Vending Machine - using random.choice or random.shuffle and deleting the resulting choice/shuffle

Question

#this version has the 'mystery' option which does a random.choice instead of pop.  Still need to pop it...

import os
import random

def clear_screen():
    if os.name == 'nt':
        os.system('cls')
    else:
        os.system('clear')

sodas = ["Cherry Coke Zero", "Crystal Pepsi", "DDP", "DrNut"]
chips = ["Funions", "Bugles", "Chex Mix", "Chili Cheese Fritos"]
candy = ["Fifth Avenue", "Abbazabba", "Big Hunk", "Sugar Daddy"]

while True:

    choice = input(" Would you like a SODA, bag of CHIPS or some CANDY or MYSTERY ?!?!? (Q to quit)").lower()
    clear_screen()
    try:
        if choice == 'soda':
            snack = sodas.pop()
        elif choice == 'chips':
            snack = chips.pop()
        elif choice == 'candy':
            snack = candy.pop()
        elif choice == 'q':
            break
        elif choice == 'mystery':
            snack = (random.choice(sodas + chips + candy)).pop()
        else:
            print("What was that breh?")
            continue
    except IndexError:
        print("We're all out of {}, sorry breh! Pick sumfingk else!".format(choice))
    else:
        print("Here's your bloody {}: {}, nice choice wanka".format(choice,snack))

I added an elif for the user to select 'mystery' which results in a random.choice from all the available items added together in one big list, so far so good. The problem results when I try to delete the result of this random choice/shuffle so it can't be selected again. The code as it is written here can not work because pop() won't work on a string, and I even tried putting a list() nested inside the pop() but that did not work either.
I looked online and the advice for this type of problem was to use shuffle() which yields alist, which should be able to be pop() 'ed , i.e.

snack = (random.shuffle(sodas + chips + candy)).pop()

but whenever I do that the result in the program is "None", what to do ?

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

Robert Baucus

Robert Baucus

Vending Machine - using random.choice or random.shuffle and deleting the resulting choice/shuffle