lists and list item matches (ghost wodgame)

[nn]

On Sep 21, 6:39 pm, Baba <raoul... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> query level: beginner
>
> as part of a learning exercise i have written code that:
>
> a) asks for a single letter input (assumption: only 1 letter wil be
> entered)
> b) adds that letter to list1 and then goes through list2 and checks:
>
>     1) if any item in list2 starts with list1 > if False: break
>     2) if list1 == any item in list2 > if True: break
>
> c) start again until 2) is True
>
> wordlist = ['hello', 'bye']
> handlist = []
> letter = raw_input('enter letter: ')
> handlist.append(letter)
> hand = "".join(handlist)
> for item in wordlist:
>     if item.startswith(hand):
>         while item.startswith(hand):
>             if hand not in wordlist:
>                 letter = raw_input('enter letter: ')
>                 handlist.append(letter)
>                 hand = "".join(handlist)
>             else: break
>         else: break
> print 'you loose'
>
> this code works but can it be optimised? i have the feeling that my
> nesting of IF, WHILE and FOR statements is overkill?
>
> inspired by part IV ofhttp://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-scienc...
>
> thanks
> Baba

Yes it is overkill. Especially the else:break from the while loop
makes it difficult to follow the logic. Also the program breaks down
if I use the following word list:

wordlist = ['hello', 'hamburger', 'bye']
>>>
enter letter: h
enter letter: a
you loose

I am not going to post any spoilers but I wrote your program using one
while loop and one generator expression for a total of 5 lines. My
version might be a bit too advanced but you should still be able to do
it using only one while, one for and one if instead.