from string import ascii_letters DEBUG=False def debug(*args): if DEBUG: print(args) def main(): with open("input3.txt", "r") as file: inlines = [line.strip() for line in file.readlines()] groups = [] total_elves = len(inlines) i,j,k = 0,1,2 while i < total_elves: groups.append([inlines[i], inlines[j], inlines[k]]) i, j, k = i+3, j+3, k+3 values = [] for group in groups: debug(group) first, second, third = [set(elf) for elf in group] debug(first, second, third) debug(first & second & third) common_item = list(first & second & third)[0] values.append(ascii_letters.index(common_item)+1) print(sum(values)) if __name__ == "__main__": main()