lists and list item matches (ghost wodgame)

[cbrown at cbrownsystems.com]

On Sep 22, 3:39 pm, Baba <raoul... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 22, 9:18 pm, Baba <raoul... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Sep 22, 3:38 pm, nn <prueba... at latinmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > On Sep 21, 6:39 pm, Baba <raoul... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > Hi
>
> > > > query level: beginner
>
> > > > as part of a learning exercise i have written code that:
>

<snip problem description>

> > wordlist = ['hello', 'bye']
> > hand = ''
> > for item in wordlist:
> >     if item.startswith(hand):
> >         while item.startswith(hand):
> >             if hand not in wordlist:
> >                 hand += raw_input('enter letter: ')
> >                 print hand
> >             else: break
> >         else: break
> > print 'you loose'
>
> > But i can't figure out why it won't work when adding the extra word.
> > Thanks by the way, it taught me not to be too confident when things
> > SEEM to work...
>

<snip>

> looking at my original code again i realise that having a raw_input
> inside a FOR loop is flawed per se (at least for my purposes) so i
> will just assume that i was taking the wrong approach initially. No
> point in analysing it further. Thanks for your help.
>

Yes, the overall structure using the 'for' loop was a bit awkward, and
your second attempt using 'any' is much clearer; but I'd say it's
still worth seeing how your original logic failed. It has to do with
the action of the 'break's. Ask yourself, which code block does the
'if <> else: break' contained /within/ your while loop, break you out
of? And which code block does the 'while <> else: break' break you out
of?

One other thing... it's 'you LOSE', not 'you LOOSE'!!!!! (personal pet
peeve ;-) )

Cheers - Chas