Leetcode 179. Largest Number

Problem

Given a list of non-negative integers nums, arrange them such that they form the largest number and return it.

Since the result may be very large, so you need to return a string instead of an integer.

Algorithm

Sort. Define the compare function.
Notice: Remove the leading zores, such as “00”

Code

class Solution:
    def largestNumber(self, nums: List[int]) -> str:
        def cmp(x, y):
            if int(x+y) < int(y+x):
                return 1
            elif int(x+y) > int(y+x):
                return -1
            else:
                return 0
        
        nlen = len(nums)
        s = []
        for i in range(nlen):
            s.append(str(nums[i]))
        s = sorted(s, key=functools.cmp_to_key(cmp))
        
        ans = ""
        for i in range(nlen):
            ans = ans + s[i]
        while len(ans) > 1 and ans[0] == '0':
            ans = ans[1:]
        
        return ans