Может быть, посмотрите на функцию почтового индекса для частей проблемы:
>>> execfile('so_ques.py')
[[' '], [' '], ['bananas bunches'], [' '], [' cars'], [' cars'], [' cars'], [' '], [' trucks'], [' trucks'], [' trucks'], [' '], ['trains freight'], [' '], ['planes cargo'], [' '], [' all other'], [' '], [' ']]
>>> zip(long_header, short_header)
[('', ''), ('', ''), ('bananas', 'bunches'), ('', ''), ('', 'cars'), ('', ''), ('', 'trucks'), ('', ''), ('', 'freight'), ('', ''), ('', 'cargo'), ('', ''), ('trains', 'all other'), ('', ''), ('planes', '')]
>>>
enumerate
может помочь избежать некоторых сложных индексаций со счетчиками:
>>> diff_list = []
>>> for place, header in enumerate(short_header):
diff_list.append(abs(span_short[place] - span_long[place]))
>>> for place, num in enumerate(diff_list):
if num:
new_shortlist.extend(short_header[place] for item in range(num+1))
else:
new_shortlist.append(short_header[place])
>>> new_shortlist
['', '', 'bunches', '', 'cars', 'cars', 'cars', '', 'trucks', 'trucks', 'trucks', '',...
>>> z = zip(new_shortlist, long_header)
>>> z
[('', ''), ('', ''), ('bunches', 'bananas'), ('', ''), ('cars', ''), ('cars', ''), ('cars', '')...
Также более питонное наименование может добавить ясности:
for each in range(len(short_header)):
sum_span_long += span_long[long_header_count]
sum_span_short += span_short[each]
span_diff = sum_span_short - sum_span_long
if not span_diff:
combined_header.append...