CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Parseltongue
Parseltongue

Reputation: 11677

Validate whether word can be constructed by cycling back and forth between values from two different lists

Let's say I have lists of letters from two players

player_1 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
player_2 = ['c', 'f',  'x', 'd', 'r']

I'd like to ensure that some submitted word can be constructed by alternating letters between the player_1 list and the player_2 list.

For example fax is a valid word since that can be formed by alternating letters in the following way: P2, P1, P2. Red also works since that can be formed by alternating letters in the same way, even though the letter "d" appears in both player_1 and player_2's hand.

bad does not work since it would require a: P1, P1, P2 combo, which does not alternate.

I'm trying to create a function validate_word that validates that a word can be constructed in this way. Here is my initial attempt that gets a bit too convoluted:

from itertools import cycle
from itertools import chain, repeat

player_1 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
player_2 = ['c', 'f',  'x', 'd', 'r']


def validate_word(word):
    sequence_list = []
    for letters in word:
        if letters in player_1 and letters in player_2:
            sequence_list.append(3)
        elif letters in player_1:
            sequence_list.append(1)
        elif letters in player_2:
            sequence_list.append(2)
        else:
            sequence_list.append(0)
    return sequence_list

So now we have a list that contains a number indicating whether a given letter appears in P1 hand, P2 hand, both of their hand (3), or neither of their hands (0). I was then going to make sure that those numbers cycled either from 1 -> 2 or 2 -> 1, but I'm not quite how to deal with 3s, or whether this is the most efficient way of handling this.

What's a better way of dealing with this?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 30

Answers (1)

Andrej Kesely
Andrej Kesely

Reputation: 195468

You can combine itertools.cycle and all() to make sure the word can be constructed by alternating the two lists:

from itertools import cycle


def validate_word(p1, p2, w):
    c1 = cycle([p1, p2])
    c2 = cycle([p2, p1])
    return all(ch in next(c1) for ch in w) or all(ch in next(c2) for ch in w)

player_1 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
player_2 = ['c', 'f',  'x', 'd', 'r']

print(validate_word(player_1, player_2, 'fax'))
print(validate_word(player_1, player_2, 'red'))
print(validate_word(player_1, player_2, 'bad'))

Prints:

True
True
False

Upvotes: 3

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