6. ZigZag Conversion

The string "PAYPALISHIRING" is written in a zigzag pattern on a given number of rows like this: (you may want to display this pattern in a fixed font for better legibility)

P   A   H   N
A P L S I I G
Y   I   R

And then read line by line:  "PAHNAPLSIIGYIR"

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

string convert(string text, int nRows);

convert("PAYPALISHIRING", 3)  should return  "PAHNAPLSIIGYIR" .

先做两头，中间部分需要2个步长交替

class Solution:
    def convert(self, s, numRows):
        """
        :type s: str
        :type numRows: int
        :rtype: str
        """
        if numRows == 1:  return s
        ret = ''
        n = len(s)
        
        # first row
        for i in range(0, n, (numRows-1)*2): ret += s[i]
        
        # several middle rows, alternate two intervals
        dist = (numRows-1)*2  # two alternate intervals is a constant
        for r in range(1, numRows-1):
            j = r
            d = dist - (numRows-1-r)*2  # start dist part 1 (past)
            while j<n:
                ret += s[j]
                d = dist - d   # alternate dist
                j += d
            
        # last row
        for i in range(numRows-1, n, (numRows-1)*2): ret += s[i]
        
        return ret
    
s=Solution()
print(s.convert('ABCD', 2))
print(s.convert('ABC', 2))
print(s.convert('A', 1))
print(s.convert('AB', 1))
print(s.convert('PAYPALISHIRING', 3))  
print(s.convert('PAYPALISHIRING', 4))