Write a method named nCopies
that accepts an array of integers a as a parameter and returns a new array a2, with each element value n from a replaced by n consecutive copies of the value n at the same relative location in the array.
For example, if an array named a
stores the following element values:
{3, 5, 0, 2, 2, -7, 0, 4}
Then the call of int[] a2 = nCopies(a);
should return a new array a2
containing the following elements.
The idea is that the value 3 was replaced by three 3s; the 5 was replaced by five 5s; and so on.
{3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4}
Any element whose value is 0 or negative should not be kept in the returned array (as with 0 and -7 above).
The array you return must have a length that is exactly long enough to fit its elements.
For example, the result array a2
above contains 3 + 5 + 2 + 2 + 4 = 16 total elements, so the returned array's length must be exactly 16 in that case.
Constraints:
In solving this problem, you must create a single new array to be returned, but aside from that, do not create any other data structures such as temporary arrays or strings.
You may use as many simple variables (such as int
s) as you like.