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#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""Python solution for CtCI 6th Edition Problem 1.6

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).

>>> compress_string("aabcccccaaa")

'a2b1c5a3'

>>> compress_string('aaaaaaaa')

'a8'

Following examples would return strings that are shorter than or equal to the

original string and just return the original string.

>>> compress_string("aabbccaa")

'aabbccaa'

>>> compress_string("aabcca")

'aabcca'

>>> compress_string("abcde")

'abcde'

"""

# Loops through the string which is O(n)

def compress_string(string):

char_count = 1

compressed_string = ""

for pos, char in enumerate(string):

if pos + 1 < len(string) and char == string[pos + 1]:

char_count += 1

else:

compressed_chars = char + str(char_count)

compressed_string = compressed_string + compressed_chars

char_count = 1

if len(compressed_string) < len(string):

return compressed_string

else:

return string

if __name__ == "__main__":

input_string = input("Enter string to compress: ")

print(compress_string(input_string))