Python Programing Tutorial

Copyright 2008, 2009 © by Albert Sweigart
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Book Version 9
For Caro, with more love
than I ever knew I had.
A Note to Parents and Fellow Programmers
I have more thanks for your interest and more apologies for this book's deficiencies than I can enumerate. My
motivation for writing this book comes from a gap I saw in today's literature for kids interested in learning to
program. I started programming when I was 9 years old in the BASIC language with a book similar to this one.
During the course of writing this, I've realized how a modern language like Python has made programming far
easier and versatile. Python has a gentle learning curve while still being a serious language that is used by
programmers professionally.
The current crop of programming books for kids that I've seen fell into two categories. First, books that did
not teach programming so much as "game creation software" or in dumbed down languages to make
programming "easy". Or second, they taught programming like a mathematics textbook: all principles and
concepts with little application left to the reader. This book takes a different approach: show the game source
code right up front and explain programming principles from the examples.
I have also made this book available under the Creative Commons license, which allows you to make copies
and distribute this book (or excerpts) with my full permission, as long as attribution to me is left intact and it is
used for noncommercial purposes. (See the copyright page.) I want to make this book a gift to a world that has
given me so much. Thank you again for reading this book, and feel free to email me any questions or
comments.
Al Sweigart
al@inventwithpython.com
The full text of this book is available in HTML or PDF format at:
http://inventwithpython.com
Dinosaur Comics reproduced with permission. Thanks Ryan!
Who is this book for?

Programming isn't hard. But it is hard to find learning materials that teach you to do interesting things with
programming. Other computer books go over many topics that most newbie coders don't need. This book will
teach you how to program your own computer games. You will learn a useful skill and have fun games to show
for it!
This book is for:
Anyone who wants to teach themselves computer programming, even if they have no previous experience
programming.
Kids and teenagers who want to learn computer programming by creating games. Kids as young as 9 or 10
years old should be able to follow along.
Adults and teachers who wish to teach others programming.
Anyone, young or old, who wants to learn how to program by learning a professional programming
language.
Table of Contents
Source Code Listing
hello.py 17
guess.py 25
jokes.py 45
dragon.py 50
hangman.py 80
tictactoe.pay 123
bagels.py 155
sonar.py 179
cipher.py 209
reversi.py 224
aisim1.py 254
aisim2.py 256
aisim3.py 260
pygameHelloWorld.py 269
animation.py 282
collisionDetection.py 294
pygameInput.py 304
spritesAndSounds.py 315
dodger.py 324
1 Installing Python 1
Downloading and Installing Python 2
Starting Python 3
How to Use This Book 4
The Featured Programs 4
Line Numbers and Spaces 4
Summary 5
2 The Interactive Shell 6
Some Simple Math Stuff 6
Evaluating Expressions 8
Storing Values in Variables 9
Using More Than One Variable 12
Summary 12
3 Strings 14
Strings 14
String Concatenation 15
Writing Programs in IDLE's File Editor 16
Hello World! 16
How the "Hello World" Program Works 19
Summary 22
4 Guess the Number 24
The "Guess the Number" Game 24
Sample Run of "Guess the Number" 25
Guess the Number's Source Code 25
The import Statement 27
The random.randint() Function 28
Passing Arguments to Functions 30
Blocks 31
The Boolean Data Type 32
Comparison Operators 33
Conditions 33
Experiment with Booleans, Comparison Operators, and Conditions 33
Looping with While Statements 35
The Player Guesses 36
if Statements 38
Leaving Loops Early with the break Statement 39
Check if the Player Won 40
Summary: What Exactly is Programming? 41
A Web Page for Program Tracing 42
5 Jokes 44
Make the Most of print() 44
Sample Run of Jokes 44
Joke's Source Code 45
Escape Characters 46
Quotes and Double Quotes 47
The end Keyword Argument 48
Summary 48
6 Dragon Realm 49
Introducing Functions 49
How to Play "Dragon Realm" 49
Sample Run of Dragon Realm 49
Dragon Realm's Source Code 50
def Statements 52
Boolean Operators 53
Return Values 57
Variable Scope 57
Parameters 59
Where to Put Function Definitions 61
Displaying the Game Results 62
The Colon : 64
Where the Program Really Begins 64
Designing the Program 66
Summary 67
7 Flow Charts 68
How to Play "Hangman" 68
Sample Run of "Hangman" 68
ASCII Art 70
Designing a Program with a Flowchart 71
Creating the Flow Chart 72
The Importance of Planning Out the Game 79
8 Hangman 80
Hangman's Source Code 80
Multi-line Strings 85
Constant Variables 86
Lists 86
Changing the Values of List Items with Index Assignment 88
List Concatenation 88
The in Operator 88
Removing Items from Lists with del Statements 89
Lists of Lists 90
Methods 91
The Difference Between Methods and Functions 93
The split() Function 93
The range() and list() Functions 96
for Loops 97
elif ("Else If") Statements 102
Review of the Functions We Defined 106
The Main Code for Hangman 107
Making New Changes to the Hangman Program 112
Dictionaries 113
Sets of Words for Hangman 116
Multiple Assignment 119
Summary 120
9 Tic Tac Toe 122
Sample Run of Tic Tac Toe 122
Source Code of Tic Tac Toe 123
Game AI 129
List References 135
Short-Circuit Evaluation 143
The None Value 146
Summary: Creating Game-Playing Artificial Intelligences 153
10 Bagels 154
Sample Run 155
Bagel's Source Code 155
The random.shuffle() Function x
Augmented Assignment Operators 160
The sort() List Method 162
The join() String Method 162
String Interpolation 165
Summary: Getting Good at Bagels 168
11 Cartesian Coordinates 169
Grids and Cartesian Coordinates 169
Negative Numbers 170
Changing the Signs 172
Absolute Values and the abs() Function 174
Coordinate System of a Computer Monitor 175
Summary: Using this Math in Games 175
12 Sonar 176
Sample Run 177
Sonar's Source Code 179
The remove() List Method 196
Summary: Review of our Sonar Game 204
13 Caesar Cipher 205
About Cryptography
205
The Caesar Cipher 206
ASCII, and Using Numbers for Letters 207
The chr() and ord() Functions 208
Sample Run of Caesar Cipher 208
Caesar Cipher's Source Code 209
The isalpha() String Method 212
The isupper() and islower() String Methods 213
Brute Force 215
Summary: Reviewing Our Caesar Cipher Program 218
14 Reversi 219
How to Play Reversi 219
Sample Run 221
Reversi's Source Code 224
The bool() Function 239
Summary: Reviewing the Reversi Game 252
15 AI Simulation 253
"Computer vs. Computer" Games 253
Percentages 257
Division Evaluates to Floating Point 258
The round() Function 258
Displaying the Statistics 259
Comparing Different AI Algorithms 260
Learning New Things by Running Simulation Experiments 266
16 Graphics and Animation 267
Installing Pygame 268
Hello World in Pygame 269
Hello World's Source Code 269
The pygame.init() Function 272
The pygame.display.set_mode() and pygame.display.set_caption() 272
Functions
Variables Store References to Objects 273
Colors in Pygame 274
Fonts, and the pygame.font.SysFont() Function 274
The render() Method for Font Objects 275
Attributes 275
The get_rect() Methods for pygame.font.Font and pygame.Surface Objects 276
Constructor Functions and the type() function. 277
The fill() Method for Surface Objects 277
The pygame.draw.polygon() Function 278
The pygame.draw.line() Function 278
The pygame.draw.circle() Function 279
The pygame.draw.ellipse() Function 279
The pygame.draw.rect() Function 279
The pygame.PixelArray Data Type 279
The blit() Method for Surface Objects 280
The pygame.display.update() Function 280
Events and the Game Loop 281
The pygame.event.get() Function 281
The pygame.quit() Function 282
Animation 282
The Animation Program's Source Code 282
Some Small Modifications 292
Summary: Pygame Programming 293
17 Collision Detection and Input 294
The Collision Detection Program's Source Code 294
The pygame.time.Clock Object and tick() Method 301
Colliding with the Food Squares 303
The Keyboard Input Program's Source Code 304
The colliderect() Method 311
Summary: Collision Detection and Pygame Input 312
18 Sound and Images 313
Image and Sound Files 314
Sprites and Sounds Program 315
The Sprites and Sounds Program's Source Code 315
Setting Up the Window and the Data Structure 318
The pygame.transform.scale() Function 319
Summary: Games with Graphics and Sounds 322
19 Dodger 323
Review of the Basic Pygame Data Types 323
Dodger's Source Code 324
Implementing the Cheat Codes 344
Modifying the Dodger Game 348
Summary: Creating Your Own Games 349
Appendix A 350
Differences Between Python 2 and 3
Appendix B 354
Statements, Functions, and Methods Reference
Appendix C 370
Running Python Programs without Python Installed
Glossary 373
About the Author 381
Topics Covered In This Chapter:
• Downloading and installing the Python interpreter.
• Using IDLE's interactive shell to run instructions.
• How to use this book.
• The book's website at http://inventwithpython.com
Hello! This is a book that will teach you how to program by showing you how to create computer games.
Once you learn how the games in this book work, you'll be able to create your own games. All you'll need is
a computer, some software called the Python Interpreter, and this book. The software you'll need is free and
you can download it from the Internet.
When I was a kid, I found a book like this that taught me how to write my first programs and games. It was
fun and easy. Now as an adult, I still have fun programming computers, and I get paid for it. But even if you
don't become a computer programmer when you grow up, programming is a useful and fun skill to have.
Computers are very useful machines. The good news is that learning to program a computer is easy. If you
can read this book, you can program a computer. A computer program is just a bunch of instructions run by
a computer, just like a storybook is just a whole bunch of sentences read by the reader. These instructions are
like the turn-by-turn instructions you might get for walking to a friend's house. (Turn left at the light, walk
two blocks, keep walking until you find the first blue house on the right.) The computer follows each
instruction that you give it in the order that you give it. Video games are themselves nothing but computer
programs. (And very fun computer programs!)
In this book, any words you need to know will look like this. For example, the word "program" is defined
in the previous paragraph.
In order to tell a computer what you want it to do, you write a program in a language that the computer
understands. The programming language this book teaches is named Python. There are many different
programming languages including BASIC, Java, Python, Pascal, Haskell, and C++ (pronounced, "c plus
plus").
1
When I was a kid most people learned to program in BASIC as their first language. But new programming
languages have been invented since then, including Python. Python is even easier to learn than BASIC and
it's a serious programming language used by professional computer programmers. Many adults use Python in
their work (and when programming just for fun).
The first few games we'll create together in this book will probably seem simple compared to the games
you've played on the XBox, Playstation, or Wii. They don't have fancy graphics or music but that's because
they're meant to teach you the basics. They're purposely simple so that we can focus on learning to program.
And remember, games don't have to be complicated to be fun. Hangman, Tic Tac Toe, and making secret
codes are simple to program but are also fun.
We'll also learn how to make the computer solve some math problems in the Python shell. (Don't worry if
you don't know a lot of mathematics. If you know how to add and multiply, you know enough math to do
programming. Programming is more about problem solving in general than it is about solving math
problems.)
Downloading and Installing Python

