zigzag conversation

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 s, int numRows);

Example 1:

Input: s = "PAYPALISHIRING", numRows = 3
Output: "PAHNAPLSIIGYIR"

Example 2:

Input: s = "PAYPALISHIRING", numRows = 4
Output: "PINALSIGYAHRPI"
Explanation:

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

设置一个字符串数组，然后其实就是设置边界条件，然后根据所处的位置决定向前还是向后。

class Solution(object):
    def convert(self, s, numRows):
        """
        :type s: str
        :type numRows: int
        :rtype: str
        """
        if numRows == 1 or numRows >= len(s):
            return s

        L = [''] * numRows
        index, step = 0, 1

        for x in s:
            L[index] += x
            if index == 0:
                step = 1
            elif index == numRows -1:
                step = -1
            index += step

        return ''.join(L)