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

Posted by chailatte
chailatte
941 Points

Program doesn't say that I won when I guessed the secret word

Something about my code is different from the one in the video. Even though I correctly guessed the secret word, the program does not print the 'You win...' line. I checked that part of the code as well as the code for the rest of the program, but can't seem to identify the error. Everything else seems to work OK though.

Note: This is not an issue with the one described in the teacher's notes - words with the same letter appearing more than once. It is an issue even for words without repeated letters.

UPDATE: Ran my code in Python tutor to visualize all steps and it worked fine. Could this be a software issue on Treehouse's end?

import random

# make a list of words
words = [
    'apple',
    'banana',
    'orange',
    'strawberry',
    'lime',
    'grapefruit',
    'lemon',
    'kumquat',
    'blueberry',
    'melon'
]

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)
    bad_guesses = []
    good_guesses = []

    while len(bad_guesses) < 7 and len(good_guesses) != len(list(secret_word)):
    # draw guessed letters, spaces, and strikes
        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 didn't guess it. My secret word was {}.".format(secret_word))

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points

This program worked for me when the word had no repeating letters.

This win detection strategy only works when all the letters are unique. But if you continue on with the course, this will be explained and a different strategy will replace this one which will work with repeated letters.