Develop Reference

Python fill-in-the-blanks code

I am a programming beginner and I am trying to build a fill-in-the-blank quiz. I am almost finished but I am stuck on 2 problems I am not able to solve, whatever I do. I would really appreciate your help with this. Thank you for helping me with this!
If you try to run the code and play the game:
1) It prints the quiz according to the difficulty(easy-insane) and quiz you want to play(apple, bond and programming quiz) which is great but afterwards it prompts you to choose difficulty again (the player_level() function keeps going even though the player/user has already chosen the difficulty level. I don't really understand why it does it? The player_level() procedure seems perfectly okay and logical to me.
2) The errors:
a) local variable blanks_index referenced before assignment
b) global name list_of_answers is not defined.
I know that it is related to the initialize_game() function but I don't know how to change the code so it refers all the variables (blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives) correctly.
It could be solved by creating global variables(I guess) but that is not a good practice so I am trying to avoid it. Formerly, the whole function initialise_game() and play_game() were one function, but as there are over 25 lines of code in one function, it is not a good practice as it is long and messy and I know that I can separate it but I don't know how.
Here is the code:
"""3 diffferent quizzes : Apple quiz, James Bond quiz, Programming quiz"""
"""Quiz and answers about Apple"""
Apple_quiz = ("The most valuable company in terms of market cap in 2016 is, ___1___."
"It was founded in ___2___. Its flagship product is called ___3___."
"___1___ has many competitors, the biggest rival is ___4___,founded by"
" nobody but the richest man on the planet,___5___ ___6___.")
list_of_answers_Apple = ["Apple", "1976", "Iphone", "Microsoft", "Bill", "Gates"]
"""Quiz and answers about Bond"""
Bond_quiz = ("James Bond is agent ___1___. He serves his country,___2___ ___3___"
" against its enemies. His car of choice is usually ___4___ ___5___."
" His favorite drink is ___6___.")
list_of_answers_Bond = ["007", "United", "Kingdom", "Aston", "Martin", "Martini"]
"""Quiz and answers about programming basics"""
Programming_quiz = ("___1___ are created with the def keyword. ___1___ are also called ___2___"
" You specify the inputs a ___1___ take by adding ___3___ separated by commas"
" between the parentheses. ___3___ can be standard data types such as string, number"
" ,dictionary, tuple, and ___4___ or can be more complicated such as ___5___"
" and ___6___ functions.")
list_of_answers_Programming = ["Functions", "procedures", "arguments", "lists", "objects", "lambda"]
blank_space = ["___1___", "___2___", "___3___", "___4___", "___5___", "___6___]"]
#List of levels with corresponding lives/guesses that player can have
quiz_list = ["Apple", "Bond", "Programming"]
level_list = ["easy", "medium", "hard", "superhard", "insane"]
lives_easy = 5
lives_medium = 4
lives_hard = 3
lives_superhard = 2
lives_insane = 1
def choose_quiz():
""" Prompts player to pick a type of quiz and loads the quiz """
#Input = player_quiz (raw input from player)
#Output = loaded quiz, player chose
while True:
player_quiz = raw_input("Please, select a quiz you want to play: "
"(Apple, Bond or Programming): ")
if player_quiz == "Apple":
return Apple_quiz
elif player_quiz == "Bond":
return Bond_quiz
elif player_quiz == "Programming":
return Programming_quiz
else:
print "We don't have such quiz, pick again!"
def answers_for_quiz():
""" Loads appropiate answers to the quiz that player has chosen"""
#Input = player quiz (raw input from player)
#Output = loaded quiz answers from the quiz player chose
player_quiz_pick = choose_quiz()
if player_quiz_pick == Apple_quiz:
return list_of_answers_Apple
elif player_quiz_pick == Bond_quiz:
return list_of_answers_Bond
elif player_quiz_pick == Programming_quiz:
return list_of_answers_Programming
def player_level():
""" Loads a difficulty that player chooses """
#Input = player_level_input (raw input of player choosing a difficulty)
#Output = corresponding number of lives:
#Easy = 5 lives, Medium = 4 lives
#Hard = 3 lives, Superhard = 2 lives
#Insane = 1 life
while True:
player_level_input = raw_input("Please type in a difficulty level: "
"(easy, medium, hard, superhard, insane): ")
if player_level_input == "easy":
return lives_easy #Easy = 5 lives
elif player_level_input == "medium":
return lives_medium #Medium = 4 lives
elif player_level_input == "hard":
return lives_hard #Hard = 3 lives
elif player_level_input == "superhard":
return lives_superhard #Superhard = 2 lives
elif player_level_input == "insane":
return lives_insane #Insane = 1 life
else:
print "We do not have such difficulty! Pick again!"
def correct_answer(player_answer, list_of_answers, answers_index):
""" Checks, whether the the answer from player matches with the answer list. """
#Input: player_answer (raw input that player enters in order to fill in the blank)
#Output: "Right answer!" or "Wrong! Try again!" this output will be later used in the game
if player_answer == list_of_answers[answers_index]:
return "Right answer!"
return "Wrong! Try again!"
def initialize_game():
"""Functions that sets up a game so we can play it """
player_quiz_pick, player_level_pick, list_of_answers = choose_quiz(), player_level(), answers_for_quiz()
print player_quiz_pick
print "\nYou will get maximum " + str(player_level_pick) + " guesses for this game. Good luck.\n"
blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives = 0, 0, 0
#for elements in blank_space:
while blanks_index < len(blank_space):
player_answer = raw_input("Please type in your answer for " + blank_space[blanks_index] + ": ")
if correct_answer(player_answer,list_of_answers,answers_index) == "Right answer!":
print "Correct answer! Keep going!\n"
player_quiz_pick = player_quiz_pick.replace(blank_space[blanks_index],player_answer)
answers_index += 1
blanks_index += 1
print player_quiz_pick
if blanks_index == len(blank_space):
print "Congratulations! You nailed it! You are the winner!"
else:
player_level_pick -= 1
if player_level_pick == 0:
print "Game over! Maybe next time!"
break
else:
print "One life less, that sucks! Have another shot!"
print "You have " + str(player_level_pick) + " guesses left."
initialize_game()