Before we can begin programming you'll need to install the Python software; specifically the Python
interpreter. (You may need to ask an adult for help here.) The interpreter is a program that understands the
instructions that you'll write in the Python language. Without the interpreter, your computer won't understand
these instructions and your programs won't work. (We'll just refer to this as Python from now on.)
Because we'll be writing our games in the Python language, we need to download Python first, from the
official website of the Python programming language, http://www.python.org
I'm going to give you instructions for installing Python on Microsoft Windows, not because that's my
favorite operating system but because chances are that's the operating system that your computer is running.
You might want the help of someone else to download and install the Python software.
When you get to python.org, you should see a list of links on the left (About, News, Documentation,
Download, and so on.) Click on the Download link to go to the download page, then look for the file called
Python 3.1 Windows Installer (Windows binary -- does not include source) and click on its link to
download Python for Windows.
Figure 1-1: Click the Windows installer link to download Python for Windows from http://www.python.org
Double-click on the python-3.1.msi file that you've just downloaded to start the Python installer. (If it
doesn't start, try right-clicking the file and choosing Install.) Once the installer starts up, click the Next button
2
and just accept the choices in the installer as you go (no need to make any changes). When the install is
finished, click Finish.
Important Note! Be sure to install Python 3, and not Python 2. The programs in this book use Python 3,
and you'll get errors if you try to run them with Python 2. (Although you will later install Python 2 to run the
graphical Pygame games in the last four chapters of this book.)
The installation for Mac OS is similar. Instead of downloading the .msi file from the Python website,
download the .dmg Mac Installer Disk Image file instead. The link to this file will look something like "Mac
Installer disk image (3.1.1)" on the "Download Python Software" web page.
If your operating system is Ubuntu, you can install Python by opening a terminal window (click on
Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and entering sudo apt-get install python3 then pressing
Enter. You will need to enter the root password to install Python, so ask the person who owns the computer to
type in this password.
There may be a newer version of Python available than 3.1. If so, then just download the latest version.
The game programs in this book will work just the same. If you have any problems, you can always Google
for "installing Python on <your operating system's name>". Python is a very popular language, so you should
have no difficulty finding help.
Starting Python
If your operating system is Windows XP, you should be able to run Python by choosing Start > Programs
> Python 3.x > IDLE (Python GUI). When it's running it should looking something like Figure 1-2. (But
different operating systems will look slightly different.)
Fig 1-2: The IDLE program's interactive shell on Windows.
IDLE stands for Interactive DeveLopment Environment. The development environment is software that
makes it easy to write Python programs. We will be using IDLE to type in our programs and run them.
The window that appears when you first run IDLE is called the interactive shell. A shell is a program that
lets you type instructions into the computer. The Python shell lets you type Python instructions, and the shell
sends these instructions to software called the Python interpreter to perform. We can type Python instructions
3
into the shell and, because the shell is interactive, the computer will read our instructions and respond in
some way. (Ideally in a way that we expect but that will depend on whether we write the correct instructions.)
How to Use This Book

There are a few things you should understand about this book before you get started. "Invent with Python"
is different from other programming books because it focuses on the complete source code for different
games. Instead of teaching you programming concepts and leaving it up to you to figure out how to make fun
games with those concepts, this book shows you fun games and then explains how they are put together.
The Featured Programs

Most chapters begin with a sample run of the featured program. This sample run shows you what the
program's output looks like, with responses from the user in bold print. This will give you an idea of what the
complete game will look like when you have entered the code and run it.
Some chapters also show the complete source code of the game, but remember: you don't have to enter
every line of code right now. Instead, you can read the chapter first to understand what each line of code does
and then try entering it later.
You can also download the source code file from this book's website. Go to the URL
http://inventwithpython.com/source and follow the instructions to download the source code file.
Line Numbers and Spaces

