shopping_list.py Different approach

I just wanted to share what I did differently to Craig in my shopping list application and why I have done so...

To start off I have added an additional command after I have showed the app to someone else. The new command is called "Remove" and it removes the most recent item. The reason for that is sometimes a user can make a mistake and this allows the user to correct that by deleting the most recent item and then trying again. If the list is empty to handle the error I have used an if statement instead of a try block. so if the list is empty it says "The list is empty!". To remove an item I used the .pop() method so it removes the last item from the list and then I can use the variable "removed_item" to then confirm the correct item was removed.

What I have also noticed when someone else was using the app is that even though the help section shows that you must enter a command in CAPITALS the user still used lower case or only capitalized the first letter which would result in a nasty error. I thought the best approach for this instead of using a "try" block and handling the error and, telling off the user for not using caps. I instead used the .upper() method to force the string to be converted into upper case. So no matter how the command is typed lower or upper case it will work.

I did not like how Craig has done the show command. Instead of using a for loop to print each item I have used a .join() method to convert the iterable list into string and then add a ", " between each item. We learned this in a previous lesson. I think this way it is more pretty and easier to read.

I have also made it so when the list is shown or printed with the done command the first letter of each work is capitalized to make it look nicer.

I have fixed the common mistake when adding the first item with an if statement. So when the first item is added instead of "there are 1 items in the list" it says "there is 1 item in the list".

Instead of using continue after each command I have used an else for adding an item to the list as I prefer it that way.

I have also made copies of the list at different stages. But I am unsure if I needed to do that at all. Perhaps not. But it does not break the code after testing it.

I have also used this project as an opportunity to train to use git and github which I 100% recommend you do too!

I hope you may find my approach useful and, I would love to see how you guys done your shopping list and if you have done anything differently or added something extra to your code

shopping_list = []

def show_help():
    print("What should we pick up at the store?")
    print("""
To add an item. Enter what you need after the '==>' sign.
Enter "HELP" to show help.
Enter "SHOW" to see your current list.
Enter "REMOVE" to delete the most recent item.
Enter "DONE" to stop adding items.
""")


def add_to_list(item):
    shopping_list.append(item)
    num_of_items = len(shopping_list)
    if num_of_items == 1:
        print("The item: '{}' has been added! There is currently {} item in the list."
            .format(item, num_of_items))
    else:
        print("The item: '{}' has been added! There are currently {} items in the list."
        .format(item, num_of_items))


def show_list():
    current_list = shopping_list.copy()
    current_shopping_list = ", ".join(current_list)
    current_shopping_list = current_shopping_list.title()
    print("Here's your list: {}".format(current_shopping_list))

def remove_item():
    if shopping_list == []:
        print("The list is empty!")
    else:
        removed_item = shopping_list.pop()
        print("Item: {} has been removed!".format(removed_item))


show_help()
while True:
    new_item = str(input("==> "))
    if new_item.upper() == "DONE":
        break
    elif new_item.upper() == "HELP":
        show_help()
    elif new_item.upper() == "SHOW":
        show_list()
    elif new_item.upper() == "REMOVE":
        remove_item()
    else:
        add_to_list(new_item)

final_list = shopping_list.copy()
final_shopping_list = ", ".join(final_list)
final_shopping_list = final_shopping_list.title()
print("Here's your completed list:",final_shopping_list)