Python fill-in-the-blanks code

Question

I am a programming beginner and I am trying to build a fill-in-the-blank quiz. I am almost finished but I am stuck on 2 problems I am not able to solve, whatever I do. I would really appreciate your help with this. Thank you for helping me with this!

If you try to run the code and play the game:

1) It prints the quiz according to the difficulty(easy-insane) and quiz you want to play(apple, bond and programming quiz) which is great but afterwards it prompts you to choose difficulty again (the player_level() function keeps going even though the player/user has already chosen the difficulty level. I don't really understand why it does it? The player_level() procedure seems perfectly okay and logical to me.

2) The errors: a) local variable blanks_index referenced before assignment b) global name list_of_answers is not defined. I know that it is related to the initialize_game() function but I don't know how to change the code so it refers all the variables (blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives) correctly. It could be solved by creating global variables(I guess) but that is not a good practice so I am trying to avoid it. Formerly, the whole function initialise_game() and play_game() were one function, but as there are over 25 lines of code in one function, it is not a good practice as it is long and messy and I know that I can separate it but I don't know how.

Here is the code:

"""3 diffferent quizzes : Apple quiz, James Bond quiz, Programming quiz"""

"""Quiz and answers about Apple"""
Apple_quiz = ("The most valuable company in terms of market cap in 2016 is, ___1___."
              "It was founded in ___2___. Its flagship product is called ___3___."
              "___1___ has many competitors, the biggest rival is ___4___,founded by"
              " nobody but the richest man on the planet,___5___ ___6___.")

list_of_answers_Apple = ["Apple", "1976", "Iphone", "Microsoft", "Bill", "Gates"]


"""Quiz and answers about Bond"""
Bond_quiz = ("James Bond is agent ___1___. He serves his country,___2___ ___3___"
             " against its enemies. His car of choice is usually ___4___ ___5___."
             "  His favorite drink is ___6___.")

list_of_answers_Bond = ["007", "United", "Kingdom", "Aston", "Martin", "Martini"]

"""Quiz and answers about programming basics"""
Programming_quiz =  ("___1___ are created with the def keyword. ___1___ are also called ___2___"
                   " You specify the inputs a ___1___ take by adding ___3___ separated by commas"
                   " between the parentheses. ___3___ can be standard data types such as string, number"
                   " ,dictionary, tuple, and ___4___ or can be more complicated such as ___5___"
                   " and ___6___ functions.")

list_of_answers_Programming = ["Functions", "procedures", "arguments", "lists", "objects", "lambda"]

blank_space = ["___1___", "___2___", "___3___", "___4___", "___5___", "___6___]"]


#List of levels with corresponding lives/guesses that player can have
quiz_list = ["Apple", "Bond", "Programming"]
level_list = ["easy", "medium", "hard", "superhard", "insane"]
lives_easy = 5
lives_medium = 4
lives_hard = 3
lives_superhard = 2
lives_insane = 1


def choose_quiz():
    """ Prompts player to pick a type of quiz and loads the quiz """
    #Input = player_quiz (raw input from player)
    #Output = loaded quiz, player chose
    while True:
        player_quiz = raw_input("Please, select a quiz you want to play: "
                          "(Apple, Bond or Programming): ")
        if player_quiz == "Apple":
            return Apple_quiz
        elif player_quiz == "Bond":
            return Bond_quiz
        elif player_quiz == "Programming":
            return Programming_quiz
        else:
            print "We don't have such quiz, pick again!"

def answers_for_quiz():
    """ Loads appropiate answers to the quiz that player has chosen"""
    #Input = player quiz (raw input from player)
    #Output = loaded quiz answers from the quiz player chose
    player_quiz_pick = choose_quiz()
    if player_quiz_pick == Apple_quiz:
        return list_of_answers_Apple
    elif player_quiz_pick == Bond_quiz:
        return list_of_answers_Bond
    elif player_quiz_pick == Programming_quiz:
        return list_of_answers_Programming