Your main problem is that you keep calling the same functions over and over again and do not save the input into variables. Here are some tips about your code and questions:
You are not doing anything with your player_level() method call, so the player doesn't actually chooses a level in a way that affects the game. You should change the function call, so the returned value will be stored.
//the call to the method:
player_level_pick = player_level()
Afterwards, you keep calling the player_level() method, and not using the actual answer that the user supplied. Change all player_level() appearences to player_level_pick - the variable you use to save the answer (as I showed above). Same goes to all other unneeded function calls such as choose_level().
You should initialize number_of_guesses, player_lives, list_of_answers, and other vars to a matching value to player_level_pick as well, so it will hold the right value according to the level. Likewise, you should change this line:
# the line that checks if game is over
# change from:
if number_of_guesses == player_lives:
# to :
if number_of_guesses == 0:
In order to return multiple values, you have to use tuples. Using multiple return statements one after the other does not work anywhere.
so, instead of:
return list_of_answers
return number_of_guesses
return blanks_index
return answers_index
return player_lives
you should use tuples, and unpack them properly:
# the return statement:
return (list_of_answers, number_of_guesses, blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives)
# and the unpacking in the calling function:
list_of_answers, number_of_guesses, blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives = initialize_game()
this way, all of the returned values go into the wanted variables in the calling function. this way, you need to call the initialize_game() from play_game(). it will be the efficient way for you.
Just saying it again, as I said in the end of (4) - you should unit initialize_game() and play_game() into a single function (because a lot of data is the same needed data), or just call initialize_game() from play_game().
Better practice then using this recursivly: return choose_level(), you should use a while True: loop, and just brake when you get a proper answer.