When entering the source code yourself, do not type the line numbers that appear at the beginning of each
line. For example, if you see this in the book:
9. number = random.randint(1, 20)
You do not need to type the "9." on the left side, or the space that immediately follows it. Just type it like
this:
number = random.randint(1, 20)
Those numbers are only used so that this book can refer to specific lines in the code. They are not a part of
the actual program.
Aside from the line numbers, be sure to enter the code exactly as it appears. Notice that some of the lines
don't begin at the leftmost edge of the page, but are indented by four or eight spaces. Be sure to put in the
correct number of spaces at the start of each line. (Since each character in IDLE is the same width, you can
count the number of spaces by counting the number of characters above or below the line you're looking at.)
For example, you can see that the second line is indented by four spaces because the four characters
("whil") on the line above are over the indented space. The third line is indented by another four spaces (the
four characters, "if n" are above the third line's indented space):
4
while guesses < 10:
if number == 42:
print('Hello')
Text Wrapping in This Book

Some lines of code are too long to fit on one line on the page, and the text of the code will wrap around to
the next line. When you type these lines into the file editor, enter the code all on one line without pressing
ENTER.
You can tell when a new line starts by looking at the line numbers on the left side of the code. For
example, the code below has only two lines of code, even though the first line wraps around:
1. print('This is the first line!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx')
2. print('This is the second line! ')
Tracing the Program Online

You can visit http://inventwithpython.com/traces to see a trace through each of the programs in this book.
Tracing a program means to step through the code one line at a time, in the same way that a computer would
execute it. The traces web page has notes and helpful reminders at each step of the trace to explain what the
program is doing, so it can help you better understand why these programs work the way they do.
Checking Your Code Online

Some of the games in this book are a little long. Although it is very helpful to learn Python by typing out
the source code for these games, you may accidentally make typos that cause your game programs to crash. It
may not be obvious where the typo is.
You can copy and paste the text of your source code to the online diff tool on the book's website. The diff
tool will show any differences between the source code in the book and the source code you've typed. This is
an easy way of finding any typos in your program.
The online diff tool is at this web page: http://inventwithpython.com/diff
Summary
This chapter has helped you get started with the Python software by showing you the python.org website
where you can download it for free. After installing and starting the Python IDLE software, we will be ready
to learn programming starting in the next chapter.
This book's website at http://inventwithpython.com has more information on each of the chapters,
including an online tracing website that can help you understand what exactly each line of the programs do.
5
• Integers and Floating Point Numbers
• Expressions
• Values
• Operators
• Evaluating Expressions
• Storing Values in Variables
Before we start writing computer games, we should learn some basic programming concepts first. These
concepts are values, operators, expressions, and variables. We won't start programming in this chapter, but
knowing these concepts and the names of things will make learning to program much easier. This is because
most programming is built on only a few simple concepts combined together to make advanced programs.
Let's start by learning how to use Python's interactive shell.
Some Simple Math Stuff

To open IDLE on Windows, click on Start > Programs > Python 3.0 > IDLE (Python GUI). With IDLE
open, let's do some simple math with Python. The interactive shell can work just like a calculator. Type 2+2
into the shell and press the ENTER key on your keyboard. (On some keyboards, this is the RETURN key.)
As you can see in Figure 2-1, the computer should respond with the number 4; the sum of 2+2.
As you can see, we can use the Python shell just like a calculator. This isn't a program by itself because we
are just learning the basics right now. The + sign tells the computer to add the numbers 2 and 2. To subtract
numbers use the - sign, and to multiply numbers use an asterisk (*), like so:
6
2+2 addition
2-2 subtraction
2*2 multiplication
2/2 division
When used in this way, +, -, *,

and / are called operators because
they tell the computer to perform
the specified operation on the
numbers surrounding them.
Integers and Floating

Point Numbers
In programming (and also in
mathematics), whole numbers like
4, 0, and 99 are called integers.
Numbers with fractions or decimal
Figure 2-1: Type 2+2 into the shell.
points (like 3.5 and 42.1 and 5.0)
are not integers. In Python, the
number 5 is an integer, but if we wrote it as 5.0 it would not be an integer. Numbers with a decimal point are
called floating point numbers. In mathematics, 5.0 is still considered an integer and the same as the
number 5, but in computer programming the computer considers any number with a decimal point as not an
integer.
Expressions
Try typing some of these math problems into the shell, pressing ENTER key after each one.
2+2+2+2+2
8*6
10-5+6
2 + 2
Figure 2-2 is what the interactive shell in IDLE will look like after you type in the instructions above.
7
Figure 2-2: What the IDLE window looks like after entering instructions.
These math problems are called expressions. Computers

can solve millions of these problems in seconds.
Expressions are made up of values (the numbers)
connected by operators (the math signs). Let's learn
exactly what values and operators are.
As you can see with the last expression in the above

example, you can put any amount of spaces in between the
integers and these operators. (But be sure to always start at
the very beginning of the line, with no spaces in front.)
Figure 2-3: An expression is a made up of values and operators.
Numbers are a type of value. Integers are a type of
number. But, even though integers are numbers, not all
numbers are integers. (For example, fractions and numbers with decimal points like 2.5 are numbers that are
not integers.)
This is like how a cat is a type of pet, but not all pets are cats. Someone could have a pet dog or a pet
lizard. An expression is made up of values (such as integers like 8 and 6) connected by an operator (such
as the * multiplication sign). A single value by itself is also considered an expression.
In the next chapter, we will learn about working with text in expressions. Python isn't limited to just
numbers. It's more than just a fancy calculator!
Evaluating Expressions
When a computer solves the expression 10 + 5 and gets the value 15, we say it has evaluated the
expression. Evaluating an expression reduces the expression to a single value, just like solving a math
problem reduces the problem to a single number: the answer.
The expressions 10 + 5 and 10 + 3 + 2 have the same value, because they both evaluate to 15. Even
single values are considered expressions: The expression 15 evaluates to 15.
However, if you just type 5 + into the interactive shell, you will get an error message.
8
>>> 5 +
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
This error happened because 5 + is not an expression. Expressions have values connected by operators,
but the + operator always expects to connect two things in Python. We have only given it one. This is why
the error message appeared. A syntax error means that the computer does not understand the instruction you
gave it because you typed it incorrectly. Python will always display an error message if you enter an
instruction that it cannot understand.
This may not seem important, but a lot of computer programming is not just telling the computer what to
do, but also knowing exactly how to tell the computer to do it.
Expressions Inside Other Expressions

Expressions can also contain other expressions. For example, in the expression 2 + 5 + 8, the 2 + 5
part is its own expression. Python evaluates 2 + 5 to 7, so the original expression becomes 7 + 8. Python
then evaluates this expression to 15.
Think of an expression as being a stack of pancakes. If you put two stacks of pancakes together, you still
have a stack of pancakes. And a large stack of pancakes can be made up of smaller stacks of pancakes that
were put together. Expressions can be combined together to form larger expressions in the same way. But no
matter how big an expression is it also evaluates to a single answer, just like 2 + 5 + 8 evaluates to 15.
Storing Values in Variables

