so ill post a few of my failed examples below along with what I came up with as a fix, and then the actual correct code. I feel like im so close to grasping this, but missing some logic. this is for a hangman game.

one of the failed attempts:

import random
word_list = ["aardvark", "baboon", "camel"]
chosen_word = random.choice(word_list)

#Testing code
print(f'Pssst, the solution is {chosen_word}.')

#Create an empty List called display.
#For each letter in the chosen_word, add a "_" to 'display'.
#So if the chosen_word was "apple", display should be ["_", "_", "_", "_", "_"] with 5 "_" representing each letter to guess.


display = ["_"] * len(chosen_word)


guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()

#If the letter at that position matches 'guess' then reveal that letter in the display at that position.
#e.g. If the user guessed "p" and the chosen word was "apple", then display should be ["_", "p", "p", "_", "_"].

for letter in chosen_word:
if guess == letter:
for i in range(len(chosen_word)):
display.insert(i, guess)

print(display)

second:

for letter in chosen_word:
  if guess == letter:
    for i in range(len(chosen_word[letter])):
      display.insert(i, guess)

I ended up just saying screw it and went to this:

display = []
for char in chosen_word:
    if guess == letter:
        display += letter
   else:
    display += "_"

correct way of doing it:

import random
word_list = ["aardvark", "baboon", "camel"]
chosen_word = random.choice(word_list)

print(f'Pssst, the solution is {chosen_word}.')

display = []
word_length = len(chosen_word)
for _ in range(word_length):
  display += "_"
print(display)
  
guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()


for position in range(word_length):
  letter = chosen_word[position]
  if letter == guess:
    display[position] = letter

print(display)

so as you can see, i get that I can grab specific parts of a list using indices or slices, but somewhere in my brain my logic is wrong. if you guys have struggled with this before or if you have a good youtube video to help me break it down id be beyond thankful!

  • Turun
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    Even as an experienced python dev I sometimes prefer explicit for loops over list comprehensions. I think for people who didn’t even grasp the concept of a for loop they are more confusing than helping.

    • falsem
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      Yeah, I’m not a fan of them overall. I think multiple lines is more readable. There are a LOT of people that disagree with me though.

    • mo_ztt ✅
      link
      English
      21 year ago

      I thought I was the only one… to me unless it’s a super-simplistic comprehension, it has a similar effect as when C programmers write if (xx = !(1 == (a ? !c : 34 ^ blit_target))) {. Congratulations, you fit it all on one line! At the expense of totally destroying my train of thought when I’m trying to scan down the code and figure out what the hell’s going on. Well done.