<p>You are given a license key represented as a string <code>s</code> that consists of only alphanumeric characters and dashes. The string is separated into <code>n + 1</code> groups by <code>n</code> dashes. You are also given an integer <code>k</code>.</p>

<p>We want to reformat the string <code>s</code> such that each group contains exactly <code>k</code> characters, except for the first group, which could be shorter than <code>k</code> but still must contain at least one character. Furthermore, there must be a dash inserted between two groups, and you should convert all lowercase letters to uppercase.</p>

<p>Return <em>the reformatted license key</em>.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;5F3Z-2e-9-w&quot;, k = 4
<strong>Output:</strong> &quot;5F3Z-2E9W&quot;
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The string s has been split into two parts, each part has 4 characters.
Note that the two extra dashes are not needed and can be removed.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;2-5g-3-J&quot;, k = 2
<strong>Output:</strong> &quot;2-5G-3J&quot;
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The string s has been split into three parts, each part has 2 characters except the first part as it could be shorter as mentioned above.
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= s.length &lt;= 10<sup>5</sup></code></li>
	<li><code>s</code> consists of English letters, digits, and dashes <code>&#39;-&#39;</code>.</li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= k &lt;= 10<sup>4</sup></code></li>
</ul>

class Solution:
    def licenseKeyFormatting(self, s: str, k: int) -> str:
        # ori_len = len(s)
        # t = s.replace('-','')
        # new_len = len(t)
        # nchunk=new_len//k
        # rem_len=new_len%k

        # if nchunk==0:
        #     return s.upper()
        
        # s = list(s)
        # if rem_len>0:
        #     s[:rem_len]=t[:rem_len]
        #     s[rem_len]='-'
        #     s_pointer=rem_len+1
        # else:
        #     s_pointer=0

        # for i in range(nchunk):
        #     s[s_pointer:s_pointer+k] = t[rem_len+i*k:rem_len+(i+1)*k]
        #     if i==nchunk-1:
        #         break
        #     s[s_pointer+k]='-'
        #     s_pointer+=k+1
        
        # if rem_len>0:
        #     return ''.join(s).upper()[:rem_len+nchunk*(k+1)]
        # else:
        #     return ''.join(s).upper()[:nchunk*(k+1)-1]

        t = s.replace('-','')
        new_len = len(t)
        if new_len==0:
            return ""
        nchunk=new_len//k
        rem_len=new_len%k

        if nchunk==0:
            return s.upper()
        
        s = list(s)
        new_s = []
        if rem_len>0:
            new_s.append(t[:rem_len])
            new_s.append('-')
            # s_pointer=rem_len+1
        else:
            # s_pointer=0
            pass

        for i in range(nchunk):
            # print(s_pointer)
            new_s.append(t[rem_len+i*k:rem_len+(i+1)*k])
            if i==nchunk-1:
                break
            new_s.append('-')
            # s_pointer+=k+1
        
        if rem_len>0:
            return ''.join(new_s).upper()[:rem_len+nchunk*(k+1)]
        else:
            return ''.join(new_s).upper()[:nchunk*(k+1)-1]
17800