LeetCode Blog for course "Algorithms" -- Problem 6

Problem 6. Zigzag Conversion

Write the code that will take a string and make this conversion given a number of rows.

My solution in Python:

class Solution(object):
    def convert(self, s, numRows):
        """
        :type s: str
        :type numRows: int
        :rtype: str
        """
        if numRows==1: return s
        tmp=['' for i in range(numRows)]
        index=-1; step=1
        for i in range(len(s)):
            index+=step
            if index==numRows:
                index-=2; step=-1
            elif index==-1:
                index=1; step=1
            tmp[index]+=s[i]
        return ''.join(tmp)

Review:

This problem asks us to convert a given string to a zigzag form, giving the number of rows the zigzag shape should contain of. It does not require the exact shape to be drawn, only the result string combining the rows of the zigzag is required. Thus, this problem is basically asks for a new arrangement of the original string.
First we construct a certain number of strings, the number of strings equals to the number of rows in the zigzag. Then for each character in the original string, we decide which of the substrings should it goes to (be appended to). The decision is made using the following procedure.
First we put the first character in the original string in the first substring. Then for each following letter, we put it in the next substring (the next row in the zigzag). This is achieved by setting the “step” variable (increment) to 1.
When the last row of the zigzag is reached, after putting the corresponding letter in that row, we alter the value of “step” to -1. Thus in each following iteration, rather than going down, we going up along the zigzag, putting the next letter one row above the previous one. “Step” is again set to 1 when the first row of the zigzag is reached.
The algorithm ends when the last letter in the original string is processed this way.