How do i store the output of the 'count' variable into a list? (python)

Question

As you see that the variable 'count' has an initial value of 0. This get overwritten by the another value when the loop is ran; lets say the new value is '8'. Then as the loop runs again the new value of '8' get overwritten by the newer value; lets say the new value is '5'. This means that value '8' is unrecoverable. I do not want to lose any of the values being created from the loop, but rather store them into list. How do i store the created values into a list?

Here is my code:

def printTable(items):
    for i in  range (len(items[0])):
        print ()
        counter = 0
        for j in range(len(items)):
            if len(items[i][j]) > counter:                count = len(items[i][j])
                itemName = items[i][j]
        print ('the longest string is: ' + itemName + '; and its length is ' + str(counter))            

tableData = [['apples','oranges','cherries','banana'],
             ['Alice','Bob','Carol','David'],
             ['dogs','cats','moose','goose']]

printTable(tableData)

Answer 1

Make a list, and then append the value of count to it every run of the loop.

def printTable(items):
    count_list = []
    for i in  range (len(items[0])):
        print ()
        counter = 0
        for j in range(len(items)):
            if len(items[i][j]) > counter:
            count = len(items[i][j])
            count_list.append(count)
            itemName = items[i][j]
        print ('the longest string is: ' + itemName + '; and its length is ' + str(counter))
    return count_list            

tableData = [['apples','oranges','cherries','banana'],
             ['Alice','Bob','Carol','David'],
             ['dogs','cats','moose','goose']]

printTable(tableData)