Introduction

Let’s build a game: Hangman! The computer will pick a word, and the player can guess it letter-by-letter, but if they make too many wrong guesses, they’ll lose.

Step 1: Pick a word

We start by picking a random word, so let’s begin

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Open IDLE, and open a new window.

Write in the following code:

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

print(word)

Save your program, and run it. What word does it print?
Run it again, does it print a different word?

Each time you run this program, it picks a random word from the list ["code", "club"], using the choice function.

Step 2: Guess a letter

Now we’ve picked a word, let’s find out how to guess a letter.

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With the same file, edit the code so it looks like this

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

out = ""

for letter in word:
    out = out + "_"

print("Guess a letter in the word:", out)

Save and run the program.
You should see “Guess a letter in the word: ____”, in the output window (the other window, not the one you’ve written your program in.) We use a for loop to build up some text with an underscore _ for each letter in the word. The word “code” put in, will write out ____ to the screen.

Let’s guess a letter! Change the code to look like this:

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

out = ""

for letter in word:
    out = out + "_"

print("Guess a letter in the word, then press enter:", out)

guess = input()

if guess in word:
    print("Yay")
else:
    print("Nope")

We use a new function input() to find out what the player typed. We use if to find out if the letter was in the word. We’ve got the essentials down, so let’s continue onward.

(Python 2 Note: Use raw_input if you’re on an old version of python)

Step 3: Track the guesses

Now we’re going to use two features of python, lists and the while loop.

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In the same file, edit the code to look like this:

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

guessed = []

while True:

    out = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in guessed:
            out = out + letter
        else:
            out = out + "_"

    if out == word:
        print("You guessed", word)
        break


    print("Guess the word:", out)
    guess = input()

    if guess in guessed:
        print("Already guessed", guess)
    elif guess in word:
        print("Yay")
        guessed.append(guess)
    else:
        print("Nope")

    print()

Run the code, try guessing the letters. What we’ve done is put a loop, like forever in scratch, that will keep asking for letters from the player, until they guess the word. We also use a list, guessed, which we add the letters to when they’re right. This program will loop forever until all the letters are guessed.

Step 4: Track the mistakes

Hangman should only give you a few chances to guess, rather than trying every letter in turn

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Edit the existing file, and change it to look like the following:

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

guessed = []
wrong = []

while True:

    out = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in guessed:
            out = out + letter
        else:
            out = out + "_"

    if out == word:
        print("You guessed", word)
        break

    print("Guess the word:", out)

    guess = input()

    if guess in guessed or guess in wrong:
        print("Already guessed", guess)
    elif guess in word:
        print("Yay")
        guessed.append(guess)
    else:
        print("Nope")
        wrong.append(guess)

    print()

We’re using a new list, wrong, to store all the guesses that weren’t right

Only one last thing before the game is complete, which is to only have a few chances to guess.

Step 5: Only a few chances

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Edit the file, to introduce a new variable, tries:

from random import choice

word = choice(["code", "club"])

guessed = []
wrong = []

tries = 7

while tries > 0:

    out = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in guessed:
            out = out + letter
        else:
            out = out + "_"

    if out == word:
        break

    print("Guess the word:", out)
    print(tries, "chances left")

    guess = input()

    if guess in guessed or guess in wrong:
        print("Already guessed", guess)
    elif guess in word:
        print("Yay")
        guessed.append(guess)
    else:
        print("Nope")
        tries = tries - 1
        wrong.append(guess)

    print()

if tries:
    print("You guessed", word)
else:
    print("You didn't get", word)

Run the file, and see what happens when you guess wrong letters

Step 6: Add some new words in

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Find the line in the source code:
```
word = choice(["code", "club"])
```

Edit it to add more words, why not try

word = choice(["code", "club", "robot", "party"])

Remember to put the words in quotes, and put a comma between them to make a list of words.

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Introduction

Step 1: Pick a word

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Step 2: Guess a letter

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Step 3: Track the guesses

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Step 4: Track the mistakes

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Step 5: Only a few chances

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Step 6: Add some new words in

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Hi there!