Trying to return a boolean value from a function

I am trying to program a simple text based game. In order to do this, I am having the user go to three separate rooms to complete a task and receive a piece. In order to do this, I have a value set as False then, upon completion of the room, I have a return statement used to change the Boolean value to True. When all three room functions return a True, then I set that to open a function that progresses the game. As of know, however, the return does not take place, and thus the Boolean values remain unchanged.
Here is an example of one door function:
def door1(incomp1):
if incomp1 == False:
print 'You enter door 1 and find a hideous internet troll.'
print "The troll says, 'LOOK AT THIS LOSER'"
options = ["YOU'RE THE LOSER", "I don't care." , "YOUR MOM IS FAT"]
options2 = [1,2,3]
for x in options:
print "\t :> %s" % x
choice1 = raw_input("What is your response? :>")
if ('loser' in choice1) or ('fat' in choice1):
print "You are sucked into the troll's behaviour and are driven insane"
print "After three days of insanity, you starve to death"
dead()
elif 'care' in choice1:
print 'The troll cannot feed off of your anger.'
print 'The troll starves and you recover one piece of the lever from his stomach.'
change()
entrywayopen()
return incomp1 == True
else:
unknown()
change()
door1(incomp1)
elif incomp1 == True:
print 'You already recovered the piece from room 1.'
entrywayopen()
So, I have incomp1 already at a value of False when the function is called. The user must get the correct answer, in this case the elif statement. At the end, I have it to return incomp1 == True. Yet, the value remains unchanged. My endgame in this room strategy is to return a value of True for the statement if door1(incomp1) and door2(incomp2) and door3(incomp3):. What is causing the Boolean change in value to not be returned?

A little about Python boolean expressions:
every python expression can be evaluated as a boolean
None, False, 0, 0.0, empty strings, lists, tuples and dictionaries are False; most others objects are True
that means: instead of x == True you can usually just write x, in your case: if incomp1:
If you are executing a function and it finishes without hitting a return, a None will be returned implicitly. If you do a boolean comparison on it, it will evaluate as False.

You need to replace "return incomp1 == True" with just "return True". Then call the door1 function like this "incomp1 = door1(incomp1)".
This will change the value of incomp1 to the value returned by the function "True".
You can also replace "elif incomp1 == True:" with a simple "else".
You might also consider adding a .lower() to choice1 = raw_input("What is your response? :>"). This will make it so if the player uses a capital letter in the input it will still function as desired.
def door1(incomp1):
if incomp1 == False:
print 'You enter door 1 and find a hideous internet troll.'
print "The troll says, 'LOOK AT THIS LOSER'"
options = ["YOU'RE THE LOSER", "I don't care." , "YOUR MOM IS FAT"]
options2 = [1,2,3]
for x in options:
print "\t :> %s" % x
#choice1 = raw_input("What is your response? :>")
choice1 = raw_input("What is your response? :>").lower()
if ('loser' in choice1) or ('fat' in choice1):
print "You are sucked into the troll's behaviour and are driven insane"
print "After three days of insanity, you starve to death"
dead()
elif 'care' in choice1:
print 'The troll cannot feed off of your anger.'
print 'The troll starves and you recover one piece of the lever from his stomach.'
change()
entrywayopen()
return True
else:
unknown()
change()
door1(incomp1)
#elif incomp1 == True:
else:
print 'You already recovered the piece from room 1.'
entrywayopen()
incomp1 = door1(incomp1)

Syntax error when creating simple python program

Hope you are all well.
Trying to create a Python program which acts as a dictionary however now having some issues with creating an elif statement. Im my IDLE I keep getting signs saying that my syntax is wrong for the elif, I am not quite what I am doing wrong though? I suppose it is an indentation error but what exactly is it?
if choice == "0":
print "good bye"
elif choice == "1":
name = raw_input("Which philosopher do you want to get")
if name in philosopher:
country = philosopher [name]
print name, "comes from" , country
else:
print "No such term"
***elif choice == "2" :*** ***<<I am being told that I have syntax error in this elif element, what am I doing wrong)**
name = raw_input(" What name would you like to enter")
if name not in philosopher:
country = raw_input( "Which country do you want to put your philosopher in")
philosopher [name] = country
print name, "has now been added and he is from", country
else:
print "We already have that name"

Assuming you fix the indentation, the if statements all go in this order for you:
if x:
#do something
elif x:
#do something
if x:
#do something
else:
#do something
elif x:#CAUSES ERROR
#do something
if x:
#do something
else:
#do something
Your elif comes AFTER an else statement. You can't do this. elif MUST go between if and else. Otherwise the compiler doesn't ever catch the elif (Because it just ran through and did the else statement). In other words, you must have your if statements ordered like so:
if x:
#do something
elif x:
#do something
else:
#do something

I think that you are correct as to an indentation problem. Here is what I think you are trying to do:
if choice == "0":
print "good bye"
elif choice == "1":
name = raw_input("Which philosopher do you want to get")
if name in philosopher:
country = philosopher [name]
print name, "comes from" , country
else:
print "No such term"
elif choice == "2" :
name = raw_input(" What name would you like to enter")
if name not in philosopher:
country = raw_input( "Which country do you want to put your philosopher in")
philosopher [name] = country
print name, "has now been added and he is from", country
else:
print "We already have that name"
The key problem is inconsistent indentation, which makes it hard for Python to determine what you want. Until you develop your own style and have a good reason for doing otherwise, a consistent four spaces of indentation per level is a good habit. Let your editor help you indent consistently. Oh, and make sure not to mix tabs and spaces when you indent: that has a way of seeming to work for a bit and then coming back and biting you.

