402. 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.

public class Solution {
    public String removeKdigits(String num, int k) {
        int len = num.length() - k;
        char[] chars = new char[num.length()];
        int idx = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < num.length(); i++) {
            char c = num.charAt(i);
            while (idx > 0 && c < chars[idx-1] && k > 0) {
                idx--;
                k--;
            }
            chars[idx++] = c;
        }
        int index = 0;
        while(index < len && chars[index] == '0') index++;
        return index == len ? "0" : new String(chars, index, len-index);
    }
}