Objective

Write a function that squeezes the duplicates out of an already sorted array in place and returns how many distinct values it kept.

Steps

• a points to n integers already sorted in ascending order. Rely on it: two equal values are always neighbours.
• Move the distinct values to the front of a, in the same order, so the caller reads them in a[0] through a[ret - 1].
• Return the number of distinct values.
• Indices from ret up to n - 1 are unspecified. Leave anything you want there, the tests read the prefix [0, ret) and nothing else.
• When n is 0, return 0 and read nothing.
• Work in place: no allocation and no library call.
• The examples show what the tests print: the returned length, then |, then the kept prefix with single spaces between values.

Objective

Write a function that squeezes the duplicates out of an already sorted array in place and returns how many distinct values it kept.

Steps

• a points to n integers already sorted in ascending order. Rely on it: two equal values are always neighbours.
• Move the distinct values to the front of a, in the same order, so the caller reads them in a[0] through a[ret - 1].
• Return the number of distinct values.
• Indices from ret up to n - 1 are unspecified. Leave anything you want there, the tests read the prefix [0, ret) and nothing else.
• When n is 0, return 0 and read nothing.
• Work in place: no allocation and no library call.
• The examples show what the tests print: the returned length, then |, then the kept prefix with single spaces between values.