def lcs(a, b):
    # generate matrix of length of longest common subsequence for substrings of both words
    lengths = [[0] * (len(b)+1) for _ in range(len(a)+1)]
    for i, x in enumerate(a):
        for j, y in enumerate(b):
            if x == y:
                lengths[i+1][j+1] = lengths[i][j] + 1
            else:
                lengths[i+1][j+1] = max(lengths[i+1][j], lengths[i][j+1])

    # read a substring from the matrix
    result = ''
    j = len(b)
    for i in range(1, len(a)+1):
        if lengths[i][j] != lengths[i-1][j]:
            result += a[i-1]

    return result