1768. Merge Strings Alternately

You are given two strings word1 and word2. Merge the strings by adding letters in alternating order, starting with word1. If a string is longer than the other, append the additional letters onto the end of the merged string.

Return the merged string.

Example 1:

Input: word1 = “abc”, word2 = “pqr” Output: “apbqcr” Explanation: The merged string will be merged as so: word1: a b c word2: p q r merged: a p b q c r

Example 2:

Input: word1 = “ab”, word2 = “pqrs” Output: “apbqrs” Explanation: Notice that as word2 is longer, “rs” is appended to the end. word1: a b word2: p q r s merged: a p b q r s

Example 3:

Input: word1 = “abcd”, word2 = “pq” Output: “apbqcd” Explanation: Notice that as word1 is longer, “cd” is appended to the end. word1: a b c d word2: p q merged: a p b q c d

Constraints:

1 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 100 word1 and word2 consist of lowercase English letters.

class Solution:
def mergeAlternately(self, word1: str, word2: str) -> str:

    i,j= 0,0
    result=[]

    while i < len(word1) and j < len(word2):

        result.append(word1[i])
        result.append(word2[j])
        
        i+=1
        j+=1

    result.append(word1[i:])
    result.append(word2[j:])

    return "".join(result)