Run length encoding in C++ - c++

Question

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
string compression(const string & str){
int i = str.size();
string letters;
letters[0] = str[0];
for (int j = 0; j < i; ++j){
int count = 1;
while (str[j] == str[j+1]){
count++;
j++;
}
letters.push_back('0' + count);
letters.push_back(str[j]);
}
return letters;
}
int main(){
string input;
char c;
try {
cout << "Enter the data to be compressesed: "<< endl;
cin >> input;
for (int z = 0; z < input.length(); ++z){
c = input.at(z);
}
if (!(c >= 'a' && c <= 'z')){
throw runtime_error("error: invalid input");
}
}
catch (runtime_error& excpt){
cout << excpt.what() <<endl;
return 0;
}
cout << "The compressed data is " << compression(input) << endl;
return 0;
}
The expected output is , repeated for each run of characters. Here is the amount of times is repeated in sequence.
Some examples:
aaeeeeae = 2a4e1a1e
rr44errre = invalid input
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee = 21e
the code works properly only if the character is repeated consecutively 9 times or less. for values of 10 and more the input is other symbols.
For example it stays blank for 10, so if input is 'aaaaaaaaaabb',output just would be 'a2b' instead of '10a2b'. For 11 its outputs ';',
so if input is 'aaaaaaaaaaabb', output is ';a2b' for some reason.
So my question is, how do i make the pushback work for all numbers and not just from 0-9?
Thank you for your time if u've gotten to here. ^^

Answer 1

If you can use c++11 or newer your function compression could look like:
string compression(const string & str){
int i = str.size();
string letters;
for (int j = 0; j < i; ++j){
int count = 1;
while (str[j] == str[j+1]){
count++;
j++;
}
letters += std::to_string(count);
letters.push_back(str[j]);
}
return letters;
}