It looks like you want to put your if name in philosopher...No such term" section inside of the block beginning elif choice == "1":. If so, you need to indent one additional time in order for Python to properly group your if, elif and else statements.
if choice == "0":
# code
elif choice == "1":
if name in philospher: # indented twice; can only run if choice == "1"
# code
else:
# code
elif choice == "2":
# code
# rest of code

text based game in python

heres my code
direction = 0
while direction != ("quit"):
direction = input("> ")
if direction[0:4] != "quit" and direction != "go north" and direction != "go south" and direction != "go east" and direction != "go west" and direction != "go up" and direction != "go down" and direction[0:4] != "look":
if direction[0:2] == "go" and direction[3:] == (""):
print("please tell me more")
else:
print("huh?")
elif direction[0:1] == "go" and direction != "north" and direction != "south" and direction != "east" and direction != "west" and direction != "up" and direction != "down":
print ("please tell me more")
elif direction[0:4] == "quit":
print ("OK ... but a small part of you may never leave until you have personally saved Muirfieland from the clutches of evil .. Bwahahahahahah (sinister laugh).")
elif direction[0:4] == "look":
print ("You see nothing but endless void stretching off in all directions ...")
else:
print ("You wander of in the direction of " + direction)
im trying to add this into my code
if the first word is recognised but the second is not, it will respond with :
"sorry, im afraid i cant do that"
im just having troubles getting that one bit into my code, any help will be appreciated thanks.

So quick analysis... You're making text parser which works as following:
Get first word of "command", if we don't know word user used invalid input -> inform and restart
If user used known "command", parse its arguments (like: go north, go south) and let "nested" function take care of argument
Note that "main parsing function" doesn't need to know whether arguments for go() are valid, it just delegates responsibility for validation to go().
So I think you should build code (class) like this:
class Game:
# Initialize internal variables, method automatically called on g = Game()
def __init__(self):
self._exit = False
# Array of known commands, used in run, basically maps commands
# to function and it says: if will get 'go' execute self._go
self._commands = {
'go': self._go,
'quit': self._quit
}
# Array of go sub commands, used by _go
self._commands_go = {
'north': self._go_north
# ...
}
# Mathod for parsing command, if it gets "comamnd" returns ("command",None)
# if "command arg1 arg2" returns ("command", "arg1 arg2")
#staticmethod
def parse_command(string):
string = str(string)
index = string.find(' ')
if index < 0:
return (string, None)
return (string[:index], string[index+1:])
# This is main method; the only one which should be called from outside
# It will just read data from input in never ending loop and parse commands
def run(self):
while not self._exit:
src = input('> ')
(command,args) = Game.parse_command( src)
# Do we have this command, execute it
if command in self._commands:
self._commands[command](args)
else:
print( 'I\'m sorry I don\'t known command {}, try one of these:'.format(command))
print( '\n'.join( self._commands.keys()))
#######################################################
# All game commands go here
#######################################################
def _quit(self,args):
self._exit = True
print( 'Bye bye')
# Movement handling, will get executed when user types 'go ...' nad '...' will be in arg
def _go(self,args):
# No argument
if args is None:
print( 'Go excepts one of these:', '; '.join( self._commands_go.keys()))
return False
# Split sub command anr arguments
(command,args) = Game.parse_command(args)
if command not in self._commands_go:
print( 'Go excepts one of these:', '; '.join( self._commands_go.keys()))
return False
if args is not None:
print( 'Too many arguments for go')
return False
self._commands_go[command](args)
return True
# Go north
def _go_north(self, args):
print( 'Going north')
game = Game()
game.run()
Which would allow you to:
build complex nested commands
build nice and readable commands hierarchy (inventory item 123 update use potion 345) instead of hardly readable set of complex conditions
build function aliases go north can be aliased as gn by adding 'gn': self._go_north to _commands
build reusable arguments parsing (item_id, action, args) = self._parse_item_action(args)
take advantages of object oriented programming (no global variables, everything will be class attribute, lower risk of accidental variables overwriting)
And if you need to parse goasdf as go you can just simply:
for i in self._commands:
if input.startswirh( i):
return self._commands[i](...)
print('Invalid command')
return False
Note: I haven't tested the code, it's just out of my head.

