Please help coding

[nilamo]

This is super ugly, but might help move you in the right direction:

>>> nums = list(map(str, range(1, 10)))
>>> last = None
>>> for row in range(len(nums) + 1):
...   if row > len(nums)/2:
...     row = len(nums) - row
...   if row == last:
...     continue
...   last = row
...   print("." * row, end="")
...   if row:
...     cutoff = row * 2
...     print("".join(nums[:-1 * cutoff]))
...   else:
...     print("".join(nums))
...
123456789
.1234567
..12345
...123
....1
...123
..12345
.1234567
123456789