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

Saloni Mude
Saloni Mude
9,933 Points

Game registering first correct (good guess) letter of the word as a bad guess

Every time I try to enter the first letter of the word, it registers as a strike ie bad guess instead of adding to the word as a good guess.

For example : _ _ (Ed) It will allow me to guess the d but when I try to enter the E it will register as a strike instead of adding to the word and allowing me to win the game,

This applies to the first letter of every word. For example _ _ _ _ _ (Eddie) if i enter a "e" , it will only show up in the last letter and not in the first letter

import random
import os
import sys

#make a list of words
words = ["Rick", 
        "Morty", 
        "Steven" ,
        "Aang", 
        "Courage", 
        "Korra",
        "Sokka", 
        "Arnold", 
        "Mabel", 
        "Eddie", 
        "Ed" ]

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

def draw (bad_guesses, good_guesses, secret_word):
  clear()
  print ("Strikes {}/7".format(len(bad_guesses)))
  print("")
  for letter in bad_guesses:
    print(letter,end= "")
  print ("\n\n")

  for letter in secret_word:
    if letter in good_guesses:
      print(letter, end="")
    else:
      print("_", end ="")

  print(" ")

def get_guess(bad_guesses, good_guesses):
  while True:
    guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()

    if len(guess) != 1:
      print ("You can only guess a single letter!")
      #continue is not needed since loop will run on it's own
    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
    else: 
      return guess

def play(done):
  clear()
  secret_word = random.choice(words)
  bad_guesses = []
  good_guesses = []

  while True:
    draw(bad_guesses, good_guesses, secret_word)
    guess = get_guess(bad_guesses, good_guesses)

    if guess in secret_word:
      good_guesses.append(guess)
      found = True
      for letter in secret_word: 
        if letter not in good_guesses:
            found= False
      if found:
        print("You win!")
        print("The secret word was {}".format(secret_word))
        done = True

    else:
      bad_guesses.append(guess)
      if len(bad_guesses) == 7:
        draw(bad_guesses, good_guesses, secret_word)
        print("You lost!")
        print("The secret word was {}".format(secret_word))
        done = True

    if done:  
      play_again = input("Play again? Y/n").lower()
      if play_again != "n":
        return play(done = False)
      else:
        sys.exit()

def welcome():
  start = input("Press enter to start or Q to quit").lower()
  if start == "q":
    print ("Bye!")
    sys.exit()
  else: 
    return True


print ("Welcome to Hangman!")

done  = False 

while True:
  clear()
  welcome()
  play(done)

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

:point_right: This game was apparently not designed to use mixed-case words.

The input is always converted to lower-case, so you can never match an upper-case letter.

I didn't try it, but I think you can adapt it work with mixed-case by changing these 3 lines:

    if letter.lower() in good_guesses:    # line 33
...
    if guess in secret_word.lower():      # line 66
...
      for letter in secret_word.lower():  # line 69

In case I missed anything, just look for other places where a conversion needs to be applied.

Saloni Mude
Saloni Mude
9,933 Points

Thanks a lot ! The code changes you recommended do work. The code not working because of upper-case letters didn't occur to me at all so I spent quite a while figuring out what could be wrong. Bit of an overlooked bug in the game I think.

Anyway thanks again , it was a big help :)