Worded Mastermind game in Python

Just completed a /r/dailyprogrammer challenge. Challenge #238 to be precise.

A Github repository with the wordbank.txt is available here.

```
import random

difficulty = {1: [4, 5, 6], 2: [7, 8],
3: [9, 10, 11], 4: [12, 13],
5: [14, 15]
}
#Keys are the various word lengths for each difficulty (1-5).
acceptedWord = []
#Start a blank list, used in getWords()

def getWords():
while True:
try:
level = int(input("What difficulty would you like? (1,2,3,4,5) "))
break
except (ValueError, KeyError):
print("That is not a number")
#Take a numerical input from the user, attempt to parse it, if it fails, carry on the loop.
num = random.choice(difficulty[level])
#num (used to store word lengths) is a random choice from the available lengths for the selected difficulty.
with open('wordbank.txt', 'r') as file:
#Open the file containing word-bank
for x in map(str.upper, map(str.strip, file.readlines())):
#loop over the stripped down words
if len(x) == num:
acceptedWord.append(x)
#If length of word is equal to random choice from suitable lengths, add it to a list.

#Random index from total number of items in list.
answers = random.sample(acceptedWord, num)
#picks a selection of the available words. Amount of words = word length.
trueWord = answers[random.randint(0, len(answers)-1)]
#trueWord = answer. Random item of the shortlisted avaliable words
print('\n'.join(answers))
#Prints hints.
game(trueWord)

def game(trueWord):
for x in range(0,5):
#The user has 5 guesses
print("Guesses Left: ", 5-x)
userInput = input("Guess: ").upper()
#All guesses/inputs are parsed to uppercase.
userList = list(userInput)
#List of the letters the user inputed
trueList = list(trueWord)
#List of letter of

Some obvious changes that I'd make:

• rename all the variables / methods such that they follow the snake_case convention

• remove all the obvious comments and rather add a docstrings into each function instead

• add only one space before and after any operator (except if we're passing some arguments into a function / class)

• after , you should have a space

• the acceptedWord list should be defined within the getWords() function (the same goes for the difficulty dictionary). (or better yet, remove its declaration completely and use list comprehension instead)

• you should add if __name__ == '__main__'

• user_list is already a list so you don't have to specify the exact same thing here: for item in list(user_list).

• use string formatting when you print something: this: print(correct_guess, "out of ", len(true_list), "correct.") will become this: print("{} out of {}".format(correct_guess, len(true_list)))

• when you use with to open a file in read mode, you can omit r as that's passed by default.

Reviewed code:

import random

def get_words():
    """Docstring goes here"""
    difficulty = {1: [4, 5, 6], 2: [7, 8], 3: [9, 10, 11], 4: [12, 13], 5: [14, 15]}
    while True:
        try:
            level = int(input("What difficulty would you like? (1,2,3,4,5) "))
            break
        except (ValueError, KeyError):
            print("That is not a number")

    num = random.choice(difficulty[level])

    with open('wordbank.txt') as file:
        accepted_word = [x for x in map(str.upper, map(str.strip, file.readlines())) if len(x) == num]

    answers = random.sample(accepted_word, num)
    true_word = answers[random.randint(0, len(answers) - 1)]
    print('\n'.join(answers))
    game(true_word)

def game(true_word):
    """Docstring goes here"""
    for x in range(0, 5):
        print("Guesses Left: {}".format(5 - x))
        user_input = input("Guess: ").upper()

        user_list, true_list = list(user_input),  list(true_word)
        if user_input == true_word:
            print("Well done, you guessed correctly")
            get_words()
        correct_guess = 0
        for item in user_list:
            if item == true_list[user_list.index(item)]:
                correct_guess += 1
        print("{} out of {}".format(correct_guess, len(true_list)))
    print("Bad luck! The answer was: {}".format(true_word))
    get_words()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    get_words()

More, I'd split the get_words() methods into two methods: get_user_level() and get_words():

def get_user_level():
    """Docstring goes here"""
    difficulty = {1: [4, 5, 6], 2: [7, 8], 3: [9, 10, 11], 4: [12, 13], 5: [14, 15]}
    while True:
        try:
            level = int(input("What difficulty would you like? (1,2,3,4,5) "))
            break
        except (ValueError, KeyError):
            print("That is not a number")

    return random.choice(difficulty[level])

def get_words():
    """Docstring goes here"""
    num = get_user_level()

    with open('wordbank.txt') as file:
        accepted_word = [x for x in map(str.upper, map(str.strip, file.readlines())) if len(x) == num]

    answers = random.sample(accepted_word, num)
    true_word = answers[random.randint(0, len(answers) - 1)]
    print('\n'.join(answers))
    game(true_word)

StackExchange Code Review Q#156533, answer score: 10