Hangman code

Making a hangman code (I'm a n00b, still in the tutorial stage)

Anyway, here's my (top-secret) code:

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1. def guess():
2.     choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
3.     if len(choice)>1:
4.         print "Don't cheat!"
5.         guess()
6.     elif guess in y:
7.         b[z.find(choice)]=choice
8.         print "Good Choice!"
9.         print ''.join(b)
10.         guess()
11.  
12. def main():
13.     x=raw_input("Type a name")
14.     y=x.lower().split(' ')
15.     z=''.join(y)
16.     print z
17.     b=['_ ']*len(z)
18.     print ''.join(b)
19.     guess()
20.  
21. if __name__=='__main__':
22.     main()
23.  

Anyways, I get down to line 6 and it tells me that global name z is not defined. I'm guessing I have to put the z thing in there, but I don't know how.

What should I do?
P.S. the code is still in development. That is why it is not finished.

Hi St33med. Most code we see here is "still in development"; we're here to help you get it working. So, welcome to the Python help forum on TSDN!

This is an issue of "scope". The scope rules say that variables assigned in a function are "local" to that function. I quick way to make this work is (but maybe not the best):
I'm in a rush at this second, but I'll have some time in just a bit...
Thanks for joining.

Hi St33med. Most code we see here is "still in development"; we're here to help you get it working. So, welcome to the Python help forum on TSDN!

This is an issue of "scope". The scope rules say that variables assigned in a function are "local" to that function. I quick way to make this work is (but maybe not the best):

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1. def guess():
2.     choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
3.     if len(choice)>1:
4.         print "Don't cheat!"
5.         guess()
6.     elif guess in y:
7.         b[z.find(choice)]=choice
8.         print "Good Choice!"
9.         print ''.join(b)
10.         guess()
11.  
12. if __name__=='__main__':
13.     x=raw_input("Type a name")
14.     y=x.lower().split(' ')
15.     z=''.join(y)
16.     print z
17.     b=['_ ']*len(z)
18.     print ''.join(b)
19.     guess()
20.  
21.  

I'm in a rush at this second, but I'll have some time in just a bit...
Thanks for joining.

What this does is put the varaibles x, y and z into the module scope. As such, they can be "seen" by functions that are also in that scope. This use of "global" scope variables is good for learning because it is fairly simple. There are lot's of other things to change before we get to the final working program, but let's take it one step at a time. And HAVE FUN.

Well, the code worked and I made some enhancements:
The problem with this code is that it tells me that d was referenced before assignment. If I put d in def guess, then it will always return d to -1 and the guy taking guesses will have infinite amount of guesses. That might have been why you said that the solution was not the best. What should I do?

Well, the code worked and I made some enhancements:

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1. def guess():
2.     choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
3.     a=type.find(str(choice))
4.     if len(choice)>1:
5.         print "Don't cheat!"
6.         guess()
7.     elif a!=-1:
8.         b[a]=str(choice)
9.         print "Good Choice!"
10.         c=''.join(b)
11.         print c
12.         if type==c:
13.             print "You Win!"
14.         else:
15.             guess()
16.     else:
17.         d+=1
18.         e[d]=choice
19.         if d==0:
20.             print "O",e
21.             guess()
22.         elif d==1:
23.             print e,"O<"
24.             guess()
25.         elif d==2:
26.             print e,"0<-"
27.             guess()
28.         elif d==3:
29.             print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"
30.  
31. if __name__=='__main__':
32.     type=raw_input("Type a name:")
33.     type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
34.     #print type
35.     b=['_ ']*len(type)
36.     print ''.join(b)
37.     d=-1
38.     e=['']*5
39.     guess()

The problem with this code is that it tells me that d was referenced before assignment. If I put d in def guess, then it will always return d to -1 and the guy taking guesses will have infinite amount of guesses. That might have been why you said that the solution was not the best. What should I do?

in your guess() function, 'd' is never 'initialized' before you do d+=1.
Either you pass 'd' value into guess(), as in guess(d) , or use global.

What my friend ghostdog74 means is: It's very cute! I ran it and it work using this global scope technique. You a really quit a good pythoneer. Keep it up! Next you may want to play with parameter passing (also as GD has suggested).

Just an opinion of mine, its better to use while loop for tasks like this:
for example:
In the original code, guess() is defined as a function, but in it, there are also calls to guess() itself. In programming concepts, this is something like recursion. Before the first call to guess() has returned to caller, another guess() gets called and so on. The stack gets slowly "filled up" due to storing of return addresses and etc etc......at least that's how i feel.