When we program, we will often want to save the values that our expressions evaluate to so we can use
them later. We can store values in variables.
Think of variables like a box that can hold values. You can store values inside variables with the = sign
(called the assignment operator). For example, to store the value 15 in a variable named "spam", enter
spam = 15 into the shell:
>>> spam = 15
>>>
You can think of the variable like a box with the value
15 inside of it (as shown in Figure 2-4). The variable
name "spam" is the label on the box (so we can tell one
variable from another) and the value stored in it is like a
small note inside the box.
When you press Enter you won't see anything in

response, other than a blank line. Unless you see an error
message, you can assume that the instruction has been
executed successfully. The next >>> prompt will appear
so that you can type in the next instruction.
This instruction (called an assignment statement)

creates the variable spam and stores the value 15 in it. Figure 2-4: Variables are like boxes that can hold values in them.
9
Unlike expressions, statements are instructions that do not evaluate to any value, which is why there is no
value displayed on the next line in the shell.
It might be confusing to know which instructions are expressions and which are statements. Just remember
that if the instruction evaluates to a single value, it's an expression. If the instruction does not, then it's a
statement.
An assignment statement is written as a variable, followed by the = equal sign, followed by an expression.
The value that the expression evaluates to is stored inside the variable. The value 15 by itself is an
expression. Expressions made up of a single value by itself are easy to evaluate. These expressions just
evaluate to the value itself. For example, the expression 15 evaluates to 15!
Remember, variables store values, not expressions. For example, if we had the statement, spam = 10 +
5, then the expression 10 + 5 would first be evaluated to 15 and then the value 15 would be stored in the
variable, spam.
The first time you store a value inside a variable by using an assignment statement, Python will create that
variable. Each time after that, an assignment statement will only replace the value stored in the variable.
Now let's see if we've created our variable properly. If we type spam into the shell by itself, we should see
what value is stored inside the variable spam.
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam
15
>>>
Now, spam evaluates to the value inside the variable, 15.
And here's an interesting twist. If we now enter spam + 5 into the shell, we get the integer 20, like so.
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam + 5
20
>>>
That may seem odd but it makes sense when we remember that we set the value of spam to 15. Because
we've set the value of the variable spam to 15, writing spam + 5 is like writing the expression 15 + 5.
If you try to use a variable before it has been created, Python will give you an error because no such
variable exists yet. This also happens if you mistype the name of the variable.
We can change the value stored in a variable by entering another assignment statement. For example, try
the following:
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam + 5
20
>>> spam = 3
>>> spam + 5 10
8
>>>
The first time we enter spam + 5, the expression evaluates to 20, because we stored the value 15 inside
the variable spam. But when we enter spam = 3, the value 15 is replaced, or overwritten, with the value
3. Now, when we enter spam + 5, the expression evaluates to 8 because the value of spam is now 3.
To find out what the current value is inside a variable, just enter the variable name into the shell.
Now here's something interesting. Because a variable is only a name for a value, we can write expressions
with variables like this:
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam + spam
30
>>> spam - spam
0
>>>
When the variable spam has the integer value 15 stored in it, entering spam + spam is the same as
entering 15 + 15, which evaluates to 30. And spam - spam is the same as 15 - 15, which evaluates
to 0. The expressions above use the variable spam twice. You can use variables as many times as you want in
expressions. Remember that Python will evaluate a variable name to the value that is stored inside that
variable, each time the variable is used.
We can even use the value in the spam variable to assign spam a new value:
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam = spam + 5
20
>>>
The assignment statement spam = spam + 5 is like saying, "the new value of the spam variable will be
the current value of spam plus five." Remember that the variable on the left side of the = sign will be
assigned the value that the expression on the right side evaluates to. We can also keep increasing the value in
spam by 5 several times:
>>> spam = 15
>>> spam = spam + 5
>>> spam = spam + 5
>>> spam = spam + 5
>>> spam
30
>>>
11
Using More Than One Variable
When we program we won't always want to be limited to only one variable. Often we'll need to use
multiple variables.
For example, let's assign different values to two variables named eggs and fizz, like so:
>>> fizz = 10
>>> eggs = 15
Now the fizz variable has 10 inside it, and eggs has 15 inside it.
Figure 2-5: "fizz" and "eggs" have values stored in them.
Without changing the value in our spam variable, let's try assigning a new value to the spam variable.
Enter spam = fizz + eggs into the shell then enter spam into the shell to see the new value of spam.
Can you guess what it will be?
>>> fizz = 10
>>> eggs = 15
>>> spam = fizz + eggs
>>> spam
25
>>>
The value in spam is now 25 because when we add fizz and eggs we are adding the values stored
inside fizz and eggs.
Summary
In this chapter you learned the basics about writing Python instructions. Python needs you to tell it exactly
what to do in a strict way, because computers don't have common sense and only understand very simple
instructions. You have learned that Python can evaluate expressions (that is, reduce the expression to a single
12
value), and that expressions are values (such as 2 or 5) combined with operators (such as + or -). You have
also learned that you can store values inside of variables in order to use them later on.
In the next chapter, we will go over some more basic concepts, and then you will be ready to program!
13
• Flow of execution
• Strings
• String concatenation
• Data types (such as strings or integers)
• Using IDLE to write source code.
• Saving and running programs in IDLE.
• The print() function.
• The input() function.
• Comments
• Capitalizing variables
• Case-sensitivity
• Overwriting variables
That's enough of integers and math for now. Python is more than just a calculator. Now let's see what
Python can do with text. In this chapter, we will learn how to store text in variables, combine text together,
and display them on the screen. Many of our programs will use text to display our games to the player, and
the player will enter text into our programs through the keyboard. We will also make our first program, which
greets the user with the text, "Hello World!" and asks for the user's name.
Strings
In Python, we work with little chunks of text called strings. We can store string values inside variables
just like we can store number values inside variables. When we type strings, we put them in between two
single quotes ('), like this:
>>> spam = 'hello'

>>>
14
The single quotes are there only to tell the computer where the string begins and ends.
Now, if you type spam into the shell, you should see the contents of the spam variable - the 'hello'
string. This is because Python will evaluate a variable to the value stored inside the variable.
>>> spam = 'hello'

>>> spam
'hello'
>>>
Strings can have almost any character or sign in them as well as spaces and numbers. (Strings can't have
single quotes inside of them without using an escape character. Escape characters are described later.) These
are all examples of strings:
'hello'
'Hi there!'
'Albert'
'KITTENS'
'7 apples, 14 oranges, 3 lemons'
'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...'
'O*&#wY%*&OCfsdYO*&gfC%YO*&%3yc8r2'
As we did with numerical values in the previous chapter, we can also put string values in expressions. For
example, the expression 4 * 2 + 3 is an expression with numerical values that will evaluate to the integer
11.
String Concatenation
You can add one string to the end of another by using the + operator, which is called string concatenation.
Try entering 'Hello' + 'World!' into the shell:
>>> 'Hello' + 'World!'

'HelloWorld!'
>>>
To keep the strings separate, put a space at the end of the 'Hello' string, before the single quote, like
this:
>>> 'Hello ' + 'World!'

