with open("day5\input.txt") as f: data = f.readlines() ''' [J] [F] [M] [Z] [F] [G] [Q] [F] [G] [P] [H] [Z] [S] [Q] [V] [W] [Z] [P] [D] [G] [P] [T] [D] [S] [Z] [N] [W] [B] [N] [D] [M] [R] [J] [J] [P] [V] [P] [J] [B] [R] [C] [T] [C] [V] [C] [B] [P] [N] [S] [V] [R] [T] [N] [G] [Z] [W] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 move 2 from 4 to 6 Move amount from target to destination, In one go, (pop(amount),append) Give [-1] of each stack at the end. ''' #Create lists cargo_processed = False cargo_hold = [] for line in data: if line == "\n": continue if not len(cargo_hold): for cargo_spot in line[1:-2:4]: cargo_hold.append([]) if not cargo_processed: for position,char in enumerate(line[1:-2:4]): if char == '1': #Done parsing. switch to stacking for stack in cargo_hold: stack.reverse() print(cargo_hold) cargo_processed = True break if char == ' ': continue cargo_hold[position].append(char) else: #Start reading instructions # Example move 2 from 4 to 6 move_command = [int(s) for s in line.split() if s.isdigit()] reverselist = [cargo_hold[move_command[1]-1].pop() for idx in range(move_command[0])] reverselist.reverse() cargo_hold[move_command[2]-1] = cargo_hold[move_command[2]-1] + reverselist for cargo in cargo_hold: print(cargo[-1]) #VRQWPDSGP