What my friend ghostdog74 means is:

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1. def guess():
2.     global d
3.     choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
4.     a=type.find(str(choice))
5.     if len(choice)>1:
6.         print "Don't cheat!"
7.         guess()
8.     elif a!=-1:
9.         b[a]=str(choice)
10.         print "Good Choice!"
11.         c=''.join(b)
12.         print c
13.         if type==c:
14.             print "You Win!"
15.         else:
16.             guess()
17.     else:
18.         d+=1
19.         e[d]=choice
20.         if d==0:
21.             print "O",e
22.             guess()
23.         elif d==1:
24.             print e,"O<"
25.             guess()
26.         elif d==2:
27.             print e,"0<-"
28.             guess()
29.         elif d==3:
30.             print e,"O<-<\n Game Over"
31.  
32. if __name__=='__main__':
33.     type=raw_input("Type a name:")
34.     type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
35.     #print type
36.     b=['_ ']*len(type)
37.     print ''.join(b)
38.     d=-1
39.     e=['']*5
40.     guess()
41.  

It's very cute! I ran it and it work using this global scope technique. You a really quit a good pythoneer. Keep it up! Next you may want to play with parameter passing (also as GD has suggested).

It does work well. However, if you enter a word that has two of the same letter as in "sell", you can never solve it. You should not use a variable name that masks a Python built-in function (type). We had another thread on Hangman recently, and we used this function to determine the occurances of a letter in a word: I agree with ghostdog74 abot the use of a loop instead of recursion. I also encourage you to avoid using global variables where possible. As in the function listed above, the word (s) and letter (item) are passed to get_index() and in return we receive a list of indices or an empty list if there were no occurances of 'item' in 's':

Well here is my code, almost finished:
Where should I put this indexList?

Well here is my code, almost finished:

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1. import sys
2. def guess(d,x,e):
3.             choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
4.             a=type.find(str(choice))
5.             if len(choice)>1:
6.                 print "Don't cheat!"
7.                 guess(d,x,e)
8.             elif a!=-1:
9.                 b[a]=str(choice)
10.                 print "Good Choice!"
11.                 c=''.join(b)
12.                 print c, e
13.                 if type==c:
14.                     print "You Win!"
15.                     sys.exit()
16.                 else:
17.                     guess(d,x,e)
18.             else:
19.                 d+=x
20.                 if guess in e:
21.                     print "You have already guessed this!"
22.                     guess(d,x,e)
23.                 e[d]=choice
24.                 if d==0:
25.                     print "O"
26.                     x=1
27.                 elif d==1:
28.                     print "O<"
29.                     x=2
30.                 elif d==2:
31.                     print "0<-"
32.                     x=3
33.                 elif d==3:
34.                     print "O<-<\n Game Over"
35.                     sys.exit()
36.                 print "Letters Guessed: ", ' '.join(e)
37.                 guess(d,x,e)
38. if __name__=='__main__':
39.     type=raw_input("Type a name:")
40.     type=''.join(type.lower().split(' '))
41.     #print type
42.     b=['_ ']*len(type)
43.     print ''.join(b)
44.     d=0
45.     x=0
46.     e=['']*4
47.     guess(d,x,e)
48.  
49.  

Where should I put this indexList?

Anywhere above "if __name__ == '__main__':"

Anywhere above "if __name__ == '__main__':"

And then put the indexList in what part of the code?

And then put the indexList in what part of the code?

You will need to rework your code somewhat, because you have a list of indices instead of a single index. Here's a start: Notice that I am using 'word' instead of 'type'.

Need an explanation of what indexList does. I'm just having a hard time following what it does.

Never mind about last. The problem is when I put aList as the element in b (as in b[aList]=str(choice)) , it tells me that aList needs to be an integer, not a list. How do I transform aList into an integer?

Need an explanation of what indexList does. I'm just having a hard time following what it does.

returns a list of inexes for every occurance of item in s.

Never mind about last. The problem is when I put aList as the element in b (as in b[aList]=str(choice)) , it tells me that aList needs to be an integer, not a list. How do I transform aList into an integer?

I'm having a hard time following along because your variable names are not very descriptive. If b (could use a better name) is a list, why not somethingbetterList?
If aList is a list of indexes, you need to

Alright here is the more understandable code:
As it says in line 10, I need to find out how to make aList an integer because line will not recognize the elements inside a list.
Hmmmmm.....

Whoops! What I meant to say was what do you put inside the second [], bartonc?

Alright here is the more understandable code:

