Implementing the Hangman Sport in Python

, Hangman was a extremely enjoyable sport in our dwelling. We might seize a pen and paper and take turns selecting phrases for the opposite to guess. At the moment, it’s utilized in classroom settings to assist youngsters apply their spellings, perceive strategic choice making by selecting vowels first, and brainstorm doable phrases from hints.

On this article, we are going to undergo the Hangman Sport by implementing it in Python. This can be a beginner-friendly mission the place we are going to study the fundamentals of the Python language, equivalent to defining variables, generally used features, loops, and conditional statements.

Understanding the Undertaking

First, we are going to perceive the sport and get into the depths of how our code ought to work.

In a typical 2-player Hangman Sport, Participant 1 chooses a phrase, hiding it from Participant 2, and generates blanks equivalent to the variety of letters within the phrase he selected for guessing. Participant 2 has to guess the phrase by guessing one letter at a time. Participant 2 has an outlined variety of lives in the beginning, and with every improper guess of letters, they lose a life (to the purpose the place the person is hanged). With every proper guess, the lives stay the identical as earlier than. If Participant 2 loses all their lives with out guessing the phrase, the sport is over, they usually lose. In the event that they handle to guess the phrase, they win the sport. That is the define of the sport in its conventional sense.

On this mission, the pc will likely be Participant 1, producing the phrase to guess, whereas we, the person, will likely be Participant 2. Allow us to implement the above utilizing a flowchart for higher comprehension.

Drawing a flowchart and defining every step helps in turning our thought course of into code, so its all the time an excellent apply to attract one. Now allow us to begin with coding the issue!

Step 1: Listing of Phrases and the Random Module

Step one on this mission is for the pc to decide on a random phrase that the person must guess. For this function, we are going to want each a listing of phrases from which the pc picks one phrase to be guessed, and a Python operate referred to as random, which is able to randomly select that phrase from the given listing.

To generate the listing, I googled the 100 most typical nouns used within the English language and located a listing. I used these phrases and created a Python listing with it for use on this mission.

Because the title suggests, a Python Listing is a datatype that shops in itself a group of things. A listing of colours will likely be outlined in Python as colours = ["red", "yellow", "green", "blue", "pink"]. You’ll be able to try the Listing syntax and extra info from the Python official web page on Listing.

word_list = [
    "time",
    "year",
    "people",
    "way",
    "day",
    "man",
    "thing",
    ...
    ]

You’ll be able to entry the mission recordsdata from my GitHub repository. hangman_words.py is the Python file that incorporates the listing of phrases from which the pc will randomly select a phrase for the sport.

Now, as soon as our listing is created, we want the pc to decide on a random phrase from the given listing of phrases word_list. Python has a module particularly for this function referred to as “random”. We are going to import the module and use it to permit the pc to randomly select a phrase word_to_guess from the listing words_list. You’ll be able to print the word_to_guess whereas coding the mission to reinforce understanding, and remark it out when enjoying with the pc!

import random
word_to_guess = random.alternative(word_list)
print(word_to_guess)

For extra info on the random.alternative() operate, click on right here.

Step 2: Producing Blanks

The subsequent step is to generate blanks equal to the variety of letters within the word_to_guess in order that the person will get an concept of the variety of letters within the phrase he has to guess. For this, we are going to outline a variable referred to as blanks which is able to act as a container for the unguessed letters of the phrase. It is going to include the variety of “_” equal to the variety of letters within the word_to_guess.

To calculate the variety of letters within the word_to_guess that has been randomly picked by the pc from the words_list, we are going to use the Python operate len()that calculates the size of a string. Extra info on this in-built operate could be accessed by means of this hyperlink.

blanks = ""
word_length = len(word_to_guess)

As we now know the variety of letters in word_to_guess, we are going to use this quantity so as to add an equal variety of “_” within the variable blanks. For this function, we are going to use the for loop, a Python performance that permits us to iterate over gadgets in a sequence, in our case, the string that’s saved within the variable word_to_guess. Click on right here to study extra about for loop and its syntax.

for i in vary(word_length):
    blanks = blanks + " _"
print("Phrase to guess: " + blanks)

The above block of code will iterate over the variety of letters within the word_to_guess string and generate a clean for every letter. It is going to print out as many _ because the variety of letters, every clean as a placeholder for the letter of the phrase to guess. So for the phrase “time”, the output printed on the display screen will likely be :

Phrase to guess: _ _ _ _

Step 3: Prompting the Consumer to Guess a Letter

Now the sport truly begins! The pc has picked a phrase, generated clean placeholders for the letters in that phrase. Now comes the time for the person to begin guessing the phrase by guessing one letter at a time.

To ask the person for a letter, we are going to use the enter operate in Python and retailer it within the variable guess:

guess = enter("Guess a letter").decrease()

Click on right here to study extra in regards to the Python built-in operate enter().

Step 4: Verify if the Letter is within the Phrase

As soon as the person has guessed a letter, we are going to test whether or not the person has guessed it proper and test whether it is within the word_to_guess.

To do that, we are going to use a for loop. Furthermore, we may even create one other variable, your_word, which is able to replace with the guessed letters and an empty listing referred to as,letters_guessed which is able to retailer the letters guessed appropriately by the person (this will likely be helpful as we are going to see later).

