[Tutor] Hangman game.....problem putting strings in a list.....

[ALAN GAULD]

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Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn To Program website
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/




----- Original Message ----

> full  error printout. I tried debugging it and I still don't know  why
> guessed[index] = (letter) gives me an error. I don't want to use the  append
> method because it will put the new letter at the end of the list which  is
> very different then playing the hangman game..

OK, On reading it again I see why you are using the index approach.


> guessed =  guessed[0] *  (len(line)-1)

That should be OK although personally I'd use a list comprehension 
to initialise the list:

guessed = [None for c in line]  # use the characters in line to get 
corresponding Nones

> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "/Python_Hello_World/src/HangMan/__init__.py", line 72, in  <module>
> doit();
> File "/Python_Hello_World/src/HangMan/__init__.py",  line 56, in doit
> guess(a_letter);
>   File  "/Python_Hello_World/src/HangMan/__init__.py", line 15, in guess
>      guessed[index] = (letter);
> TypeError: 'str' object does not support  item assignment

I don't understand how you are getting this either, I don't get that error 
in similar code. Can you insert a print statement just before that line like:

print 'index: ',index, '\tletter: ',letter,\nguessed: ', guessed

So we can see the values just before the line is executed.
Also drop the semi colon and parens. They shouldn't do any harm 
but it removes two more variables from the equation...

> I am switching from java so my python style might be  a bit unorthodox. I do
> however access my global variables in different  methods... Don't know why it
> is encouraged in java and discouraged in python  ?

I've never seen global variables being encouraged in Java. I think you may 
be thinking of class (or instance) variables which are also ok in Python
albeit more clearly identified by prefixing with self (ie 'this' in Java).


> >> guessed = ["-"];
> >> count  = 0;
> >> wrong = 0;
> >> 
> >> def  guess(letter):
> >>     global guessed
> > 
> >>     if (letter in line):
> > 
> > You don't need  the parens, they don't do any harm,
> > but they aren't needed.
> > 
> >>         index =  line.index(letter);
> >>         print  guessed;
> > 
> >> # This is the line that gives me the error don't  know why?
> >> guessed[index] = " " + (letter); ,TypeError: 'str' object  does not
> >> support item assignment
> > 
> >>          guessed[index] = (letter);
> > 
> > Again, you don't need  the parens...
> > And I suspect you really want to use append() here  rather
> > than assigning to guessed[index].
> > 
> >>          print ' '.join(guessed)
> >>      else:
> >>         global wrong;
> >>          wrong += 1;
> >> 
> >> 
> >> def  draw(number):...
> > 
> >> def doit():
> >>      global count
> >>     while(wrong != 7):
> >>          a_letter = raw_input("Pick a letter -->  ")
> >>         print
> >>          guess(a_letter);
> >>          draw(wrong);
> >>         print
> >>          count += 1
> >> 
> >> def  initArray():
> >>     global guessed
> >>      print line
> >>     guessed =  guessed[0] *  (len(line)-1)
> >>     print "this is new list " +  guessed;
> > 
> > If you use the append() method you don't need  this.
> > 
> >> while 1:
> >>     line =  file.readline();
> >>     if (len(line) >=  5):
> >>         initArray()
> >>          doit();
> >>          break
> >>     if not line: break
> >> 
> >>  file.close()
> > 
> > HTH,
> > 
> 
> 
>