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1. import sys # used to exit
2. def guess(count,addCount,letters):
3.             choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
4.             aList=indexList(word, choice)
5.             print aList
6.             if len(choice)>1:
7.                 print "Don't cheat!" # Exactly :)
8.                 guess(count,addCount,letters)
9.             elif aList!=[-1]:
10.                 line[aList]=str(choice) #Problem here. aList is list when needs to be integers
11.                 print "Good Choice!"
12.                 c=''.join(line)
13.                 print c,"Letters missed:", letters #Tells what letters the guy has missed
14.                 if word==c:
15.                     print "You Win!" 
16.                     sys.exit()
17.                 else:
18.                     guess(count,addCount,letters) #repeats until win or lose
19.             else:
20.                 if choice in letters:
21.                     print "You have already guessed this!" #so he/she doesn't repeat a stupid mistake
22.                     guess(count,addCount,letters)
23.                 count+=addCount
24.                 letters[count]=choice
25.                 if count==0:
26.                     print "O"
27.                     addCount=1
28.                 elif count==1:
29.                     print "O<"
30.                     addCount=2
31.                 elif count==2:
32.                     print "0<-"
33.                     addCount=3
34.                 elif count==3:
35.                     print "O<-<\n Game Over XP"
36.                     sys.exit()
37.                 print "Letters missed: ", ' '.join(letters)
38.                 guess(count,addCount,letters)
39.  
40. def indexList(s, item, i=0):
41.     i_list = []
42.     while True:
43.         try:
44.             i = s.index(item, i)
45.             i_list.append(i)
46.             i += 1
47.         except:
48.             i_list.append(-1)
49.             break
50.     return i_list
51.  
52. if __name__=='__main__':
53.     word=raw_input("Type a name:")
54.     word=''.join(word.lower().split(' '))
55.     #print word #This was just for testing
56.     line=['_ ']*len(word)
57.     print ''.join(line)
58.     count=0 #set count
59.     addCount=0 #set add count
60.     letters=['']*4 #make an empty list
61.     guess(count,addCount,letters)
62.  
63.  

As it says in line 10, I need to find out how to make aList an integer because line will not recognize the elements inside a list.
Hmmmmm.....

I'm guessing that you want something like

Whoops! What I meant to say was what do you put inside the second [], bartonc?

Hah, you beat me to it (by a few seconds).

Weird. [count] obviously does nothing for it still gives me a TypeError.
Specifically, the TypeError looks like this:
I might have read this wrong.

Weird. [count] obviously does nothing for it still gives me a TypeError.
Specifically, the TypeError looks like this:

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1. TypeError: list indices must be integers

I might have read this wrong.

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1. elif len(aList) > 0:
2.     for i in aList:
3.         line[i] = choice       # is not choice already a string?
4.         ..............................................................................

Yea! That worked! Before, I had to put choice as a string for some reason. It returned some type of error. But when I put in your code without the str before choice, it worked. Huh. I might've been seeing things.

Anyway, thank you for helping me! And, for those of you who want to see the final code, here it is:

Yea! That worked! Before, I had to put choice as a string for some reason. It returned some type of error. But when I put in your code without the str before choice, it worked. Huh. I might've been seeing things.

Anyway, thank you for helping me! And, for those of you who want to see the final code, here it is:

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1. import sys # used to exit
2. def guess(count,addCount,letters):
3.             choice=raw_input("Guess!(lowercase only please!)")
4.             aList=indexList(word, choice)
5.             print aList
6.             if len(choice)>1:
7.                 print "Don't cheat!" # Exactly :)
8.                 guess(count,addCount,letters)
9.             elif len(aList) > 0:
10.                 for i in aList:
11.                     line[i] = choice  #Problem here. aList is list when needs to be integers
12.                     print "Good Choice!"
13.                     c=''.join(line)
14.                     print c,"Letters missed:", letters #Tells what letters the guy has missed
15.                     if word==c:
16.                         print "You Win!" 
17.                         sys.exit()
18.                     else:
19.                         guess(count,addCount,letters) #repeats until win or lose
20.             else:
21.                 if choice in letters:
22.                     print "You have already guessed this!" #so he/she doesn't repeat a stupid mistake
23.                     guess(count,addCount,letters)
24.                 count+=addCount
25.                 letters[count]=choice
26.                 if count==0:
27.                     print "O"
28.                     addCount=1
29.                 elif count==1:
30.                     print "O<"
31.                     addCount=2
32.                 elif count==2:
33.                     print "0<-"
34.                     addCount=3
35.                 elif count==3:
36.                     print "O<-<\n Game Over XP"
37.                     sys.exit()
38.                 print "Letters missed: ", ' '.join(letters)
39.                 guess(count,addCount,letters)
40.  
41. def indexList(s, item, i=0):
42.     i_list = []
43.     while True:
44.         try:
45.             i = s.index(item, i)
46.             i_list.append(i)
47.             i += 1
48.         except:
49.             break
50.     return i_list
51.  
52. if __name__=='__main__':
53.     word=raw_input("Type a name:")
54.     word=''.join(word.lower().split(' '))
55.     #print word #This was just for testing
56.     line=['_ ']*len(word)
57.     print ''.join(line)
58.     count=0 #set count
59.     addCount=0 #set add count
60.     letters=['']*4 #make an empty list
61.     guess(count,addCount,letters) #carries everything to guess for later use
62.  

You have an incorrect indentation at a critical point which prevents the script from executing properly. Try 'mississippi'. Once you make this correction, you are looking good!

Whoops! I indented everything after the for statement, making it run only once. Fixed that and it now runs like a charm!
Again, Thanks!

EDIT: You beat me to it. Darn! :D