def player_level():
    """ Loads a difficulty that player chooses """
    #Input = player_level_input (raw input of player choosing a difficulty)
    #Output = corresponding number of lives:
    #Easy = 5 lives, Medium = 4 lives
    #Hard = 3 lives, Superhard = 2 lives
    #Insane = 1 life
    while True:
        player_level_input = raw_input("Please type in a difficulty level: "
                                 "(easy, medium, hard, superhard, insane): ")
        if player_level_input == "easy":
            return lives_easy #Easy = 5 lives
        elif player_level_input == "medium":
            return lives_medium #Medium = 4 lives
        elif player_level_input == "hard":
            return lives_hard #Hard = 3 lives
        elif player_level_input == "superhard":
            return lives_superhard #Superhard = 2 lives
        elif player_level_input == "insane":
            return lives_insane #Insane = 1 life
        else:
            print "We do not have such difficulty! Pick again!"

def correct_answer(player_answer, list_of_answers, answers_index):
    """ Checks, whether the the answer from player matches with the answer list. """
    #Input: player_answer (raw input that player enters in order to fill in the blank)
    #Output: "Right answer!" or "Wrong! Try again!" this output will be later used in the game
    if player_answer == list_of_answers[answers_index]:
        return "Right answer!"
    return "Wrong! Try again!"

def initialize_game():
    """Functions that sets up a game so we can play it """
    player_quiz_pick, player_level_pick, list_of_answers = choose_quiz(), player_level(), answers_for_quiz()
    print player_quiz_pick
    print "
You will get maximum " + str(player_level_pick) + " guesses for this game. Good luck.
"
    blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives = 0, 0, 0

    #for elements in blank_space:
    while blanks_index < len(blank_space):
        player_answer = raw_input("Please type in your answer for " + blank_space[blanks_index] + ": ")
        if correct_answer(player_answer,list_of_answers,answers_index) == "Right answer!":
            print "Correct answer! Keep going!
"
            player_quiz_pick = player_quiz_pick.replace(blank_space[blanks_index],player_answer)
            answers_index += 1
            blanks_index += 1
            print player_quiz_pick
            if blanks_index == len(blank_space):
                print "Congratulations! You nailed it! You are the winner!"
        else:
            player_level_pick -= 1
            if player_level_pick == 0:
                print "Game over! Maybe next time!"
                break
            else:
                print "One life less, that sucks! Have another shot!"
                print "You have " + str(player_level_pick) + " guesses left."

initialize_game()

Ofer Arial · Accepted Answer

Your main problem is that you keep calling the same functions over and over again and do not save the input into variables. Here are some tips about your code and questions:

You are not doing anything with your player_level() method call, so the player doesn't actually chooses a level in a way that affects the game. You should change the function call, so the returned value will be stored.
```
//the call to the method:
player_level_pick = player_level()
```
Afterwards, you keep calling the player_level() method, and not using the actual answer that the user supplied. Change all player_level() appearences to player_level_pick - the variable you use to save the answer (as I showed above). Same goes to all other unneeded function calls such as choose_level().
You should initialize number_of_guesses, player_lives, list_of_answers, and other vars to a matching value to player_level_pick as well, so it will hold the right value according to the level. Likewise, you should change this line:
```
# the line that checks if game is over
# change from:
if number_of_guesses == player_lives:
# to :
if number_of_guesses == 0:
```
In order to return multiple values, you have to use tuples. Using multiple return statements one after the other does not work anywhere. so, instead of:
```
return list_of_answers
return number_of_guesses
return blanks_index
return answers_index
return player_lives
```
you should use tuples, and unpack them properly:
```
# the return statement:
return (list_of_answers, number_of_guesses, blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives)

# and the unpacking in the calling function:
list_of_answers, number_of_guesses, blanks_index, answers_index, player_lives = initialize_game() 
```
this way, all of the returned values go into the wanted variables in the calling function. this way, you need to call the initialize_game() from play_game(). it will be the efficient way for you.
Just saying it again, as I said in the end of (4) - you should unit initialize_game() and play_game() into a single function (because a lot of data is the same needed data), or just call initialize_game() from play_game().
Better practice then using this recursivly: return choose_level(), you should use a while True: loop, and just brake when you get a proper answer.

Python fill-in-the-blanks code

Answers (1)

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