'Hello World!'
>>>
Strings and integers are different data types. All values have a data type. The data type of the value
'Hello' is a string. The data type of the value 5 is an integer. The data type of the data that tells us (and the
computer) what kind of data it is.
15
Writing Programs in IDLE's File Editor
Until now we have been typing instructions one at a time into the interactive shell. When we write
programs though, we type in several instructions and have them run all at once. Let's write our first program!
The name of the program that provides the interactive shell is called IDLE, the Interactive DeveLopement
Environment. IDLE also has another part called the file editor.
Click on the File menu at the top of the Python Shell window, and select New Window. A new blank
window will appear for us to type our program in. This window is the file editor.
Figure 3-1: The file editor window.
Hello World!
A tradition for programmers learning a new language is to make their first

program display the text "Hello world!" on the screen. We'll create our own
Hello World program now.
When you enter your program, don't enter the numbers at the left side of
the code. They're there so we can refer to each line by number in our
explanation. If you look at the bottom-right corner of the file editor window, Figure 3-2: The bottom right of the file
it will tell you which line the cursor is currently on. editor window tells you where the cursor
is. The cursor is currently on line 12.
16
Enter the following text into the new file editor window. We call this text the program's source code
because it contains the instructions that Python will follow to determine exactly how the program should
behave. (Remember, don't type in the line numbers!)
IMPORTANT NOTE! The following program should be run by the Python 3 interpreter, not the Python
2.6 (or any other 2.x version). Be sure that you have the correct version of Python installed. (If you already
have Python 2 installed, you can have Python 3 installed at the same time.) To download Python 3, go to
http://python.org/download/releases/3.1.1/ and install this version.
1. # This program says hello and asks for my name.

2. print('Hello world!')
3. print('What is your name?')
4. myName = input()
5. print('It is good to meet you, ' + myName)
The IDLE program will give different types of instructions different colors. (You can find a color coded
reference inside the back cover of this book.) After you are done typing this code in, the window should look
like this:
Figure 3-3: The file editor window will look like this after you type in the code.
Saving Your Program
Once you've entered your source code, save it so that you won't have to retype it each time we start IDLE.
To do so, choose the File menu at the top of the File Editor window, and then click on Save As. The Save As
window should open. Enter hello.py in the File Name box then press Save. (See Figure 3-4.)
You should save your programs every once in a while as you type them. That way, if the computer crashes
or you accidentally exit from IDLE, only the typing you've done since your last save will be lost. Press Ctrl-S
to save your file quickly, without using the mouse at all.
17
Figure 3-4: Saving the program.
If you get an error that looks like this:
Hello world!
What is your name?
Albert
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:/Python26/test1.py", line 4, in <module>
myName = input()
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'Albert' is not defined
...then this means you are running the program with Python 2, instead of Python 3. You can either install
Python 3, or convert the source code in this book to Python 2. Appendix A lists the differences between
Python 2 and 3 that you will need for this book.
Opening The Programs You've Saved

To load a saved program, choose File > Open. Do that now, and in the window that appears choose
hello.py and press the Open button. Your saved hello.py program should open in the File Editor window.
Now it's time to run our program. From the File menu, choose Run > Run Module or just press the F5 key
on your keyboard. Your program should run in the shell window that appeared when you first started IDLE.
Remember, you have to press F5 from the file editor's window, not the interactive shell's window.
When your program asks us for your name, go ahead and enter it, as shown in Figure 3-5:
18
Figure 3-5: Running the program.
Now, when you push ENTER, the program should greet you (the user) by name. Congratulations! You've
written your first program. You are now a beginning computer programmer. (You can run this program again
if you like by pressing F5 again.)
How the "Hello World" Program Works

How does this program work? Well, each line that we entered is an instruction to the computer that is
interpreted by Python in a way that the computer will understand. A computer program is a lot like a recipe.
Do the first step first, then the second, and so on until you reach the end. Each instruction is followed in
sequence, beginning from the very top of the program and working down the list of instructions. After the
program executes the first line of instructions, it moves on and executes the second line, then the third, and so
on.
We call the program's following of instructions step-by-step the flow of execution, or just the
execution for short.
Now let's look at our program one line at a time to see what it's doing, beginning with line number 1.
Comments
1. # This program says hello and asks for my name.
This line is called a comment. Any text following a # sign (called the pound sign) is a comment.
Comments are not for the computer, but for you, the programmer. The computer ignores them. They're used
to remind you of what the program does or to tell others who might look at your code what it is that your
code is trying to do.
Programmers usually put a comment at the top of their code to give their program a title. The IDLE
program displays comments in red to help them stand out.
Functions
A function is kind of like a mini-program inside your program. It contains lines of code that are executed
from top to bottom. Python provides some built-in functions that we can use. The great thing about functions
is that we only need to know what the function does, but not how it does it. (You need to know that the
print() function displays text on the screen, but you19don't need to know how it does this.)
A function call is a piece of code that tells our program to run the code inside a function. For example,
your program can call the print() function whenever you want to display a string on the screen. The
print() function takes the string you type in between the parentheses as input and displays the text on the
screen. Because we want to display Hello world! on the screen, we type the print function name,
followed by an opening parenthesis, followed by the 'Hello world!' string and a closing parenthesis.
The print() Function
2. print('Hello world!')
3. print('What is your name?')
This line is a call to the print function, usually written as print() (with the string to be printed going
inside the parentheses).
We add parentheses to the end of function names to make it clear that we're referring to a function named
print(), not a variable named print. The parentheses at the end of the function let us know we are
talking about a function, much like the quotes around the number '42' tell us that we are talking about the
string '42' and not the integer 42.
Line 3 is another print() function call. This time, the program displays "What is your name?"
The input() Function
4. myName = input()
This line has an assignment statement with a variable (myName) and a function call (input()). When
input() is called, the program waits for input; for the user to enter text. The text string that the user enters
(your name) becomes the function's output value.
Like expressions, function calls evaluate to a single value. The value that the function call evaluates to is
called the return value. In this case, the return value of the input() function is the string that the user typed
in-their name. If the user typed in Albert, the input() function call evaluates to the string 'Albert'.
The function named input() does not need any input (unlike the print() function), which is why
there is nothing in between the parentheses.
5. print('It is good to meet you, ' + myName)
On the last line we have a print() function again. This time, we use the plus operator (+) to concatenate
the string 'It is good to meet you, ' and the string stored in the myName variable, which is the
name that our user input into the program. This is how we get the program to greet us by name.
20
Ending the Program
Once the program executes the last line, it stops. At this point it has terminated or exited and all of the
variables are forgotten by the computer, including the string we stored in myName. If you try running the
program again with a different name, like Carolyn, it will think that's your name.
Hello world!
What is your name?
Carolyn
It is good to meet you, Carolyn
Remember, the computer only does exactly what you program it to do. In this, our first program, it is
programmed to ask you for your name, let you type in a string, and then say hello and display the string you
typed.
But computers are dumb. The program doesn't care if you type in your name, someone else's name, or just
something dumb. You can type in anything you want and the computer will treat it the same way:
Hello world!
What is your name?
poop
It is good to meet you, poop
Variable Names
The computer doesn't care what you name your variables, but you should. Giving variables names that
reflect what type of data they contain makes it easier to understand what a program does. Instead of name,
we could have called this variable abrahamLincoln or nAmE. The computer will run the program the
same (as long as you consistently use abrahamLincoln or nAmE).
Variable names (as well as everything else in Python) are case-sensitive. Case-sensitive means the same
variable name in a different case is considered to be an entirely separate variable name. So spam, SPAM,
Spam, and sPAM are considered to be four different variables in Python. They each can contain their own
separate values.
It's a bad idea to have differently-cased variables in your program. If you stored your first name in the
variable name and your last name in the variable NAME, it would be very confusing when you read your code
weeks after you first wrote it. Did name mean first and NAME mean last, or the other way around?
If you accidentally switch the name and NAME variables, then your program will still run (it won't have
any syntax errors) but it will run incorrectly. This type of flaw in your code is called a bug. It is very
common to accidentally make bugs in your programs while you write them. This is why it is important that
the variable names you choose make sense.
It also helps to capitalize variable names if they include more than one word. If you store a string of what
you had for breakfast in a variable, the variable name whatIHadForBreakfastThisMorning is much
easier to read than whatihadforbreakfastthismorning. This is a convention (that is, an optional
but standard way of doing things) in Python programming. (Although even better would be something
21
simple, like myBreakfastFood. Capitalizing the first letter of each word in variable names makes the
program more readable.
Overwriting Variables
Changing the value stored inside a variable is easy. Just perform another assignment statement with the
same variable. Look what happens when you enter the following code into the interactive shell:
>>> spam = 42
>>> print(spam)
42
>>> spam = 'Hello'
>>> print(spam)
Hello
Initially, the spam variable had the integer 42 placed inside of it. This is why the first print(spam)
prints out 42. But when we execute spam = 'Hello', the 42 value is tossed out of the variable and
forgotten as the new 'Hello' string value is placed inside the spam variable.
Replacing the value in a variable with a new value is called overwriting the value. It is important to know
that the old value is permanently forgotten. If you want to remember this value so you can use it later in your
program, store it in a different variable before overwriting the value:
>>> spam = 42
>>> print(spam)
42
>>> oldSpam = spam
>>> spam = 'Hello'
>>> print(spam)
Hello
>>> print(oldSpam)
42
In the above example, before overwriting the value in spam, we store that value in a variable named
oldSpam.
Summary
Now that we have learned how to deal with text, we can start making programs that the user can run and
interact with. This is important because text is the main way the user and the computer will communicate
with each other. The player will enter text to the program through the keyboard with the input() function.
And the computer will display text on the screen when the print() function is executed.
Strings are just a different data type that we can use in our programs. We can use the + operator to
combine strings together. This process is call string concatenation. Using the + operator to concatenate two
strings together to form a new string is just like using the + operator to add two integers to form a new integer
(the sum).
22
In the next chapter, we will learn more about variables so that our program will remember the text and
numbers that the player enters into the program. Once we have learned how to use text, numbers, and
variables, we will be ready to start creating games.
23
• import statements
• Modules
• Arguments
• while statements
• Conditions
• Blocks
• Booleans
• Comparison operators
• The difference between = and ==.
• if statements
• The break keyword.
• The str() and int() functions.
• The random.randint() function.
The "Guess the Number" Game