Your code looks quite confusing to me, here is just a simpler version of your code:
flag = 0
count = 0
direction = 0
while direction != ("quit"):
direction = input("> ")
count += 1
if recognised and count == 1: # word is recognised
flag = 1
print "whatever you want..."
elif (not recognised) and count == 2 and flag == 1:
flag = 0
print "sorry, im afraid i cant do that"
else:
flag = 1
print "second is recognised or whatever you want..."
In my code, I've set a flag if first guess is recognised and incremented the count also. On second guess, I'm just checking the flag and count's value.

Not very relative with your code but, When you could instead get the user input, split it so it turns into a list and compare the first word then the second so it could be something like
user = user_input("> ")
user = user.split()
if user[0] == "look"
if user[1] == "left"
do something
if user[1] == "right"
do something
else
print ("sorry, im afraid i cant do that")
Not sure if this is what your looking for though

Simply, I think you need to learn more code to make things a lot easier for yourself here, though maybe classes are a bit much, and I don't mean this in an insulting way.
As a simple start, I'd suggest using the in keyword rather than ==.
For example:
if "north" in direction:
do something
This will "do something" if the input is North, NORTH, go North, go north please and so on.
To solve your issue therefore your code could use something like this:
input = ("> ")
if "go" in input and not ("north" in input and "south" in input...):
print "That is not a direction you can go in."
And so on. The "and not (...)" section can be rewritten much neater but I wrote it as-is to show what is happening easier.
truthcase = None
directions = ["north", "south", ...]
for i in directions:
if i not in input:
continue
else:
truthcase = True
truthcase = False
if "go" in input and not truthcase:
print something
Hopefully this helps.

Why doesn't my list change?

I've been hacking away on a little game, just for fun, and I've run into a problem. I'll post the code and try my best to explain:
def parseCmd(string):
cmd = string.split(' ')
if cmd[0] == 'help':
showHelp()
elif cmd[0] == 'add':
addServer()
elif cmd[0] == 'bag':
viewInventory(inventory)
elif len(cmd) == 1 and cmd[0] == 'look':
describeRoom()
elif len(cmd) == 1 and cmd[0] == 'take':
print 'What do you want me to take?'
elif cmd[0] == 'take':
pickUp(cmd[1], items)
elif cmd[0] == 'exit':
sys.exit(0)
else:
print 'I don\'t know how to ' + cmd[0]
def describeRoom():
print locations[player_location]
def pickUp(item, item_list):
if item in item_list[player_location]:
item_list[player_location].remove(item)
inventory.append(item)
print 'You took the ' + item
else:
print 'I can\'t find any ' + item
inventory = ['id card', 'money', 'keys']
player_location = 'cookieroom'
items = {'cookieroom': ['crowbar', 'hammer']}
locations = {'cookieroom': 'The cookieroom, where all the hard work gets done. \n\nNORTH: LFA - ITEMS: %s' % items[player_location],
'LFA': 'The infamous LFA, where dreams of office supplies become reality. there is a big guy sleeping in his chair next to a fire extinguisher.\n\nSOUTH: Cookieroom, WEST: WC'}
if __name__ == "__main__":
while 1:
t = raw_input('-> ')
parseCmd(t)
So, as you can see I want the list of items in the items dictionary to change when you pick up an item available in that specific room. I can pick up the item and it gets added to my inventory but if I issue the command 'look' it shows the list of items in it's original state.
I've been googling and stackoverflowing for 1½ day now and I can't find anything that seems to solve this problem.
If something is unclear, just ask me and I'll try to answer.

The locations dictionary, which is from where the describeRoom function picks up its room description, is initialised once when the program starts. At that time, the location of the player is the cookieroom and the objects there are the crowbar and the hammer. So, a string is created like so
'The cookieroom, where all the hard work gets done. \n\nNORTH: LFA - ITEMS: ["crowbar", "hammer"]'
This string never changes even if you later alter the contents of the items dictionary.
Your locations dictionary should only contain the non changing part of the room description. The changing part (e.g. the list of items in the room etc.) should be recomputed everytime the users requests the description of the room.