I'm doing a python coding challenge for school/fun/learning and Ive been working at this question
http://challenge.ncss.edu.au/files/31db2bd0/questions2.pdf Question 5 the animals one.

for 3-4 hours and im missing something that i cant find so far im still trying to do the if test for checking if the last letter of the humans guess matches the first letter of the computers word.
Ive got this so far:

import random
animals = []
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()

for line in open('animals.txt'):
animals.append(line.strip().lower())
human = raw_input("Human: ")
last = human[-1]
if last == guess[-1]:
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()
else:
print "you lose"
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()

it works properly (does the if, else when its supposed to) only if I enter one letter for the humans guess if I enter a word it just does the else
except for the word eagle for some reason..... that does the if when its supposed to
Any help is appreciated
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A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking

That looks way weird to me !

I'm still learning Python myself, so I might have some structural stuff wrong..

but it looks to me like you are making your random.choice from the animals list *before* you have even read the list in from the animals.txt file, which means you are probably selecting from an empty list

Why would you want to check if the last human letter equals the first animal letter ?

You need to indent your code to show the structure a bit better

For a quick ref to Python (that links to a better ref), look here
http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~ttopper/COMP118/rCheatSheet.html

More help than that requires the animals.txt file, which isnt easily downloaded from that site without registering.
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I indented the code but the

quote:

---

import random
animals = []
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()

for line in open('animals.txt'):
animals.append(line.strip().lower())
human = raw_input("Human: ")
last = human[-1]
if last == guess[-1]:
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()
else:
print "you lose"
guess = random.choice(animals)
print "computer: " + guess.lower()

---

you made a mistake with the letters your comparing,
your comparing the last letter the human enters vs the last in the computers guess
meant to be the first the human has.

I sort of did it for you lol.

code:

---

import random

animals = [] #holds the list of animals
for line in open('animals.txt'):         
  animals.append(line.strip().lower())     #read in the list of animals strip off white space and convert it to lower case

winning = True
round = 0
while winning:                                               #keep playing while the user is winning
  round += 1
  guess = random.choice(animals)                             #pick an animal, any animal
  print "Round %s : computer guesses : %s " % (round,guess)

  human = raw_input("Human: ")                               #Get the users guess
  last = human[0].lower()                                    #convert it to lower case incase they capatilse the name of the animal

  if last == guess[-1]:
    print "You won, well done"
  else:
    print "you lost after %s rounds" % (round)
    winning = False                                          #stop looping, cos the player is a l00ser, not worthy of game

---

just for fun the computer now doesnt cheat
use the "code" tag to preserve your formatting

code:

---

import random

animals = [] #holds the list of animals
for line in open('animals.txt'):         
  animals.append(line.strip().lower())     #read in the list of animals strip off white space and convert it to lower case

winning = True
round = 0
firstletter = random.choice("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz")   #import string, then put string.lowercase here for more correctness and portablility

while winning:                                               #keep playing while the user is winning
  round += 1
  guess = random.choice([elem for elem in animals if elem[0] == firstletter])  #pick an animal, from a list that starts with the users guess

  print "Round %s : computer guesses : %s " % (round,guess)

  human = raw_input("Human: ")                               #Get the users guess
  last = human[0].lower()                                    #convert it to lower case incase they capatilse the name of the animal

  if last == guess[-1]:
    if human.lower() not in animals:                        #check the list for their guess
       print "I'll take your word for it ;->"
    print "You won, well done"
    firstletter =  human[-1]

  else:
    print "you lost after %s rounds" % (round)
    winning = False                                          #stop looping, cos the player is a l00ser, not worthy of game

---

One programming practise you should really take on board from Jakes examples is to comment everything! Adding funny quotes like "#stop looping, cos the player is a l00ser, not worthy of game" makes reading code that little bit less serious to anyone else
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Rofl nice... awesome that you have the chance to do stuff like this in school, mine was total crap house and even told me never to bring my robots to school... bastards!?
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Oh yeah i forgot
The list of animals doesnt have one for every letter
so if you run that it can die (the one where it plays fair)

I added these to the animals list, you could try just appending them to the list after its read if they want to run it on their own animals.txt file

Ibex
Unicorn
Vulture
Xenops

(okay unicorn is cheating, for extra extra credit you could let the computer loose ;->)
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

thanks for the help and the tips

@angus
yeah i wouldnt have know bout this except i got a new multimedia teacher and he told me about it and said that i should do it.
You can register on the website if you are attending a school i think the condtion was the school donst have to register for you also Im not sure if the school will allow me to bring robots to school on the fact that mines still not finished yet AND it not weaponded....
_________________
A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking

I'm still at school.... sorta
_________________
https://www.halfdonethings.com/

0_0 thats not funny
The program worked perfectly and did everything it was meant to but the reason it didn't get accepted was because it didn't end after it printed you lose
which was shown in the picture but not talked about in the text
_________________
A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking

thanks valen you already did this weeks answer

http://challenge.ncss.edu.au/challenge/submit/4/5/
_________________
A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking

thats a login link?
_________________
Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

its the link to the question but you have to be logged in to see it so new linky

http://challenge.ncss.edu.au/files/105c4ed9/questions4.pdf

Question 5. basically fix the code for teh animal game so that is dosn't cheat and loses .
_________________
A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking

okay i need some help again

http://challenge.ncss.edu.au/files/31db2bd7/questions5.pdf

this ones REALLY confusing
I need to find out how to define the variables in the "<"(variable)">" structure of rules.txt
then how to check for them and update there values

im close but thats the part im missing
_________________
A journey of a million miles begins with a single step followed by a hell of a lot of other steps so get walking