hangman with strings and list methods

[ilikepython]

Hi I'm new to Python(3 to 4 days) and I'm working on a hangman game and have been having some problems that really annoy me.
Here is part of my script:

c = input('Would you like to play hangman? Type y or n ')
        
        
        word = sample(('soccer', 'robbery', 'antibiotics'), 1)
        word = str(word)    
        spaces = len(word) - 4
        def hangman():
            print '-------- '
            print '|______| '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print '---- '
            print '|___| '
        def hangman1():
            hangman()
            m = '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
            print m 
            number = word.find(letter)
            m.split()
            m.replace('_', letter)

Problems
1. I can't get python to replace the "blank" with the letter that my user chose.
I've tried a lot of things and I'm really getting frustrated.

2. When I'm running the program I always have to input something in quotes or it will give me some NameError or something. I've tried:
x = str('x')
and x = 'x' in a number of ways and it's not working. Please help

I'm runnning Python 2.5 on Windows Xp

Note: If you see the '-4' that's another little problem: when the spaces for the word appear it prints 4 more than the chosen word so I put '- 4'(not the best idea) if you can tell me how to fix that, that would be great.


Thanks

[bartonc]

Hi I'm new to Python(3 to 4 days) and I'm working on a hangman game and have been having some problems that really annoy me.
Here is part of my script:

c = input('Would you like to play hangman? Type y or n ')
        
        
        word = sample(('soccer', 'robbery', 'antibiotics'), 1)
        word = str(word)    
        spaces = len(word) - 4
        def hangman():
            print '-------- '
            print '|______| '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print '---- '
            print '|___| '
        def hangman1():
            hangman()
            m = '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
            print m 
            number = word.find(letter)
            m.split()
            m.replace('_', letter)

Problems
1. I can't get python to replace the "blank" with the letter that my user chose.
I've tried a lot of things and I'm really getting frustrated.

2. When I'm running the program I always have to input something in quotes or it will give me some NameError or something. I've tried:
x = str('x')
and x = 'x' in a number of ways and it's not working. Please help

I'm runnning Python 2.5 on Windows Xp

Note: If you see the '-4' that's another little problem: when the spaces for the word appear it prints 4 more than the chosen word so I put '- 4'(not the best idea) if you can tell me how to fix that, that would be great.


Thanks

Hello and welcome to the Python Forum on TSDN! Something weird happend when you pasted you code here, but we'll work on that as we go along.
#2 for strings, use

inputStr = raw_input("enter a string")

.
I'll look at the rest in a bit.

[bartonc]

Hello and welcome to the Python Forum on TSDN! Something weird happend when you pasted you code here, but we'll work on that as we go along.
#2 for strings, use

inputStr = raw_input("enter a string")

.
I'll look at the rest in a bit.

Go ahead and post the entire code here. That will make things easier for everybody. Please read the "POSTING GUIDELINES" on the right hand side of the page to learn how to use code tags (the # simbol in this editor window). You can edit your post for 5 minutes to try to get it right. I can fix it if you are having trouble, so don't worry about that too much right now.

[ilikepython]

Go ahead and post the entire code here. That will make things easier for everybody. Please read the "POSTING GUIDELINES" on the right hand side of the page to learn how to use code tags (the # simbol in this editor window). You can edit your post for 5 minutes to try to get it right. I can fix it if you are having trouble, so don't worry about that too much right now.

Ok

import time
from time import sleep
import random
from random import sample

   
search = True
while search:
    try:
    
        
        search = False
        c = input('Would you like to play hangman? Type y or n ')
        
        
        word = sample(('soccer', 'robbery', 'antibiotics'), 1)
        word = str(word)    
        spaces = len(word) - 4
        def hangman():
            print '-------- '
            print '|______| '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print ' O '
            print '---- '
            print '|___| '
        def hangman1():
            hangman()
            m = '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
            print m 
            number = word.find(letter)
            m.split()
            m.replace('_', letter)            
    
