Mad Libs Generator

I created this Mad Libs generator, but I don't know how to get the value of the key "ans" into a format string tuple. I feel like it's not Pythonic and that it's very convoluted and over-complicated.

Check out on REPL.it

```
# Our Mad Lib
madlib = "On the %s trip to %s, my %s friend and I decided to invent a game. Since this would be a rather %s trip, it would need to be a game with %s and %s. Using our %s to %s, we tried to get the %s next to us to play too, but they just %sed at us and %s away. After a few rounds, we thought the game could use some %s, so we turned on the %s and started %s to the %s that came on. This lasted for %s before I got %s and decided to %s. I'll never %s that trip, it was the %s road trip of my %s."
sourceURL = "http://marcelkupka.cz/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mad.jpg"
# A list storing the blanks for the Mad Lib
blanks = [
{"suggestion": "adjective", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "place", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "adjective", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "adjective", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun, plural", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun, plural", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "verb", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "verb", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "action verb", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun, plural", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "verb that ends in ing", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "measurement of time", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "adjective", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "action verb", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "verb", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "adjective", "ans": ""},
{"suggestion": "noun, something you can own", "ans": ""}
]
print("Road Trip Mad Lib\nWhen the program asks you, please enter the appropriate word.")
print("There are %i blanks in this Mad Lib. " % (len(blanks)))
# Ask the user for each one
for blank in bl

There are many things here which could be improved. I will however only improve some of them.

-
The golden standard for style in python is PEP 8.
It explains in excruciating detail how to structure your code. I whole heartily recommend skimming through it and follow it.

-
Use the if __name__ == "__main__": module. It makes your code clearer and reusable.

• blanks does not have to be a list of dicts. It is clearer if it only holds the type

• '%s %s' % ('one', 'two') is the old string format while '{} {}'.format('one', 'two') is the new one. I recommend sticking

with the new one. Check here to learn more about Pythons awesome
string formating options.

• if len(ans) == 0: is a unorthodox way to change if a string is empty. A more pythonic approach is if not ans.

-
Do not use quit() a better approach is to make the ans into a while loop

for blank in blanks:
 ans = ""
 while not ans:
     ans = input(blank.capitalize() + "> ")
     if not ans:
            print("Please don't leave anything blank. It kills the experience.")
 blank['ans'] = ans

-
A bigger concern is that you update blank['ans'] = ans, but then immediately move the values into a list.

fs = []
# Get the answers from the blanks list
for dictionary in blanks:
    fs.append(dictionary['ans'])

Why not have the answers as a list from the start?

-
You capitalize the words on input. However when asking if the user liked the story you do not lower the words. When i write Y it tells me I did not like the story. The key here is .lower().

if feedback.lower() == "y":
    print("Thanks!")

-
Your commenting is good, however it could be improved by using doc strings.

-
A more severe concern with your code is that it is not modular. You have everything lumped into a single file. Really you should NEVER have that. Create a function named get_user_input which handles all the errors. Another code to ask the user to play again and so forth. A basic structure is something like the following

import

CONSTANTS

def some_function():

def another_function():

def main()
    while True:
        some_function()
        play_again = input('do you want to play again? [y/n]: ')
        if play_again.lower() not in ['y', 'yes', 'ok']:
            break

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

-
In PEP 8, it is recommended that the maximum linewidth is 79 characters. This is a good rule of thumb. You can use triple quotation marks to format long strings. Here are some other methods to format long strings.

\${}{}\$

# Our Mad Lib
madlib = 
'''
On the {} trip to {}, my {} friend and I decided to invent a game. Since 
this would be a rather {} trip, it would need to be a game with {} and {}. 
Using our {} to {}, we tried to get the {} next to us to play too, but they 
just {}ed at us and {} away. After a few rounds, we thought the game could 
use some {}, so we turned on the {} and started {} to the {} that came on. 
This lasted for {} before I got {} and decided to {}. I'll never {} that trip, 
it was the {} road trip of my {}.
'''
sourceURL = "http://marcelkupka.cz/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mad.jpg"
# A list storing the blanks for the Mad Lib
blanks = [
    "adjective",
    "place",
    "adjective",
    "adjective",
    "noun, plural",
    "noun, plural",
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "action verb",
    "noun, plural",
    "noun",
    "verb that ends in ing",
    "noun",
    "measurement of time",
    "adjective",
    "action verb",
    "verb",
    "adjective",
    "noun, something you can own"
]
print("Road Trip Mad Lib\nWhen the program asks you, please enter the appropriate word.")
print("There are %i blanks in this Mad Lib. " % (len(blanks)))
# Ask the user for each one
answers = []
for blank in blanks:
    ans = ""
    while not ans:
        ans = input(blank.capitalize() + "> ")
        if not ans:
            print("Please don't leave anything blank. It kills the experience.")
    answers.append(ans)
# The list that stores the format string

# Print the formatted Mad Lib
print(madlib.format(*answers))
feedback = input("Pretty funny, right? [y/n] ")
if feedback.lower() == "y":
    print("Thanks!")
else:
    print(":( Sorry. I'll try better next time.")
print("\n" + "="*10 + "\nMad Lib sourced from " + sourceURL)

StackExchange Code Review Q#133134, answer score: 7