How to compare user inputted string to a character(single letter) of a word in a list?

Question

I'm trying to create a hangman game with python. I know there is still a lot to complete but I'm trying to figure out the main component of the game which is how to compare the user inputted string (one letter) with the letters in one of the three randomly selected words.

import random

print("Welcome to hangman,guess the five letter word")
words =["china", "ducks", "glass"]
correct_word = (random.choice(words))
guess = input(str("Enter your guess:"))
guess_left = 10
guess_subtract = 1
if guess == "":
    guess_left = guess_left - guess_subtract
    print("you have" + guess_left + "guesses left")

Answer 1

I've completed this project yesterday; (to anyone else reading this question) take inspiration if needed.

import random

stages = ['''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
 /|\  |
 / \  |
      |
=========
''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
 /|\  |
 /    |
      |
=========
''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
 /|\  |
      |
      |
=========
''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
 /|   |
      |
      |
=========''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
  |   |
      |
      |
=========
''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
  O   |
      |
      |
      |
=========
''', '''
  +---+
  |   |
      |
      |
      |
      |
=========
''']

#used to choose random word
random_lst=['addition','adequate','adjacent','adjusted','advanced','advisory','advocate','affected','aircraft','alliance','although','aluminum','analysis','announce','anything','anywhere','apparent','appendix','approach','approval','argument','artistic','assembly']
chosen_word = random.choice(random_lst)


#used to create display list + guess var
print("Welcome to hangman! ")
print("--------------------")
print("you have 6 lives." )
print("   ")
print (stages[-1])

display = []
for letters in chosen_word:
  display += "_"

print(display)
print("  ")

#used to check if guess is equal to letter, and replace pos in display if yes. 



lives = 6
game_over = False
#use the var guesses to store guesses and print at every guess to let player know what letters they tried already.
guesses = ""


while not game_over:
  guess = input("Guess a letter. ")
  print("  ")
  guesses += (guess + " , ")
  for pos in range(len(chosen_word)):
    letter = chosen_word[pos
    if letter == guess:]
      display[pos] = letter
      print("√")
      print("- - -")
      print("   ")
  if display.count("_") == 0:
    print("Game over. ")
    game_over = True
  elif guess not in chosen_word:
    lives -= 1
    print(f"Wrong letter. {lives} lives left. ") 
    print("- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -")
    print("   ")
  if lives == 0:
    print (stages[0])
  elif lives == 1:
    print (stages[1])
  elif lives == 2:
    print (stages[2])
  elif lives == 3:
    print(stages[3])
  elif lives == 4:
    print(stages[4])
  elif lives == 5:
    print(stages[5])
  elif lives == 6:
    print(stages[6])
  elif lives == 0:
    game_over = True
    print("Game over. ")
  print(f"letters chosen: {guesses}") 
  print("   ")
  print(display)
  print("   ")
  if lives == 0 or display.count("_") == 0:  
    break
  

if lives == 0:
  print("Game over. You lose.")
elif lives > 0:
  print("Congrats, you win! ")
 

Answer 2

First you should accept both a and A by using guess = guess.lower(). The you have to search the string for the character guessed and find the positions.

guess = guess.lower()

# Find the position(s) of the character guessed
pos = [idx for idx,ch in enumerate(correct_word) if ch == guess]

if pos:
    print('Letter Found')

guess_left -= 1

Another way to understand the for-loop is:

pos = []
for idx,ch in enumerate(correct_word):
    if ch == guess:
        pos.append(idx)

Answer 3

I think you need a skeleton and then spend some time to improve the game.

import random

print "Welcome to hangman, guess the five letter word"

words = ["china", "ducks", "glass"]
correct_word = (random.choice(words))

trials = 10

for trial in range(trials):
    guess = str(raw_input("Enter character: "))

    if (len(guess) > 1):
        print "You are not allowed to enter more than one character at time"
        continue

    if guess in correct_word:
        print "Well done! '" + guess + "' is in the list!"
    else:
        print "Sorry " + guess + " does not included..."

Your next step could be print out something like c_i__ as well as the number of trials left. Have fun :)

When you finish with the implementation, take some time and re-implement it using functions.

Answer 4

What you can do is treat the string like an array/list. So if you use loops:

x = ""#let's assume this is the users input
for i in range(len(y)): #y is the string your checking against
    if x == y[i]:

from here what I'm thinking is that if they are equal it would add that letter to a string

Let's say the string is "Today was fun" then would have an array like this, [""."" and so on but you'd have to find a way to factor in spaces and apostrophes. So if the letter is == to that part of the string

#this is a continuation of the code, so under if
thearray[theposition] == the letter

But looking a your code your game is diffrent from the regular one so, also consider using a while look

gamewon = False
number of trials = 10

while gamewon == False and number of trials > 0:
    #the whole checking process 
    if x == guess:
       gamewon == True
       print ........# this is if your doing word for word else use 
       the code above
     else:
         number  of trials = number of trials - 1

I think that's it I know its a bit all over the place but you can always ask for help and I'll explain plus I was referring to your code things i thought you could fix