python hangman (another one)

Question

I'm pretty new to python and have created a simple hangman. Since doing so I realise this appears to be a fairy common theme. It uses /usr/share/dict/words on the local system, resulting in some tricky words to guess. I guess I should look at maybe curl'ing a URL to get random words or an API. I've also not defined a main(), not sure if that's bad practice. Feedback appreciated.

#!/usr/local/bin/python3
import os
import random
import subprocess
def draw_man_and_show_word():
 global word
 showword=''.join(word)
 os.system('clear')
 for y in range(0,7):
 for x in range(0,7):
 print (chr(array[y][x]),end='')
 print()
 print () 
 print (showword)
 print () 
def add_limb_to_man():
 global size
 y=man[size][0]
 x=man[size][1]
 c=man[size][2]
 array[x][y]=c 
 size=size+1
def find_random_word():
 global theword
 lines=int(subprocess.getoutput("wc -l /usr/share/dict/words | awk \'{print 1ドル}\'"))
 line=random.randint(1,lines)
 theword=subprocess.getoutput("head -"+str(line)+" /usr/share/dict/words |tail -1")
 theword=str.lower(theword) 
# 2D array of character (ASCII) values as a matrix for the hangman pic
array=[[124,45,45,45,45,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,124,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32]]
# 2D array with the (single) character position to change (x,y,newvalue) for each additional limb
man=[[4,2,79],[4,3,43],[3,3,47],[5,3,92],[4,4,124],[3,5,47],[5,5,92]]
size=tries=0
limit=6
letters_tried=""
find_random_word()
# Array to represent word shown on screen (using array as string immutable)
word=['-' for x in range(0,len(theword))]
while ((tries <= limit)):
 draw_man_and_show_word()
 letter=""
 while (len(letter) != 1 or not letter.islower() or letters_tried.find(letter) >= 0):
 letter=input("Enter your choice of (single lowercase) letter:")
 letters_tried=letters_tried+letter
 pos=theword.find(letter)
 if (pos >= 0):
 tmpword=theword
 while (pos >= 0):
 word[pos]=letter
 tmpword=tmpword.replace(letter,'#',1)
 pos=tmpword.find(letter)
 else:
 add_limb_to_man()
 tries=tries+1
 if (''.join(word) == theword):
 draw_man_and_show_word()
 print()
 print("you got it!")
 exit()
draw_man_and_show_word()
print ("you lost. It was "+theword)

• 23vc: Edit: corrected the handling of counting lines in /usr/share/dict/words to allow it to not be mac specific, (slightly different wc output to fedora) and added correct handling of letters already tried using letters_tried variable

Answer 1

1. Avoid working in the global namespace

   This makes maintenance of code a pain. Instead create a main or hangman function

2. Don't use global instead make these variables parameters of you function

   def draw_man_and_show_word():
    global word
   

   Could be

   def draw_man_and_show_word(word):
   

3. Don't make lines to long, they become really hard to read

   array=[[124,45,45,45,45,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,124,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32],[124,32,32,32,32,32,32,32]]
   

   See how you need to scroll all the way to the right, this would be much more easy on the eyes

   HANGMAN = [
    ['|', '-', '-', '-', '-', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', '|', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
    ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ']
    ]
   

   I also changed it to their character form which makes it even more easy to read

   And made the variable name ALL_CAPS since this is a constant

4. Use unpacking // Optional namedtuple

   man=[[4,2,79],[4,3,43],[3,3,47],[5,3,92],[4,4,124],[3,5,47],[5,5,92]]
   y=man[size][0]
   x=man[size][1]
   c=man[size][2]
   array[x][y]=c 
   size=size+1
   

   First I cleaned it up a bit

   HANGMAN_STAGES = [
    [4, 2, 'O'],
    [4, 3, '+'],
    [3, 3, '/'],
    [5, 3, '\\'],
    [4, 4, '|'],
    [3, 5, '/'],
    [5, 5, '\\']
    ]
   

   And we can unpack the values from the list of lists with this

   x, y, value = HANGMAN_STAGES[size]

   Alternatively you can use the namedtuple module to store information more visually

   The it would become

   from collections import namedtuple
   Stage = namedtuple('Stage', 'x, y, value')
   HANGMAN_STAGES = [
    Stage(4, 2, 'O'),
    Stage(4, 3, '+'),
    Stage(3, 3, '/'),
    Stage(5, 3, '\\'),
    Stage(4, 4, '|'),
    Stage(3, 5, '/'),
    Stage(5, 5, '\\')
    ]
   

   And you can call them like this

   stage = HANGMAN_STAGES[size]
   HANGMAN[stage.y][stage.x] = stage.value
   

5. Make the guessed_letters a set()

   For fast lookup O(0)

6. join() instead of manually appending chars

   for y in range(0,7):
    for x in range(0,7):
    print (chr(array[y][x]),end='')
    print()
   

   Could be rewritten as print('\n'.join(''.join(row) for row in draw_list))

   If we have changed the HANGMAN to contain chr instead of the ordinal values

7. Instead of the find and replace methods you could have used enumerate

   pos=theword.find(letter)
   if (pos >= 0):
    tmpword=theword
    while (pos >= 0):
    word[pos]=letter
    tmpword=tmpword.replace(letter,'#',1)
    pos=tmpword.find(letter)
   

   Can be rewritten in the form of

   for idx, char in enumerate(theword):
    if char == letter:
    guessed_word[idx] = letter
   

   But strings can't be assigned... so you should set the data type of guessed_word to a list

8. Lastly top it off with a if __name__ == '__main__'

Putting it all together

import random
HANGMAN = [
 ['|', '-', '-', '-', '-', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', '|', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '],
 ['|', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ']
 ]
HANGMAN_STAGES = [
 [4, 2, 'O'],
 [4, 3, '+'],
 [3, 3, '/'],
 [5, 3, '\\'],
 [4, 4, '|'],
 [3, 5, '/'],
 [5, 5, '\\']
 ]
SPACE = '_'
def print_man_and_word(draw_list, guessed_word):
 print('\n'.join(''.join(row) for row in draw_list))
 print()
 print(''.join(guessed_word))
def get_random_word():
 # Your logic here (I don't have linux atm ;)
 word_list = ['cheese', 'pepper', 'sausage']
 return random.choice(word_list)
def get_letter(guessed_letters):
 letter = ''
 while len(letter) != 1 or not letter.islower() or letter in guessed_letters:
 letter = input("Enter your choice of (single lowercase) letter:")
 return letter
def hangman(word=None, draw_list=HANGMAN):
 if word is None:
 word = get_random_word()
 guessed_word = [SPACE] * len(word)
 guessed_letters = set()
 tries = 0
 while True:
 print_man_and_word(draw_list, guessed_word)
 letter = get_letter(guessed_letters)
 guessed_letters.add(letter)
 if letter in word:
 for idx, char in enumerate(word):
 if char == letter:
 guessed_word[idx] = letter
 else:
 x, y, value = HANGMAN_STAGES[tries]
 draw_list[y][x] = value
 tries += 1
 if all(char != SPACE for char in guessed_word):
 print_man_and_word(draw_list, guessed_word)
 print('\nYou got it!')
 exit()
 elif tries == len(HANGMAN_STAGES):
 print_man_and_word(draw_list, guessed_word)
 print('You lost! it is {}'.format(word))
 exit() 
if __name__ == '__main__':
 hangman()