()
                k -= 1
            stk.append(n)

        i = 0
        while i < len(stk) and stk[i] == "0":
            i += 1
        if k == 0:
            stk = stk[i:]
        else:
            stk = stk[i:-k]

        if stk:
            return ''.join(stk)
        else:
            return "0"