import fileinput with fileinput.input() as lines: rows = [line[:-1] for line in lines] pos = [rows[0].find('S')] s = 0 for row in rows[1:]: newpos = set() for p in pos: if row[p] == '^': s += 1 newpos.add(p-1) newpos.add(p+1) else: newpos.add(p) pos = list(newpos) print(s)