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:
All characters have an ASCII value in [35, 126].
1 <= len(chars) <= 1000.

class Solution {
    public int compress(char[] chars) {
        int n = chars.length;

        if (n == 0) 
            return 0;

        char p = chars[0];
        int cnt = 1;
        int tot = 0;

        for (int i = 1; i < n; ++i) {
            if (chars[i] == p) {
                cnt ++;
            } else {
                if (cnt == 1) {
                    chars[tot++] = p;
                } else {
                    chars[tot++] = p;
                    String num = String.valueOf(cnt);
                    for (int j = 0; j < num.length(); ++j) {
                        chars[tot++] = num.charAt(j);
                    }
                }
                cnt = 1;
            }
            p = chars[i];
        }

        if (cnt == 1) {
            chars[tot++] = p;
        } else {
            chars[tot++] = p;
            String num = String.valueOf(cnt);
            for (int j = 0; j < num.length(); ++j) {
                chars[tot++] = num.charAt(j);
            }
        }

        return tot;
    }
}