                
    
    except:
        c = str('c') 
    else:
        pass
        

        if c == 'y':
            search = False        
            sleep(2)
            print "Alright, let's play "
            hangman()
 
            print  '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
            
        else:
            if c == 'n' :
                print 'Ok, Buh Bye then'
                sleep(2)
                exit()
            else:
                c = str(c)
search = True
alphabet = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']
while search:
    letter = input("Pick a letter. A letter that is missing has already been used")
    
    print alphabet
    if letter in word: 
        print 'There was a %s in the word' % (letter)
        num = alphabet.index(letter)
        del alphabet[num]
        print alphabet
        hangman1()
                
    else:
        if letter not in word:
            print 'There was no %s in the word' % (letter)

[bartonc]

I didn't run this, nor did I work on hangman1() except to give you an idea for structure. This should give you something to go on. You have used many features of the language very well. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas of good structure.

# no need to import the whole module if all you want is one function
from time import sleep
from random import sample
from string import lowercase as letters # string module has useful constants in it.


wordTuple = ('soccer', 'robbery', 'antibiotics')
maxGuesses = 5

def hangman():
    print '-------- '
    print '|______| '
    print ' O '
    print ' O '
    print ' O '
    print ' O '
    print ' O '
    print '---- '
    print '|___| '


def hangman1(w, m, c):
    hangman()
##    m = '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
    print w, m, c
##    number = word.find(letter)
##    m.split()
##    m.replace('_', letter)    


while True:
    charCount = 0
    alphabet = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm',
                'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']

    answer = raw_input('Would you like to play hangman? Type y or n ')
    if answer[0].lower() == 'n':
        break

    word = sample(wordTuple, 1)[0]  # extract the word from sample()'s list
    nSpaces = len(word)
    blanks = '_' * nSpaces

    print "Alright, let's play "
    sleep(2)
    while charCount < maxGuesses:
        hangman()
        print alphabet
        letter = ""
        while letter not in letters:
            letter = raw_input("Pick a letter. A letter that is missing has already been used").lower()
    
        if letter in word: 
            print 'There was a \"%s\" in the word' % letter
            blanks = hangman1(word, blanks, letter)
    
    ##        num = alphabet.index(letter) a list can do both at once
    ##        del alphabet[num]
            try:
                alphabet.remove(letter)
            except IndexError:
                pass
        else:
            print 'There was no \"%s\" in the word' % letter
        charCount += 1

print 'Ok, Buh Bye then'
sleep(2)
# exit() In python, just run off the end of the module

[ilikepython]

Thank you very much.
I appreciate your help.
I will see how it goes and post the finished script.

Thanks

[bartonc]

Thank you very much.
I appreciate your help.
I will see how it goes and post the finished script.

Thanks

You are welcome. We'll help you get that hangman1() fuction working if you get stuck.

I forgot something:

def hangman1(w, m, c):
    hangman()
##    m = '%s' % ('_ ' * spaces)
    print w, m, c
##    number = word.find(letter)
##    m.split()
##    m.replace('_', letter)
    return m  # send the result back to caller

[ilikepython]

One quick question.
If I have a while loop and a try\except block, can I return back to the beginning of the while loop if let's say an error occured.
For example:

while True:
    letter = inputStr = raw_input("Pick a letter")
    if letter in word:
        try:
            alphabet.remove(letter)
        except ValueError:
            print ' You already used this letter'

can I return to the input after the ValueError even if there is more to the while loop after the try\except block??

[bvdet]

I hope you don't mind, but I have some suggestions.
Instead of removing letters from an alphabet list after each guess:

    guess_list = []
....................
        guess_list.append(letter)
        guess_list.sort()
        print 'So far you have guessed the following letters: %s' % (','.join(guess_list))

How about displaying a hint string? Initialize it:

    hint_string = '_' * len(word)

Update the hint string:

def get_index(s, item, i=0):
    i_list = []
    while True:
        try:
            i = s.index(item, i)
            i_list.append(i)
            i += 1
        except:
            break
    return i_list

def hangman1(hint_str, letter, pos_list):
    ......................
    for i in pos_list:
        lst = [hint_str[:i], ]
        if len(hint_str) >= i+1:
            lst.append(hint_str[(i+1):])
        hint_str = letter.join(lst)
    print 'Hint: %s' % (hint_str)
    ........................
    return hint_str

