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Python Python Basics (2015) Letter Game App Letter Game Introduction

Posted by Courtney Erickson
Courtney Erickson
1,579 Points

My code counts the good_guesses as a strike , causing an endless loop if the secret_word is less than 7 letters!

import random

make a list of words

words = [ 'apple', 'banana', 'orange', 'coconut', 'strawberry', 'lime', 'grapefruit', 'lemon', 'melon', 'blueberry', 'kumquat' ]

while True: start = input("Press enter/return to start, or enter Q to quit: ") if start.lower() == 'q': break

# pick a random word
secret_word = random.choice(words)
good_guesses = []
bad_guesses = []

while len(bad_guesses) < 7 and len(good_guesses) != len(list(secret_word)):
    for letter in secret_word:
        if letter in good_guesses:
            print(letter, end='')
        else:
            print('_', end='')

    print('')
    print('Strikes: {}/7'.format(len(bad_guesses)))
    print('')

take guess

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

    if len(guess) != 1:
        print("You can only guess a single letter!")
        continue
    elif guess in bad_guesses or guess in good_guesses:
        print("You've already guessed that letter!")
        continue
    elif not guess.isalpha():
        print("You can only guess letters!")
        continue

    if guess in secret_word:
        good_guesses.append(guess)
        if len(good_guesses) == len(list(secret_word)):
            print("You win! The word was {}".format(secret_word))
            break
        else:
            bad_guesses.append(guess)
else:
    print("You didnt guess it! My secret word was {}".format(secret_word))

draw guessed letters and strikes

print out win/lose

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,268 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,268 Points

The problem doesn't seem to be the length of the word, but the strategy used for detecting a win. Comparing the number of good guesses to the word size will work when the word has all unique letters, but your data includes words like "apple" with repeated letters. In this case, a win occurs in only 4 guesses but the word has 5 letters. So you'll need a different strategy for detecting a win.

As you continue in the course, this will be discussed in the videos yet to come.

Anthony Kimberly
Anthony Kimberly
11,049 Points
Anthony Kimberly
Anthony Kimberly
11,049 Points

I'm glad I found this answer, this threw me off for a good half hour trying to find a solution. I guess I should've ignored it and moved on.