Align One Common Letter in Multiple Strings Using One Line of Python Code

A guide on aligning one common letter in multiple strings using one line of Python code.

Let’s say we are given 1) a list of strings strings and 2) a letter letter. Write a one-liner function align(strings, letter) to print out the strings line by line, aligning letter vertically.

• If letter is not inside a string, don’t print it
• If there are more than 1 letter, use the first one

# Case 1
strings = ["apple", "orange", "pear", "pineapple", ]
letter = "a"
# the output:
    apple
  orange
  pear
pineapple
   banana

Notice that the letter "a" is aligned vertically in all the strings, and spaces are padded in front of some of the strings in order to align the "a".

# Case 2
strings = ["apple", "orange", "pear", "pineapple", "banana"]
letter = "e"
# the output:
 apple
orange
    pear
  pineapple

Here, e doesn’t appear in "banana" so "banana" is simply not printed. The e's in other strings are aligned vertically. Also, there are 2 e's in pineapple, but we align only the first e.