We are going to make a "Guess the Number" game. In this game, the computer will think of a random
number from 1 to 20, and ask you to guess the number. You only get six guesses, but the computer will tell
you if your guess is too high or too low. If you guess the number within six tries, you win.
This is a good game for you to start with because it uses random numbers, loops, and input from the user in
a fairly short program. As you write this game, you will learn how to convert values to different data types
(and why you would need to do this).
Because this program is a game, we'll call the user the player, but the word "user" would be correct, too.
24
Sample Run of "Guess the Number"
Here is what our game will look like to the player when the program is run. The text that the player types
in is in bold.
Hello! What is your name?

Albert
Well, Albert, I am thinking of a number between 1 and 20.
Take a guess.
10
Your guess is too high.
Take a guess.
2
Your guess is too low.
Take a guess.
4
Good job, Albert! You guessed my number in 3 guesses!
Enter this code exactly as it appears here, and then save it by clicking on the File menu and then Save As.
Give it a file name like guess.py then run it by pressing the F5 key. Don't worry if you don't understand the
code now, I'll explain it step by step.
Guess the Number's Source Code

Here is the source code for our Guess the Number game. When you enter this code into the file editor, be
sure to pay attention to the spacing at the front of some of the lines. Some lines have four or eight spaces in
front of them. After you have typed in the code, save the file as guess.py. You can run the program from the
file editor by pressing F5. If you see an error message, check that you have typed the program in exactly as
written.
If you don't want to type all this code, you can download it from this book's website at the URL
http://inventwithpython.com/chapter4.
Important Note! Be sure to run this program with Python 3, and not Python 2. The programs in this book
use Python 3, and you'll get errors if you try to run them with Python 2. You can click on Help and then
About IDLE to find out what version of Python you have.
guess.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/guess.py
If you get errors after typing this code in, compare it to the book's code with the online diff tool at
http://inventwithpython.com/diff or email the author at al@inventwithpython.com
1. # This is a guess the number game.

2. import random
3.
4. guessesTaken = 0
5.
6. print('Hello! What is your name?')
7. myName = input()
8. 25
10. print('Well, ' + myName + ', I am thinking of a number
between 1 and 20.')
11.
12. while guessesTaken < 6:
13. print('Take a guess.') # There are four spaces in
front of print.
14. guess = input()
15. guess = int(guess)
16.
17. guessesTaken = guessesTaken + 1
18.
19. if guess < number:
20. print('Your guess is too low.') # There are eight
spaces in front of print.
21.
22. if guess > number:
23. print('Your guess is too high.')
24.
25. if guess == number:
26. break
27.
29. guessesTaken = str(guessesTaken)
30. print('Good job, ' + myName + '! You guessed my number
in ' + guessesTaken + ' guesses!')
31.
32. if guess != number:
33. number = str(number)
34. print('Nope. The number I was thinking of was ' +
number)
Even though we are entering our source code into a new file editor window, we can return to the shell to
enter individual instructions in order to see what they do. The interactive shell is very good for experimenting
with different instructions when we are not running a program. You can return to the interactive shell by
clicking on its window or on its taskbar button. In Windows or Mac OS X, the taskbar is on the bottom of the
screen. On Linux the taskbar may be located along the top of the screen.
If the program doesn't seem to work after you've typed it, check to see if you have typed the code exactly
as it appears in this book. You can also copy and paste your code to the online "diff" tool at
http://inventwithpython.com/diff. The diff tool will show you how your code is different from the source
code in this book. In the file editor, press Ctrl-A to "Select All" the text you've typed, then press Ctrl-C to
copy the text to the clipboard. Then, paste this text by clicking in the diff tool's text field on the website and
click the "Compare" button. The website will show you any differences between your code and the code in
this book.
There is a diff tool for each program in this book on the http://inventwithpython.com website.
26
The import Statement
Let's look at each line of code in turn to see how this program works.
1. # This is a guess the number game.
This line is a comment. Comments were introduced in our Hello World program in Chapter 3. Remember
that Python will ignore everything after the # sign. This just reminds us what this program does.
2. import random
This is an import statement. Statements are not functions (notice that neither import nor random has
parentheses after its name). Remember, statements are instructions that perform some action but do not
evaluate to a value. You have already seen statements: assignment statements store a value into a variable
(but the statement does not evaluate to anything).
While Python includes many built-in functions, some functions exist in separate programs called modules.
Modules are Python programs that contain additional functions. We use the functions of these modules by
bringing them into our programs with the import statement. In this case, we're importing the module
random.
The import statement is made up of the import keyword followed by the module name. Together, the
keyword and module name make up the statement. Line 2 then is an import statement that imports the
module named random which contains several functions related to random numbers. (We'll use one of these
functions later to have the computer come up with a random number for us to guess.)
4. guessesTaken = 0
This line creates a new variable named guessesTaken. We'll store the number of guesses the player makes
in this variable. Since the player hasn't made any guesses so far, we store the integer 0 here.
6. print('Hello! What is your name?')

