# Run Length Encoding

Implement run-length encoding and decoding.

Run-length encoding (RLE) is a simple form of data compression, where runs
(consecutive data elements) are replaced by just one data value and count.

For example we can represent the original 53 characters with only 13.

```text
"WWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWB"  ->  "12WB12W3B24WB"
```

RLE allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from
the compressed data, which makes it a lossless data compression.

```text
"AABCCCDEEEE"  ->  "2AB3CD4E"  ->  "AABCCCDEEEE"
```

For simplicity, you can assume that the unencoded string will only contain
the letters A through Z (either lower or upper case) and whitespace. This way
data to be encoded will never contain any numbers and numbers inside data to
be decoded always represent the count for the following character.

## Exception messages

Sometimes it is necessary to raise an exception. When you do this, you should include a meaningful error message to
indicate what the source of the error is. This makes your code more readable and helps significantly with debugging. Not
every exercise will require you to raise an exception, but for those that do, the tests will only pass if you include
a message.

To raise a message with an exception, just write it as an argument to the exception type. For example, instead of
`raise Exception`, you should write:

```python
raise Exception("Meaningful message indicating the source of the error")
```

## Running the tests

To run the tests, run the appropriate command below ([why they are different](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/1629#issue-161422224)):

- Python 2.7: `py.test run_length_encoding_test.py`
- Python 3.4+: `pytest run_length_encoding_test.py`

Alternatively, you can tell Python to run the pytest module (allowing the same command to be used regardless of Python version):
`python -m pytest run_length_encoding_test.py`

### Common `pytest` options

- `-v` : enable verbose output
- `-x` : stop running tests on first failure
- `--ff` : run failures from previous test before running other test cases

For other options, see `python -m pytest -h`

## Submitting Exercises

Note that, when trying to submit an exercise, make sure the solution is in the `$EXERCISM_WORKSPACE/python/run-length-encoding` directory.

You can find your Exercism workspace by running `exercism debug` and looking for the line that starts with `Workspace`.

For more detailed information about running tests, code style and linting,
please see the [help page](http://exercism.io/languages/python).

## Source

Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding)

## Submitting Incomplete Solutions

It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.