CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythondictionary
Padraic Cunningham
Padraic Cunningham

Reputation: 180391

Python dictionary values

Hi I am just starting to learn how to program and have a function that I need to write in Python, this is the idea behind it:

It returns True if word is in the wordList and is entirely composed of letters in the hand. Otherwise, returns False. Does not mutate hand or wordList.

There is a function to call that checks the frequency of the letters in the word the user comes up with and that is a converted to a dict, I have tried using iteritems various ways but to no avail, I am getting stuck on the words that have repeated letters, they are being returned as true when I don't have two entries for that letter in the users hand.

Sorry if this is unclear I only started two weeks ago. any pointers would be great I have been stuck on this for a long time!

def isValidWord(hand,word,wordList):

    """
    Returns True if word is in the wordList and is entirely

    composed of letters in the hand. Otherwise, returns False.

    Does not mutate hand or wordList.

    word: string
    hand: dictionary (string -> int)
    wordList: list of lowercase strings
    """

    wordC = getFrequencyDict(word)
    handC = dict.copy(hand)
    if word not in wordList:
        return False
    for c in word:
        if c not in hand:
            return False
        for k,v in wordC.iteritems():
            if k in hand and v > 1:
                 handC[k] -= 1

basically my next step was trying to figure out how to compare word to handC with amended value and discounting any key with a value of zero. I think(hope) that will work.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1280

Answers (4)

Melios
Melios

Reputation: 1

here is mine

def isValidWord(word, hand, wordList):
    """
    Returns True if word is in the wordList and is entirely
    composed of letters in the hand. Otherwise, returns False.

    Does not mutate hand or wordList.

    word: string
    hand: dictionary (string -> int)
    wordList: list of lowercase strings
    """
    if word in wordList:
        if set(word).issubset(set(hand)):
            return True
        else:
            return False
    else:
        return False

Upvotes: 0

hughdbrown
hughdbrown

Reputation: 49003

The python Counter class is your friend. You can do this in python 2.7 and later:

from collections import Counter

def is_valid_word(hand, word, word_list):
    letter_leftover = Counter(hand)
    letter_leftover.subtract(Counter(word))
    return word in word_list and all(v >= 0 for v in letter_leftover.values())

Then:

>>> def test():
...     hand = "traipse"
...     word_list = ["all", "the", "words", "in", "English", 
                     "parts", "pines", "partiers"]
...     print is_valid_word(hand, "parts", word_list)
...     print is_valid_word(hand, "pines", word_list)
...     print is_valid_word(hand, "partiers", word_list)
... 
>>> test()
True
False
False

Upvotes: 0

Henry Keiter
Henry Keiter

Reputation: 17168

Without your code, let me see if I understand what you want: you're trying to see if the given word can be spelled using the letters in hand as if the user had a Scrabble tile for each letter in hand, yes?

Personally I'd just copy the hand dictionary and then allow changes to the copy. Something like this:

def is_valid_word(hand, word, wordlist):
    hand_cp = dict(hand)
    for letter in word:
        if hand_cp.get(letter):
            # The letter is in our hand, so "use it up".
            hand_cp[letter] = hand_cp[letter] - 1
        else:
            # The letter isn't in our hand, so the word isn't valid.
            return False

    # If we can make the word, now make sure it's a real word:
    # (If wordlist is long, you might want to sort it and do a real search)
    if word not in wordlist: 
        return False

    # We haven't found any reason to return False, so this is a valid word.
    return True

Upvotes: 1

mariano
mariano

Reputation: 1367

How about something like this:

def isValidWord(hand, word, word_list):
    if word not in word_list:
        return False
    for c in word:
        if c not in hand:
            return False
    return True

As strings are iterable you can check character by character.

Good luck

Upvotes: 1

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