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

apples Alice dogs
oranges Bob cats
cherries Carol moose
banana David goose　

import copy
 
 
def count_width(the_list):
 new_list = copy.deepcopy(the_list)
 col_widths = [0]*len(the_list)
 i = 0
 while i < len(new_list):
  new_list[i].sort(key=lambda x: len(x), reverse=True)
  col_widths[i] = new_list[i][0]
  i = i+1
 return col_widths
def list_ljust(the_list):
 widths = count_width(the_list)
 for j in range(len(the_list[0])):
  for i in range(len(the_list)):
   print(the_list[i][j].ljust(len(widths[i])), end=' ')
  print('\r')
table_data = [['apples', 'oranges', 'cherries', 'banana'],
    ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carol', 'David'],
    ['dogs', 'cats', 'moose', 'goose']]
list_ljust(table_data)　

def count_widths(the_list):
 col_widths = [0]*len(the_list)
 for i in range(len(the_list)):
  for j in range(len(the_list[0])):
   if len(the_list[i][j]) > max_len:
    max_len = len(the_list[i][j])
  col_widths[i] = max_len
 return col_widths
 
 
def list_ljust(the_list):
 widths = count_widths(the_list)
 print(widths)
 for j in range(len(the_list[0])):
  for i in range(len(the_list)):
   print(the_list[i][j].ljust(widths[i]), end=' ')
  print('\r')
 
 
table_data = [['apples', 'oranges', 'cherries', 'banana'],
    ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Carol', 'David'],
    ['dogs', 'cats', 'moose', 'goose']]
list_ljust(table_data)