Loops and checking for string starts

[Indigestion]

I've started with Python recently, reading a book.
Unfortunately, I've come through an error I do now know how to resolve.

If you could please help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

from random import randrange

#Simulates a fight

monsters = [
    'Goblin',
    'Orc',
    'Human',
    'Soldier',
    'Fighter',
    'Night Elf'
    ]

rnd = randrange(0, 5)
x = monsters[rnd]

i = 0
while i <= range(len(monsters)):
    [B]if monsters[i].startswith('a' | 'e' | 'i' | 'u' | 'o'):[/B]
       an = 'an '
       i += 1
    else:
       an = 'a '
       i += 1

print "You are fighting " + an + x

That is the code, that will (in the future) simulate a fight. At the moment, what I am trying to do is check if the monster starts with a vowel so that instead of "a Orc" it says "an Orc", which is correct.

I have tried with these ( | ) signs and with the or keyword, but none of them worked.

[infixum]

Loops and checking for string starts

In Python 2.5 and above, you can use a tuple as an argument to startswith:

>>> a = 'hello'
>>> a.startswith((' hel', 'he', 'no'))
True
>>>

Hope this helps.

Carl T.

[Indigestion]

In fact, your answer did help me (however it had nothing to do with my question), because your arguments reminded me somehow of a list, and remembered the possibility of turning a word into a list.

Then, it was easy to check for this list's first letter, and see if it was a vowel or not.

For anyone interested, this is the final code:

from random import randrange

#Simulates a fight

monsters = [
    "Goblin",
    "Orc",
    "Human",
    "Soldier",
    "Fighter",
    "Night Elf"
    ]

rnd = randrange(0, 5)
x = monsters[rnd]
xList = list(x)

an = 'a '
if xList[0] == 'a' or 'e' or 'i' or 'o' or 'u': an = 'an '

print "You are fighting " + an + x

[bvdet]

Using the "in" operator would be appropriate in your case.

for monster in monsters: 
    print "You are fighting %s %s" % \
          (["a", "an"][monster[0].lower() in \
                       ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'] or 0], monster)

Output:

>>> You are fighting a Goblin
You are fighting an Orc
You are fighting a Human
You are fighting a Soldier
You are fighting a Fighter
You are fighting a Night Elf
>>>