Using user input function in Classes

Question

I am making a simple game with multiple players, which each player can insert their first name, last name and each player is assigned 100 poins at the begging. In my code once I am done with coding the "essential" information, but when it comes to user input it does not work.

The "base" for the player class: (this part works)

class Players(): 
 def __init__ (self, firstname, lastname, coins): #initialising attributes
 self.firstname = firstname
 
 self.lastname = lastname
 
 self.coins= coins
 
 def full_info(self):
 return self.firstname + self.lastname + self.coins

This is the second part where the problem is, the input is not stored in the attributes

 def get_user_input(self):
 firstname= input("Please enter your first name:")
 lastname= input ("Please enter your second name: ")
 coins= 100 #they are assigned automatically 
 return self(firstname, lastname, coins)

I would appriciate any suggesting regarding the user input.

• PM 77-1: Create your minimal reproducible example and add to your question,
• Swifty: You never store the info into the attributes... Perhaps you could place your input lines into the init method and store them into the attributes at this time

Answer 1

Your function to build a new instance from user input should be a classmethod or a staticmethod, since you want to call it to create a new instance.

I'd also suggest using @dataclass so you don't need to copy and paste all the variable names in __init__, and using an f-string in your full_info function so you don't hit an error when you try to add coins to the name strings.

All together it might look like:

from dataclasses import dataclass
@dataclass
class Player: 
 firstname: str
 lastname: str
 coins: int
 def full_info(self) -> str:
 return f"{self.firstname} {self.lastname} {self.coins}"
 @classmethod
 def from_user_input(cls) -> 'Player':
 return cls(
 firstname=input("Please enter your first name:"),
 lastname=input("Please enter your second name: "),
 coins=100,
 )

Then you can call Player.from_user_input() to prompt the user for a name and return a new Player object:

>>> player = Player.from_user_input()
Please enter your first name:Bob
Please enter your second name: Small
>>> player
Player(firstname='Bob', lastname='Small', coins=100)
>>> player.full_info()
'Bob Small 100'

• cupcake3: Thank you for your response, for player 1 I would do this: player1 = Player.from_user_input() Player(firstname='', lastname='', coins=100) print(player1) and then for the player 2 I would change player 1 to player 2?
• cupcake3: I like this method, is it possible to simplyfy it a bit? Especially the part with with "str". In my case, it might be better to use more beggining approach
• Samwise: player1, player2 = Player.from_user_input(), Player.from_user_input() gets you 2 players. I'm not sure what you mean by "simplify" -- there might be some new concepts in here for you, but if you're a beginner the whole point of doing exercises like this is to learn things. :) If you encounter a concept that's confusing, it's more productive to ask "how does this work" than to ask "how do I do it without this" -- the other way might just be more complicated!

Answer 2

If you want to stay close to your original code, a few changes will work:

class Players(): 
 def __init__ (self, firstname, lastname, coins): #initialising attributes
 self.firstname = firstname 
 self.lastname = lastname
 self.coins= coins
 
 def full_info(self):
 return self.firstname + ' ' + self.lastname + ' ' + str(self.coins)
 
def get_user_input():
 firstname= input("Please enter your first name:")
 lastname= input ("Please enter your second name: ")
 coins= 100 #they are assigned automatically 
 return Players(firstname, lastname, coins)

An example:

a=get_user_input()
Please enter your first name:UN
Please enter your second name: Owen
a.full_info()
Out[21]: 'UN Owen 100'

• user19077881: Or just use self.firstname = input ... etc. No return required,
• cupcake3: Thank you for your reposne! It did work. I have a question regarding other players. If person "a" is the first person, for the second person i would do the same but change a (to b, for exmaple)?
• Swifty: Yes; and if you want to do several (let's say n) players, you could use a list instead: n = number_of_players ; l_players = [] ; for i in range(n): l_players.append(get_user_input())
• Swifty: @user19077881: you're right, provided get_user_input() is defined as a method of the Players class; here I kept it an outside function (to stay close to the original code).
• Swifty: Hello; having to follow a link to outside code is kinda painful; please make this into a new question :)