7. myName = input()
Lines 6 and 7 are the same as the lines in the Hello World program that we saw in Chapter 3. Programmers
often reuse code from their other programs when they need the program to do something that they've already
coded before.
Line 6 is a function call to the print() function. Remember that a function is like a mini-program that
our program runs, and when our program calls a function it runs this mini-program. The code inside the
print() function displays the string you passed it inside the parentheses on the screen.
27
When these two lines finish executing, the string that is the player's name will be stored in the myName
variable. (Remember, the string might not really be the player's name. It's just whatever string the player
typed in. Computers are dumb and just follow their programs no matter what.)
The random.randint() Function
In Line 9 we call a new function named randint(), and then store the return value in a variable named
number. Remember that function calls are expressions because they evaluate to a value. We call this value
the function call's return value.
Because the randint() function is provided by the random module, we precede it with random.
(don't forget the period!) to tell our program that the function randint() is in the random module.
The randint() function will return a random integer between (and including) the two integers we give
it. Here, we give it the integers 1 and 20 between the parentheses that follow the function name (separated by
a comma). The random integer that randint() returns is stored in a variable named number-this is the
secret number the player is trying to guess.
Just for a moment, go back to the interactive shell and enter import random to import the random
module. Then enter random.randint(1, 20) to see what the function call evaluates to. It should return
an integer between 1 and 20. Now enter the same code again and the function call will probably return a
different integer. This is because each time the randint() function is called, it returns some random
number, just like when you roll dice you will get a random number each time.
>>> import random

>>> random.randint(1, 20)
12
18
3
18
7
>>>
Whenever we want to add randomness to our games, we can use the randint() function. And we use
randomness in most games. (Think of how many board games use dice.)
You can also try out different ranges of numbers by changing the arguments. For example, enter
random.randint(1, 4) to only get integers between 1 and 4 (including both 1 and 4). Or try
random.randint(1000, 2000) to get integers between 1000 and 2000. Here is an example of
calling the random.randint() function and seeing what values it returns. The results you get when you
call the random.randint() function will probably be different (it is random, after all).
28
3
4

1294
1585
>>>
We can change the game's code slightly to make the game behave differently. Try changing line 9 and 10
from this:

10. print('Well, ' + name + ', I am thinking of a number
between 1 and 20.')
into these lines:

10. print('Well, ' + name + ', I am thinking of a number
between 1 and 100.')
And now the computer will think of an integer between 1 and 100. Changing line 9 will change the range
of the random number, but remember to change line 10 so that the game also tells the player the new range
instead of the old one.
Calling Functions that are Inside Modules

By the way, be sure to enter random.randint(1, 20) and not just randint(1, 20), or the
computer will not know to look in the random module for the randint() function and you'll get an error
like this:
>>> randint(1, 20)

File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'randint' is not defined
>>>
Remember, your program needs to run import random before it can call the random.randint()
function. This is why import statements usually go at the beginning of the program.
29
Passing Arguments to Functions
The integer values between the parentheses in the random.randint(1, 20) function call are called
arguments. Arguments are the values that are passed to a function when the function is called. Arguments
tell the function how to behave. Just like the player's input changes how our program behaves, arguments are
inputs for functions.
Some functions require that you pass them values when you call them. For example, look at these function
calls:
input()
print('Hello')
random.randint(1, 20)
The input() function has no arguments but the print() function call has one and the randint()
function call has two. When we have more than one argument, we separate each with commas, as you can see
in this example. Programmers say that the arguments are delimited (that is, separated) by commas. This is
how the computer knows where one value ends and another begins.
If you pass too many or too few arguments in a function call, Python will display an error message, as you
can see below. In this example, we first called randint() with only one argument (too few), and then we
called randint() with three arguments (too many).
>>> random.randint(1)
File "<pyshell#1>", line 1, in <module>
random.randint(1)
TypeError: randint() takes exactly 3 positional arguments (2
given)
>>> random.randint(1, 2, 3)
random.randint(1, 2, 3)
TypeError: randint() takes exactly 3 positional arguments (4
given)
>>>
Notice that the error message says we passed 2 and 4 arguments instead of 1 and 3. This is because Python
always passes an extra, invisible argument. This argument is beyond the scope of this book, and you don't
have to worry about it.
Welcoming the Player

Lines 10 and 12 greets the player and tells them about the game, and then starts letting the player guess the
secret number. Line 10 is fairly simple, but line 12 introduces an advanced (but useful) concept called a loop.
30
10. print('Well, ' + myName + ', I am thinking of a number
between 1 and 20.')
In Line 10 the print() function welcomes the player by name, and tells them that the computer is
thinking of a random number.
But wait - didn't I say that the print() function takes only one string? It may look like there's more than
one string there. But look at the line carefully. The plus signs concatenate the three strings to evaluate down
to one string, and that is the one string the print() function prints. It might look like the commas are
separating the strings, but if you look closely you see that the commas are inside the quotes, and part of the
strings themselves.
Loops
Line 12 has something called a while statement, which indicates the beginning of a while loop. Loops
are parts of code that are executed over and over again. But before we can learn about while loops, we need
to learn a few other concepts first. Those concepts are blocks, booleans, comparison operators, conditions,
and finally, the while statement.
Blocks
A block is one or more lines of code grouped together with the same minimum amount of indentation.
You can tell where a block begins and ends by looking at the line's indentation (that is, the number of
spaces in front of the line).
A block begins when a line is indented by four spaces. Any following line that is also indented by four
spaces is part of the block. A block within a block begins when a line is indented with another four spaces
(for a total of eight spaces in front of the line). The block ends when there is a line of code with the same
indentation before the block started.
Below is a diagram of the code with the blocks outlined and numbered. The spaces have black squares
filled in to make them easier to count.
31
Figure 4-1: Blocks and their indentation.
For example, look at the code above. The spaces have been replaced with dark squares to make them easier
to count. Line 12 has an indentation of zero spaces and is not inside any block. Line 13 has an indentation of
four spaces. Since this indentation is larger than the previous line's indentation, we can tell that a new block
has started. Lines 14, 15, 17 and 19 also have four spaces for indentation. Both of these lines have the same
amount of indentation as the previous line, so we know they are in the same block. (We do not count blank
lines when we look for indentation.)
Line 20 has an indentation of eight spaces. Eight spaces is more than four spaces, so we know a new block
has started. This is a block that is inside of another block.
Line 22 only has four spaces. The line before line 22 had a larger number of spaces. Because the
indentation has decreased, we know that block has ended. Line 22 is in the same block as the other lines with
four spaces.
Line 23 increases the indentation to eight spaces, so again a new block has started.
To recap, line 12 is not in any block. Lines 13 to 23 all in one block (marked with the circled 1). Line 20 is
in a block in a block (marked with a circled 2). And line 23 is the only line in another block in a block
(marked with a circled 3).
When you type code into IDLE, each letter is the same width. You can count the number of letters above
or below the line to see how many spaces you have put in front of that line of code.
In this figure, the lines of code inside box 1 are all in the same block, and blocks 2 and 3 are inside block 1.
Block 1 is indented with at least four spaces from the left margin, and blocks 2 and 3 are indented eight
spaces from the left margin. A block can contain just one line. Notice that blocks 2 and 3 are only one line
each.
The Boolean Data Type

The Boolean data type has only two values: True or False. These values are case-sensitive and they are
not string values; in other words, you do not put a ' quote character around them. We will use Boolean values
with comparison operators to form conditions. (See below.)
32
Comparison Operators
In line 12 of our program, the line of code containing the while statement:
Table 4-1: Comparison operators.

