import re input = """/a/b/c/d /a/b/cd /a/b/cc /a/b/c/d/e""" def proc(input): line = input.split() prefix = line[0] cnt = 1 while cnt > 0: cnt = 0 prefix = prefix[0:prefix.rindex("/")] for i in range(len(line)): if not re.search("^"+prefix+"\/", line[i]): cnt += 1 return prefix print(proc(input))