If the user guesses the same letter twice, tell him about it:

            if letter in hint_string:
                print "You have already guessed letter '%s' dodo!" % (letter)
                hint_string = hangman1(hint_string, letter, [])

Give the user a way out:

        letter = raw_input("Enter a letter or '?' if you are ready to solve the word.")
        if letter == '?':
            hint_string = raw_input("Give it your best shot!")
            if hint_string == word:
                print "Congratulations! You have solved the word!"
                break
            else:
                print "You have failed miserably!"
                break

Here's some output:

>>> Alright, let's play 
--------
|______|
 O 
 O 
 O 
 O 
 O 
----
|___|
Hint: ______
So far you have guessed the following letters: c
There were 2 occurrences of c in the word.
--------
|______|
 O 
 O 
 O 
 O 
 O 
----
|___|
Hint: __cc__
You entered the word 'soccer'
Congratulations! You have solved the word!
>>>

[bartonc]

One quick question.
If I have a while loop and a try\except block, can I return back to the beginning of the while loop if let's say an error occured.
For example:

while True:
    letter = inputStr = raw_input("Pick a letter")
    if letter in word:
        try:
            alphabet.remove(letter)
        except ValueError:
            print ' You already used this letter'

can I return to the input after the ValueError even if there is more to the while loop after the try\except block??

Yes. That's exactly what the t/e block does. It keeps program flow going the way that you would expect (want) instead of jumping out due to errors.

while True:
    # do stuff
    if condition # this should include except clause
        continue    # break's other half

I've never tried it, but I'll bet that you have by now.

[bartonc]

I hope you don't mind, but I have some suggestions.
Instead of removing letters from an alphabet list after each guess:

Jump in any time, B. I really appreciate your input. Great suggestions here, again! Thanks.

[ilikepython]

Thanks all for your suggestions.
I will post back here when i finish the game.

[bartonc]

Thanks all for your suggestions.
I will post back here when i finish the game.

It's a fun language, isn't it? Easy too, I think.

[ilikepython]

I hope you don't mind, but I have some suggestions.

Update the hint string:

def get_index(s, item, i=0):
    i_list = []
    while True:
        try:
            i = s.index(item, i)
            i_list.append(i)
            i += 1
        except:
            break
    return i_list

def hangman1(hint_str, letter, pos_list):
    ......................
    for i in pos_list:
        lst = [hint_str[:i], ]
        if len(hint_str) >= i+1:
            lst.append(hint_str[(i+1):])
        hint_str = letter.join(lst)
    print 'Hint: %s' % (hint_str)
    ........................
    return hint_str

Could you please explain to me the get_index() and hangman1() functions.
I don't really understand what get_index is supposed to do.
Also, in hangman1() what's the "pos_list" supposed to be.
Sorry for my ignorence but I don't really get it.
Thanks for your suggestions.

[bvdet]

Could you please explain to me the get_index() and hangman1() functions.
I don't really understand what get_index is supposed to do.
Also, in hangman1() what's the "pos_list" supposed to be.
Sorry for my ignorence but I don't really get it.
Thanks for your suggestions.

Function 'get_index' returns a list of indices (positions) in the text string (word) that matches 'letter'. The function call 'get_index('soc cer', 'c')' returns '[2, 3]' so I know there are 2 occurrances of 'c' in 'soccer' and I know the positions.

    for i in pos_list:
        lst = [hint_str[:i], ]
        if len(hint_str) >= i+1:
            lst.append(hint_str[(i+1):])
        hint_str = letter.join(lst)
    print 'Hint: %s' % (hint_str)
    return hint_str

Variable 'pos_list' (position list), obtained from function get_index(), is passed to hangman1(). We iterate on 'pos_list' to replace the '_' in hint_string with 'letter' in the correct position for each occurrance of 'letter' in 'word'. If we pass an empty list to hangman1(), no iteration takes place. We want to pass an empty list to hangman1() if:
1. The player guessed 'letter' previously.
2. 'letter' does not occur in 'word.
If you have more questions, please ask. HTH