Implementing the Hangman Sport in Python

Hangman was a very enjoyable sport in our house. We might seize a pen and paper and take turns selecting phrases for the opposite to guess. Right now, it’s utilized in classroom settings to assist youngsters follow their spellings, perceive strategic resolution 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. It is a beginner-friendly venture the place we are going to study the fundamentals of the Python language, resembling defining variables, generally used capabilities, loops, and conditional statements.

Understanding the Mission

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 comparable 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 firstly, and with every fallacious 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, and so they 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 venture, the pc might be Participant 1, producing the phrase to guess, whereas we, the person, might 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 at all times an excellent follow to attract one. Now allow us to begin with coding the issue!

Step 1: Record of Phrases and the Random Module

Step one on this venture is for the pc to decide on a random phrase that the person should guess. For this goal, 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 can 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 venture.

Because the title suggests, a Python Record is a datatype that shops in itself a group of things. An inventory of colours might be outlined in Python as colours = ["red", "yellow", "green", "blue", "pink"]. You’ll be able to take a look at the Record syntax and extra data from the Python official web page on Record.

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

You’ll be able to entry the venture information from my GitHub repository. hangman_words.py is the Python file that comprises 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’d like the pc to decide on a random phrase from the given listing of phrases word_list. Python has a module particularly for this goal referred to as “random”. We’ll 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 venture to reinforce understanding, and remark it out when taking part in with the pc!

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

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

Step 2: Producing Blanks

The following step is to generate blanks equal to the variety of letters within the word_to_guess in order that the person will get an thought 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 can act as a container for the unguessed letters of the phrase. It’s 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_listwe are going to use the Python operate len()that calculates the size of a string. Extra data on this in-built operate may 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_guesswe are going to use this quantity so as to add an equal variety of “_” within the variable blanks. For this goal, we are going to use the for loop, a Python performance that enables us to iterate over objects 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’s 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 might 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: Examine if the Letter is within the Phrase

As soon as the person has guessed a letter, we are going to verify whether or not the person has guessed it proper and verify 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_wordwhich can replace with the guessed letters and an empty listing referred to as,letters_guessed which can retailer the letters guessed accurately by the person (this might 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_guessthe code will replace the variable your_word so as to add the letter guessed at its applicable location. We have to perceive that in Python, strings are in actual fact a sequence of characters, and lots of listing capabilities are relevant to strings as properly. Furthermore, we may even add this letter guessed accurately to the listing letters_guessed.
• If the letter that the person has guessed, guessis within the letters_guessedwhich suggests the person has already instructed this letter earlier than, then we received’t want so as to add this to the letters_guessedhowever simply have so as to add the letter within the your_word at its applicable location.
• Else, if the letter guessed by the person just isn’t within the word_to_guessand due to this fact is not going to be within the letters_guessedwe are going to easy generate blanks in locations.

If the code above appears a bit overwhelming, be at liberty to only run the above for loop whereas defining the variables and printing every of the variables: word_to_guess, guess, guessed_lettersand 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 venture. With the intention to code this venture, we’d like to bear in mind the next factors:

• The person has an outlined variety of lives firstly
• For every letter guessed fallacious, the lives are lowered 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 could be the time to include the concept of lives, and cut back it when the person has guessed a letter fallacious.

Allow us to outline the variety of lives for the person with the variable number_of_lives. The person has 6 probabilities to recommend the fallacious 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’ll use this Boolean variable to proceed the sport whereas it’s False and vice versa. Initially, whereas the sport begins, this variable might be Falsethat 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 embody the situations 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 can output the letters guessed up to now in line with their place within the word_to_guess.

Step 6: Dealing with Conditions

The final step is to deal with completely 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 aren’t any extra blanks in your_word? This may imply that the person has guessed the phrase and thus received.

We’ll 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_guessthe person’s guess is inaccurate, then their lives might be lowered by 1, and we are going to inform the person that their guessed letter just isn’t within the phrase. If decreasing the lives by a fallacious guess finishes all of the person’s lives, then our boolean variable game_over might be set as True and the sport will finish, with the person shedding 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. An entire code together with invaluable feedback may be accessed by means of this GitHub repository for a greater understanding.

Conclusion

The above coding venture was finished with the fundamentals of the Python language. We got here throughout some built-in capabilities, 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 fundamental instruments that each newbie should know earlier than they leap into advanced coding. We may even have outlined and referred to as capabilities on this program, however this was meant to be a beginner-friendly introduction to the Python language. In case you are a professional in Python, be at liberty to share numerous different methods we may have approached this venture!