If Statement Error (Tic Tac Toe)

[Mike Meyer]

ale.of.ginger at gmail.com writes:

> Greetings!  I am trying to make a multiplayer (no AI, 2 person) game of
> tic tac toe in Python.  So far it has been pretty simple.  My only
> concern is with the win checking to see if a person has won.  At first
> it looked like it was working, but now it sometimes assigns a win when
> you enter an X or O (doesn't matter) on certain tiles (row 1, column 1
> won't be an error, but row 2, column 3 will be...).  If you can find
> the problem, I'd be very thankful!  Here's the code:

You've got two problems. One of them causes your problem. The other
caues you to duplicate a *lot* of code.

The first problem is that logical and equality tests don't
interoperate the way you think they do:

     (gameboard[0] and gameboard[1] and gameboard[2]) == 'X')

does *not* verify that each of gameboard[0], gameboard[1] and
gameboard[2] are all equal to 'X'. It tests whether or not the value
(gameboard[0] and gamerboard[1] and gameboard[2]) is equal to 'X'. The
former is almost certainly the value of gameboard[2], unless
gameboard[0] or gameboard[1] evaluates to a false value, in which case
that's the value you're comparing to 'X'. You'll have to break this
one out into a set of three tests.

Similar comments apply to tests like "gameboard[0] != ('O' or 'X')". The
rhs of that is a constant - 'X'. This one you can rewrite as
"gameboard[0] not in '0X'".

The second problem is that you're using code where you should be using
data. Whenver you see a long stretch of very similar code repeated
over and over, you should consider replacing the code with data. For
instance, all those things that look like:

      if row == X and column == Y:
         if gameboard[V] not in 'OX':
            gammeboard[V] = 'O'
         else:
            print "This cell is already filled."
            turnnumber -= 1
      [repeate multiple times. And while I'm at it, the second and further
      tests in this string should be elif, not if.]


Can be replaced by a dictionary (or a list of lists):

boardmap = {(1, 1): 0, (2, 1): 3, (3, 1): 6,
            (1, 2): 1, (2, 2): 4, (3, 2): 7,
            (1, 3): 2, (2, 3): 5, (3, 3): 8
           }

     cell = boardmap[row, column]
     if gameboard[cell] not in 'OX':
        gameboard[cell] = 'O'
     else:
        print "This cell is already filled."
        turnnumber -= 1
           

The representation as a list of lists is left as an exercise for the
reader.

        <mike

> # TIC TAC TOE
> # Started: 10/31/05
> # Ended:  still in progress
>
> loop = 1
>
> while loop == 1:
>     print "TIC TAC TOE"
>     print "1 - Play Multiplayer"
>     print "2 - Quit"
>     option = input("> ")
>
>     if option == 2:
>         # QUIT
>         loop = 0
>
>     if option == 1:
>         # MAIN GAME LOOP
>         print "Rules:  You will alternate turns."
>         print "On your turn, you can place your letter (O = Player 1 or
> X = Player 2)",
>         print "in any unoccupied square."
>         print "The first to get 3 in a row wins.  Good luck!"
>
>         gameboard = [' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',' ']
>
>         win = 0
>         turnnumber = 0
>
>         while win != 1:
>             if turnnumber % 2 == 0:
>                 print " "
>                 print "Player 1"
>                 print " "
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[0],"]","[",gameboard[1],"]","[",gameboard[2],"]"
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[3],"]","[",gameboard[4],"]","[",gameboard[5],"]"
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[6],"]","[",gameboard[7],"]","[",gameboard[8],"]"
>                 print "What row?"
>                 row = input("> ")
>                 print "What column?"
>                 column = input("> ")
>
>                 if (row > 3 or row < 1) or (column > 3 or column < 1):
>                     print "Exceeeded limits."
>                     turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 1 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[0] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[0] = ('O')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[3] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[3] = ('O')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>                 if row == 3 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[6] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[6] = ('O')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 1 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[1] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[1] = ('O')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[4] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[4] = ('O')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 3 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[7] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[7] = ('O')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 1 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[2] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[2] = ('O')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[5] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[5] = ('O')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 3 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[8] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[8] = ('O')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 turnnumber = turnnumber + 1
>
>             if (((gameboard[0] and gameboard[1] and gameboard[2]) ==
> 'O') or ((gameboard[3] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[5]) == 'O') or
> ((gameboard[6] and gameboard[7] and gameboard[8]) == 'O')\
>             or ((gameboard[0] and gameboard[3] and gameboard[6]) ==
> 'O') or ((gameboard[1] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[7]) == 'O') or
> ((gameboard[2] and gameboard[5] and gameboard[8]) == 'O')\
>             or ((gameboard[0] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[8]) ==
> 'O') or ((gameboard[2] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[6]) == 'O')):
>                 print "Player 1 wins!"
>                 win = 1
>
>             if ((gameboard[0:9]) == ('O' or 'X')) and (win == 0):
>                 print "Tie."
>                 win = 1
>
>             if turnnumber % 2 == 1 and win != 1:
>                 print " "
>                 print "Player 2"
>                 print " "
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[0],"]","[",gameboard[1],"]","[",gameboard[2],"]"
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[3],"]","[",gameboard[4],"]","[",gameboard[5],"]"
>                 print
> "[",gameboard[6],"]","[",gameboard[7],"]","[",gameboard[8],"]"
>                 print "What row?"
>                 row = input("> ")
>                 print "What column?"
>                 column = input("> ")
>
>                 if (row > 3 or row < 1) or (column > 3 or column < 1):
>                     print "Exceeeded limits."
>                     turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>                 if row == 1 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[0] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[0] = ('X')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[3] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[3] = ('X')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 3 and column == 1:
>                     if gameboard[6] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[6] = ('X')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 1 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[1] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[1] = ('X')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[4] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[4] = ('X')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 3 and column == 2:
>                     if gameboard[7] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[7] = ('X')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 1 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[2] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[2] = ('X')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 2 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[5] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[5] = ('X')
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 if row == 3 and column == 3:
>                     if gameboard[8] != ('O' or 'X'):
>                         gameboard[8] = ('X')
>
>                     else:
>                         print "This cell is already filled."
>                         turnnumber = turnnumber - 1
>
>                 turnnumber = turnnumber + 1
>
>             if (((gameboard[0] and gameboard[1] and gameboard[2]) ==
> 'X') or ((gameboard[3] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[5]) == 'X') or
> ((gameboard[6] and gameboard[7] and gameboard[8]) == 'X')\
>             or ((gameboard[0] and gameboard[3] and gameboard[6]) ==
> 'X') or ((gameboard[1] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[7]) == 'X') or
> ((gameboard[2] and gameboard[5] and gameboard[8]) == 'X')\
>             or ((gameboard[0] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[8]) ==
> 'X') or ((gameboard[2] and gameboard[4] and gameboard[6]) == 'X')):
>                 print "Player 2 wins!"
>                 win = 1
>

-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.