Need help coding?

[ccgrl451]

Okay, just to let you know, I am a certified noob, so I'm not really sure what to do. Here's what I"m supposed to do. Write a function three_heads that stimulates flipping a coin repeatedly printing what is seen (H for heads, T for tails). When 3 heads are flipped in a row, a message is printed. Here is a sample output:

T
H
T
H
H
H
Three Heads in a row!


This isn't homework, but a review question that we didn't go over in class. Just want to satisfy my curious mind. Any possible answers? Thanks.

I'm thinking that it should be like:

# random chooses Heads or tails
from random import*
 
def three_heads():
while(True):
     possiblity=ranint(1,2)
     if (possibilty==1):
            print ("H")
     elif (possibility==2):
            print ("T")

But now I'm stuck. Any ideas? Not asking for solution, just help/hints.

[nicstel]

A lot of solutions is possible to do what you want to do. Try this one and tell me if you understand the function that I have built.

import random
import string

first_time = ""
second_time = ""
third_time = ""

def head_or_tails():
    A = random.choice(["Head", "Tails"])
    return A

for B in range(100):
    C = head_or_tails()
    print C
    if C == first_time:
        second_time = C
        if C == second_time:
            third_time = C
            if C == third_time:
                first_time = ""
                second_time = ""
                third_time = ""
                print "Three " + str(C) + " in a row!"
    first_time = C

[ccgrl451]

Well, I understand some of it, but could you explain each line. More specifically, line 3(why do you need to import string?),line 11 (what does "return A do?), and the whole for loop. Thanks!

[nicstel]

ccgrl451,

line 3: In this case is not necessary to import string. I use it often. But if you want to remove import string you need to fix line 24. Replace str(C) by C.

line 11: When you want to extract information from a function you need to do a return of the answer. A = Head or Tails.

loop: I have create three variables. first_time, second_time and third_time. When these variables are identical, it's mean that you have three Head or Tails in row.

You have a lot of possibilities. I have simplify the code.

import random

first_time = ""
second_time = ""
third_time = ""

for B in range(10):
    C = random.choice(["Head", "Tails"])
    print C
    if C == first_time:
        second_time = C
        if C == second_time:
            third_time = C
            if C == third_time:
                first_time = ""
                second_time = ""
                third_time = ""
                print C
                print "Three " + C + " in a row!"
    first_time = C

[bvdet]

Following is another possibility:

import random

tosses = 'XXX'
dd = {"H": "Heads", "T": "Tails"}
while True:
    toss = random.choice(["H", "T"])
    tosses += toss
    tosses = tosses[1:]
    print toss
    if tosses in ["HHH", 'TTT']:
        print 'Three %s in a row!' % (dd[tosses[0]])
        break

[Glenton]

Hey. You were really close actually. You had the random generator going.

All you needed was to keep track of the throws over time and then break out of the loop when you had success.

So add a tosses="" above your while loop.
Add a tosses+="H" above or below print("H") and similarly for "T"
Add a if "TTT" in tosses: break

And you're done!