So, for instance, if the pc has picked the phrase “cheesecake”, as the sport progresses and the person has guessed the letters “c”, “e”, and “a”, that is what each your_word and letters_guessed would seem like:

your_word = c_ee_eca_e

letters_guessed = [“c”, “e”, “a”]

letters_guessed = []
your_word = ""

for letter in word_to_guess:
    if letter == guess:
        your_word  = your_word + letter
        letters_guessed.append(guess)
    elif letter in letters_guessed:
        your_word  = your_word + letter
    else:
        your_word = your_word + "_"

So mainly what the above loop does is that it iterates by means of the word_to_guess one letter at a time, and checks:

• If the letter guessed by the person guess is within the word_to_guess, the code will replace the variable your_word so as to add the letter guessed at its acceptable location. We have to perceive that in Python, strings are in actual fact a sequence of characters, and plenty of listing features are relevant to strings as properly. Furthermore, we may even add this letter guessed appropriately to the listing letters_guessed.
• If the letter that the person has guessed, guess, is within the letters_guessed, which implies the person has already instructed this letter earlier than, then we gained’t want so as to add this to the letters_guessed, however simply have so as to add the letter within the your_word at its acceptable location.
• Else, if the letter guessed by the person just isn’t within the word_to_guess, and due to this fact is not going to be within the letters_guessed, we are going to easy generate blanks in locations.

If the code above appears a bit overwhelming, be happy to only run the above for loop whereas defining the variables and printing every of the variables: word_to_guess, guess, guessed_letters, and your_word and printing the variables the place they’re modified.

Step 5: Creating the Whereas Loop that runs till the Sport is Over

Allow us to refer again to the flowchart we created to assist us perceive the mission. In an effort to code this mission, we want to bear in mind the next factors:

• The person has an outlined variety of lives in the beginning
• For every letter guessed improper, the lives are diminished by 1
  • If the person runs out of lives, the person loses and the sport is over
  • If the person has lives left, the pc will ask the person to guess one other letter
• For every letter guessed proper, the lives stay unchanged, and a clean is changed by a letter within the placeholder blanks
  • If the variable your_word is all crammed, the person wins the sport, and the sport is over
  • If the variable your_word has clean areas left, then the pc will once more ask the person to guess the subsequent letter

Since we’ve created the for loop beforehand that caters to the guessed letter, now’s the time to include the concept of lives, and cut back it when the person has guessed a letter improper.

Allow us to outline the variety of lives for the person with the variable number_of_lives. The person has 6 probabilities to counsel the improper letter in guessing the phrase.

number_of_lives = 6

Now, contemplating the factors talked about above, we additionally want a variable or a situation that tells us to cease asking the person to guess when the sport is over. Allow us to code it with the assistance of a Boolean variable.

Merely stating, a Boolean is a datatype in Python that shops both True or False. We are going to use this Boolean variable to proceed the sport whereas it’s False and vice versa. Initially, whereas the sport begins, this variable will likely be False, which means the sport just isn’t over.

game_over = False

Now we are going to introduce a whereas loop with the situation that it’ll run so long as the sport just isn’t over, and we are going to embrace the circumstances talked about above on this whereas loop. Try extra in regards to the whereas loop from the Python official documentation right here.

whereas not sport over:
     print("nYou have ", number_of_lives, " lives remaining!")
     guess = enter("Guess a letter: ").decrease()

     your_word = ""

     for letter in word_to_guess:
        if letter == guess:
            your_word  = your_word + letter
            letters_guessed.append(guess)
        elif letter in letters_guessed:
            your_word  = your_word + letter
        else:
            your_word = your_word + "_"
     print("Phrase to guess: ", your_word)

Within the above piece of code, we’ve added the enter assertion in addition to the print assertion, which is able to output the letters guessed to date in line with their place within the word_to_guess.

Step 6: Dealing with Conditions

The final step is to deal with totally different circumstances. What occurs if the letter the person has guessed has already been instructed by the person, or the letter just isn’t within the phrase? Additionally, what if all of the letters have been guessed and there are not any extra blanks in your_word? This is able to imply that the person has guessed the phrase and thus gained.

We are going to add this example within the code with he following strains:

if guess in letters_guessed:
    print(f"nYou've already guessed {guess}")

if "_" not in your_word:
    game_over = True
    print("nYou have guessed the phrase! YOU WIN!")

Furthermore, if the letter guessed by the person just isn’t within the word_to_guess, the person’s guess is inaccurate, then their lives will likely be diminished by 1, and we are going to inform the person that their guessed letter just isn’t within the phrase. If lowering the lives by a improper guess finishes all of the person’s lives, then our boolean variable game_over will likely be set as True , and the sport will finish, with the person dropping the sport.

if guess not in word_to_guess:
    number_of_lives -= 1
    print(f"nYou guessed {guess}, that is not within the phrase. You lose a life.")

    if number_of_lives == 0:
        game_over = True
        print(f"nIT WAS {word_to_guess}! YOU LOSE!")

Bear in mind so as to add the above blocks of code contained in the whereas loop that runs till the sport just isn’t over. A whole code together with helpful feedback could be accessed by means of this GitHub repository for a greater understanding.

Conclusion

The above coding mission was carried out with the fundamentals of the Python language. We got here throughout some built-in features, like print(), and enter(), we used the random module to generate random phrases to guess and used for and whereas loops in numerous iterations in line with want. We additionally went by means of the conditional if, elif and else statements. These are all the essential instruments that each newbie should know earlier than they soar into complicated coding. We might even have outlined and referred to as features on this program, however this was meant to be a beginner-friendly introduction to the Python language. If you’re a professional in Python, be happy to share numerous different methods we might have approached this mission!