with open('puzzle.txt', 'r') as f: lines = f.read().splitlines() column_a = [] column_b = [] for line in lines: new_column_a, new_column_b = line.split(' ') column_a.append(new_column_a.strip()) column_b.append(new_column_b.strip()) column_a.sort() column_b.sort() print(column_a) print(column_b) total_distance = 0 for i in range(len(column_a)): total_distance += abs(int(column_a[i]) - int(column_b[i])) print(total_distance)