completed 1.6

Author: sloloris

chapter-1-arrays-and-strings/1.6-string-compression.py

@@ -1,10 +1,25 @@
-""" 1.6 String Compression: Implement a method to perform basic string compression using hte counts of repeated characters. For example, the string 'aabcccccaaa' would become 'a2b1c5a3'. If the "compressed" string would not become smaller than the original string, your method should return the original string. You can assume the string has only uppercase and lowercase letters (a-z). """
-
-
-
+""" 1.6 String Compression: Implement a method to perform basic string compression using the counts of repeated characters. For example, the string 'aabcccccaaa' would become 'a2b1c5a3'. If the "compressed" string would not become smaller than the original string, your method should return the original string. You can assume the string has only uppercase and lowercase letters (a-z). """
 
+def compress(strng):
+    compressed = ""
+    curr_char = strng[0]
+    curr_count = 1
+    for i in xrange(1, len(strng)):
+        if strng[i] == curr_char:
+            curr_count += 1
+        else:
+            compressed += curr_char
+            compressed += str(curr_count)
+            curr_char = strng[i]
+            curr_count = 1
+    compressed += curr_char 
+    compressed += str(curr_count)
+    return compressed
 
+# runtime is O(n) where n is the length of the string
+# make sure to clarify whether capital and lowercase letters count as the same or different (if same, add .lower() or .upper() method where necessary)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    print "nothing yet"
+    print "TEST compress('aabcccccaaa') -> 'a2b1c5a3'"
+    print compress('aabcccccaaa')