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Given an integer, sort the digits in ascending order and return the new integer.

  • Ignore leading zeros.

Parameters:

  • Input: num {Integer}
  • Output: {Integer}

Constraints:

  • Do not convert the integer into a string or other data type.
  • Time: O(N) where N is the number of digits.
  • Space: O(1)

Examples:

  • 8970 --> 789
  • 32445 --> 23445
  • 10101 --> 111

My code (as follows) works similar to the counting sort:

def sort_digits(n):
    digit_counts = {}
    result = 0

    while n > 0:
        digit = n % 10
        digit_counts[digit] = digit_counts.get(digit, 0) + 1
        n /= 10

    power = 0
    for i in range(10, -1, -1):
        if i in digit_counts:
            while digit_counts[i] >= 1:
                result +=  i * (10 ** (power))
                power += 1
                digit_counts[i] -= 1

    return result
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  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Without qualification, the constraint Do not convert the integer into a string or other data type. doesn't make much sense. For example, in your solution, you indirectly encode n as the dict digit_counts, does that count as conversion? I suspect it means "direct" conversion, but that's still a bit silly; more realistic is just return the value as an int. \$\endgroup\$
    – Graham
    Aug 1, 2018 at 0:09
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Suggest specifying this is Python 2... the implementation breaks in Python 3 because /= is not a floor divide. \$\endgroup\$
    – Logikable
    Aug 1, 2018 at 0:15

2 Answers 2

5
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1) Use collections.Counter

from collections import Counter. Counter is a subclass of dict that helps keep tallies. This way, you don't need .get(digit, 0) or if i in digit_counts, making your code look a bit cleaner.

2) Iterate in increasing order

Right now, you need a power variable to track which position to place the next digit in. If you iterated in the opposite direction (i.e. range(10)), you could do result *= 10 in each loop.

3) Use a for loop instead of while

Whenever you are iterating and incrementing/decrementing, you have the opportunity to use a for loop. In this case, for while digit_counts[i] >= 1 you don't care about the number of iterations, so you can use the _ as a "throwaway variable".

4) Code localization

Move result = 0 down so that it's just above where it starts being used. Code localization improves readability - depending on your source, the human brain can only remember 4-7 things at once. The fewer variables your reader has to track, the better.

Final Result

from collections import Counter

def sort_digits(n):
  digit_counts = Counter()

  while n > 0:
    digit_counts[n % 10] += 1
    n /= 10

  result = 0
  for i in range(10):
    for _ in range(digit_counts[i]):
      result = 10 * result + i

  return result
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  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ To make the integer division clear, it would be better to write n //= 10 even in Python 2 . And that way your proposed solution will work in Python 3 too. \$\endgroup\$
    – janos
    Aug 1, 2018 at 7:00
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Use a simple list to count digits

Instead of a dictionary, you can simply use a list, for example:

digit_counts = [0] * 10

while n > 0:
    digit_counts[n % 10] += 1
    n //= 10

No need for other libraries.

doctests

Doctests are an easy way to verify your solution produces the expected output to different inputs. For example:

def sort_digits(n):
    """
    >>> sort_digits(8970)
    789

    >>> sort_digits(32445)
    23445

    >>> sort_digits(10101)
    111

    """
    # ... the implementation

And then run the script with python -mdoctest script.py.

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