updated final method

StringArrayUtils.java

@@ -181,14 +181,35 @@ public class StringArrayUtils {
      * @return array of Strings with each consecutive duplicate occurrence concatenated as a single string in an array of Strings
      */ // TODO
     public static String[] packConsecutiveDuplicates(String[] array) {
-        String saveMe = "";
-
-        for(int i = 0; i < array.length; i++){
-            saveMe = saveMe +array[i];
+        int counter = getCount(array);
+        String [] answer = new String[array.length - counter];
+        String previous = array[0];
+        answer[0] = array[0];
+        int index = 0;
+        
+        for(int i = 1; i < array.length; i++) {
+        if(array[i].equals(previous)){
+        answer[index] += array[i];
+        }else{
+        index++;
+        answer[index] = array[i];
+        previous = array[i];
         }
-        String[]answer = saveMe.split("(?<=(.))(?!\\1)");
-
+        }
+        
         return answer;
     }
 
+    public static int getCount (String[] array) {
+    
+        int count = 0;
+        for(int i = 0; i < array.length - 1; i++){
+            if(array[i].equals(array[i + 1])){
+                count++;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return count;
+    
+    }
 }