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I'm a python noob and I'm getting to grips with python via 'Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner (2nd Edition - Python 2.3, but I'm using 2.7)'.

The book presents challenges to complete and I'm having trouble getting my head round one of them; any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to get my head around this before I move on.

Chapter 3, Challenge 3 - Guess My Number: Modify the code below to limit the number of tries a player has to guess the number.

How would I go about doing this? The attempts I've made so far to set a variable, have all ended with the answer being revealed whether the user gets the answer right or not. Thanks in advance guys.

Guess My Number

The computer picks a random number between 1 and 100> The player tries to guess it and the computer lets the player know if the guess is too high, too low or right on the money

import random

print "\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!"
print "\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100." 
print "Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n"

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randrange(100) + 1
guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
tries = 1

# guessing loop
while (guess != the_number):
    if (guess > the_number):
        print "Lower..."
    else:
        print "Higher..."

guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
tries += 1

print "You guessed it!  The number was", the_number
print "And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n"

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

So far, I've attempted the following unsuccessfully.

import random  

print "\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!"
print "\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100." 
print "Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n"

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randrange(100) + 1
guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
tries = 1
limit = 8

# guessing loop
while (guess != the_number and tries < limit):
    if (guess > the_number):
        print "Lower..."
    elif (guess < the_number):
        print "Higher..."
    else:
        print "You've used all " + limit -1 +"of your attempts \
and didn't get the right answer. Shame on You!"

    guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
    tries += 1

print "You guessed it!  The number was", the_number
print "And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n"

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")
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2
  • 4
    Why not start by explaining, in your own words, how the original code works? Commented Dec 27, 2010 at 23:29
  • 1
    Sorry, I thought I had. It's a simple game, "Guess My Number - The computer picks a random number between 1 and 100> The player tries to guess it and the computer lets the player know if the guess is too high, too low or right on the money" Forgive me, I'm new here, should I have explained further? Commented Dec 27, 2010 at 23:47

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
2

You have a tries variable there. How about checking it inside while and if it reaches a certain value, you print a message to the user and exit ;)

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3 Comments

Can you post an example please? I'll post what I've attempted so far.
Maybe it's the paste, but you have a problem with the indentation above. If you indent the raw_input a tab inside so that it becomes a part of the while loop, you can change while like : while (guess != the_number): if tries >= 5: print "no more tries" and exit here or do whatever you like
SpyrosP that was exactly it. Thank you. I made raw_input part of the while loop so that if that outcome was true it would end. Such a simple solution! Thanks guys. I'm still learning, but hopefully I'll be able to return the favour and help a few noobs in the future.
1

I think what this exercise wants to teach you is the break statement. Before you had only one exit condition (guessing the number) but now you have also the limited number of tries.

One straight way to do this:

import random

print "\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!"
print "\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100." 
print "Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n"

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randrange(100) + 1

limit = 5
tries = 0

# guessing loop
while True: # we will test the conditions separately in the loop, not here
    # take a guess
    guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
    tries += 1 

    # first check the number
    if (guess > the_number):
        print "Lower..."
    elif (guess < the_number):
        print "Higher..."
    else: # it can only be equal here
        print "You guessed it!  The number was", the_number
        print "And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n"
        break # exit the while loop

    # now the tries:
    if tries == limit:
        print "You've used all %d of your attempts \
and didn't get the right answer. Shame on You!" % limit
        break

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")
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1 Comment

THC4k, that's a great breakdown - and well commented - it's all bit clearer now; very much appreciated. Thank you.
1

I'm just starting with programming and Python as well, using the same book. Here is what I came up with, and it seems to work!

# Guess My Number
#
# The computer picks a random number between 1 and 100
# The player tries to guess it and the computer lets
# the player know if the guess is too high, too low
# or right on the money

import random  

print("\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!")
print("\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100.")
print("Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n")

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randint(1, 100)
guess = int(input("Take a guess: "))

tries = 1
max_tries = 8

# guessing loop
while tries < max_tries and guess != the_number:

    if guess > the_number:
        print("Lower...")
    elif guess < the_number:
        print("Higher...")

    guess = int(input("Take a guess: "))
    tries += 1

# having it stop if person uses maximum number of tries
if tries >= max_tries:

    print("Ruh roh.  Looks like you're finished, pardner. The number was", the_number)

# text if person gets the right number within the number of tries.
else:
    if guess == the_number:
        print("You guessed it!  The number was", the_number)
        print("And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n")

input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")
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Comments

0

You don't have a loop around the guessing, which means the guessing happens only once. You need to put the whole guessing and testing structure inside some sort of loop (for or while).

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Your attempt is almost correct". There are two problems I can see. The first lies here:

print "You guessed it!  The number was", the_number
print "And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n"

Think about how you can execute the above only if max tries was not exceeded. Hint: You need to add one line and make a minor adjustment to the two lines above.

The second lies here:

    else:
        print "You've used all " + limit -1 +"of your attempts \
and didn't get the right answer. Shame on You!"

Will that else block ever execute? Take a look back at the while condition to see why. Again, there's a simple way to fix this.

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Yeah, noob mistake. I've gone with duffmo's code sample and simply included 'raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")' as part of the while loop. Works great. Thank you so much for your help though. I realise I can test the two conditions seperately.
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Something like this: 

import random

print "\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!"
print "\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100." 
print "Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n"

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randrange(100) + 1
guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))
tries = 1
max_tries = 5

# guessing loop
while ((tries < max_tries) && (guess != the_number)):
    if (guess > the_number):
        print "Lower..."
    else:
        print "Higher..."
    tries += 1
    guess = int(raw_input("Take a guess: "))

if tries == max_tries:
    print "Max # of tries exceeded"
else:
    print "You guessed it!  The number was", the_number
    print "And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n"

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")
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2 Comments

Thanks duffymo. The problem is that it still reveals the answer after max_tries is exceeded. Any ideas on how to prevent that?
Put the last 2 print lines inside an else:

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