This is how I did it, not sure if it's the best answer but the most upvoted answer doesn't work properly:
tableData = [['apples', 'oranges', 'cherries', 'banana'],
['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carol', 'David'],
['dogs', 'cats', 'moose', 'goose']]
def printTable(table):
colWidths = [0] * len(table)
for i in range(len(table)): #for each list
for j in range(len(table[i])): #for each word in the list
if(len(table[i][j]) > colWidths[i]): #if longest word
colWidths[i] = len(table[i][j]) #store new max len
for n in range(len(table[0])): # for len of each list (same size in spec)
# print each column
print(table[0][n].rjust(colWidths[0]),
table[1][n].rjust(colWidths[1]),
table[2][n].rjust(colWidths[2]))
printTable(tableData)
Below is the code I used to find the longest string in the table and to print the table
tableData = [['apples', 'orange', 'cherries', 'banana'],
['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carol', 'David'],
['dogs', 'cats', 'moose', 'goose']]
def printTable(table):
strName = ''
maxLen = -1
# Find longest string in table
for y in range(len(table[0])):
for x in range(len(table)):
strName = table[x][y]
if len(strName) > maxLen:
maxLen = len(strName) + 1
# Print table
for y in range(len(table[0])):
newTable = ''
for x in range(len(table)):
newTable = newTable + (table[x][y].ljust(maxLen))
print(newTable)
printTable(tableData) # Call function