The expression that follows the while keyword Operator Sign Operator Name
(guessesTaken < 6) contains two values (the value in the
variable guessesTaken, and the integer value 6) connected by < Less than
an operator (the < sign, the "less than" sign). The < sign is called a > Greater than
comparison operator.
<= Less than or equal to
The comparison operator is used to compare two values and >= Greater than or equal to
evaluate to a True or False Boolean value. A list of all the
comparison operators is in Table 4-1. == Equal to
!= Not equal to
Conditions
A condition is an expression that combines two values with a comparison operator (such as < or >) and
evaluates to a Boolean value. A condition is just another name for an expression that evaluates to True or
False. You'll find a list of other comparison operators in Table 4-1.
Conditions always evaluate to a Boolean value-either True or False. For example, the condition in our
code, guessesTaken < 6 asks "is the value stored in guessesTaken less than the number 6?" If so,
then the condition evaluates to True. If not, the condition evaluates to False.
In the case of our Guess the Number program, in line 4 we stored the value 0 in guessesTaken.
Because 0 is less than 6, this condition evaluates to the Boolean value of True. Remember, a condition is
just a name for an expression that uses comparison operators such as < or !=.
Experiment with Booleans, Comparison Operators, and

Conditions
Enter the following expressions in the interactive shell to see their Boolean results:
>>> 0 < 6
True
>>> 6 < 0
False
>>> 50 < 10
False
>>> 10 < 11
True
33
>>> 10 < 10
False
The condition 0 < 6 returns the Boolean value True because the number 0 is less than the number 6.
But because 6 is not less than 0, the condition 6 < 0 evaluates to False. 50 is not less than 10, so 50 <
10 is False. 10 is less than 11, so 10 < 11 is True.
But what about 10 < 10? Why does it evaluate to False? It is False because the number 10 is not
smaller than the number 10. They are exactly the same size. If Alice was the same height as Bob, you
wouldn't say that Alice is taller than Bob or that Alice is shorter than Bob. Both of those statements would be
false.
Try entering some conditions into the shell to see how these comparison operators work:
>>> 10 == 10
True
>>> 10 == 11
False
>>> 11 == 10
False
>>> 10 != 10
False
>>> 10 != 11
True
>>> 'Hello' == 'Hello'
True
>>> 'Hello' == 'Good bye'
False
>>> 'Hello' == 'HELLO'
False
>>> 'Good bye' != 'Hello'
True
Notice the difference between the assignment operator (=) and the "equal to" comparison operator (==).
The equal (=) sign is used to assign a value to a variable, and the equal to (==) sign is used in expressions to
see whether two values are equal. It's easy to accidentally use one when you meant to use the other, so be
careful of what you type in.
Two values that are different data types will always be not equal to each other. For example, try entering
the following into the interactive shell:
>>> 42 == 'Hello'
False
>>> 42 != 'Hello'
True
34
Looping with While Statements
The while statement marks the beginning of a loop. Sometimes in our programs, we want the program to
do something over and over again. When the execution reaches a while statement, it evaluates the condition
next to the while keyword. If the condition evaluates to True, the execution moves inside the while-block.
(In our program, the while-block begins on line 13.) If the condition evaluates to False, the execution
moves all the way past the while-block. (In our program, the first line after the while-block is line 28.)
Figure 4-2: The while loop's condition.
Figure 4-2 shows how the execution flows depending on the condition. If the condition evaluates to True
(which it does the first time, because the value of guessesTaken is 0), execution will enter the while-
block at line 13 and keep going down. Once the program reaches the end of the while-block, instead of going
down to the next line, it jumps back up to the while statement's line (line 12). It then re-evaluates the
condition, and if it is True we enter the while-block again.
This is how the loop works. As long as the condition is True, the program keeps executing the code inside
the while-block repeatedly until we reach the end of the while-block and the condition is False. And, until
guessesTaken is equal to or greater than 6, we will keep looping.
35
Think of the while statement as saying, "while this condition is true, keep looping through the code in
this block".
You can make this game harder or easier by changing the number of guesses the player gets. All you have
to do is change this line:
into this line:
...and now the player only gets four guesses instead of six guesses. By setting the condition to
guessesTaken < 4, we ensure that the code inside the loop only runs four times instead of six. This
makes the game much more difficult. To make the game easier, set the condition to guessesTaken < 8
or guessesTaken < 10, which will cause the loop to run a few more times than before and accept more
guesses from the player.
Of course, if we removed line 17 altogether then the guessesTaken would never increase and the
condition would always be True. This would give the player an unlimited number of guesses.
The Player Guesses

Lines 13 to 17 ask the player to guess what the secret number is and lets them enter their guess. We store
this guess in a variable, and then convert that string value into an integer value.
13. print('Take a guess.') # There are four spaces in

front of print.
14. guess = input()
The program now asks us for a guess. We type in our guess and that number is stored in a variable named
guess.
Converting Strings to Integers with the int() Function
15. guess = int(guess)
In line 15, we call a new function called int(). The int() function takes one argument. The input()
function returned a string of text that player typed. But in our program, we will want an integer, not a string.
If the player enters 5 as their guess, the input() function will return the string value '5' and not the
integer value 5. Remember that Python considers the string '5' and the integer 5 to be different values. So
the int() function will take the string value we give it and return the integer value form of it.
36
Let's experiment with the int() function in the interactive shell. Try typing the following:
>>> int('42')
42
>>> int(42)
42
>>> int('hello')

int('forty-two')
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'hello'
>>> int('forty-two')

int('forty-two')
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'forty-
two'
>>> int(' 42 ')
42
>>> 3 + int('2')
5
We can see that the int('42') call will return the integer value 42, and that int(42) will do the same
(though it is kind of pointless to convert an integer to an integer). However, even though you can pass a string
to the int() function, you cannot just pass any string. For example, passing 'hello' to int() (like we
do in the int('hello') call) will result in an error. The string we pass to int() must be made up of
numbers.
The integer we pass to int() must also be numerical, rather than text, which is why int('forty-
two') also produces an error. That said, the int() function is slightly forgiving- if our string has spaces on
either side, it will still run without error. This is why the int(' 42 ') call works.
The 3 + int('2') line shows an expression that adds an integer 3 to the return value of int('2')
(which evaluates to 2 as well). The expression evaluates to 3 + 2, which then evaluates to 5. So even
though we cannot add an integer and a string (3 + '2' would show us an error), we can add an integer to a
string that has been converted to an integer.
Remember, back in our program on line 15 the guess variable originally held the string value of what the
player typed. We will overwrite the string value stored in guess with the integer value returned by the int
() function. This is because we will later compare the player's guess with the random number the computer
came up with. We can only compare two integer values to see if one is greater (that is, higher) or less (that is,
lower) than the other. We cannot compare a string value with an integer value to see if one is greater or less
than the other, even if that string value is numeric such as '5'.
In our Guess the Number game, if the player types in something that is not a number, then the function call
int() will result in an error and the program will crash. In the other games in this book, we will add some
more code to check for error conditions like this and give the player another chance to enter a correct
response.
37
Notice that calling int(guess) does not change the value in the guess variable. The code int
(guess) is an expression that evaluates to the integer value form of the string stored in the guess variable.
We must assign this return value to guess in order to change the value in guess to an integer with this full
line: guess = int(guess)
Incrementing Variables
17. guessesTaken = guessesTaken + 1
Once the player has taken a guess, we want to increase the number of guesses that we remember the player
taking.
The first time that we enter the loop block, guessesTaken has the value of 0. Python will take this
value and add 1 to it. 0 + 1 is 1. Then Python will store the new value of 1 to guessesTaken.
Think of line 17 as meaning, "the guessesTaken variable should be one more than what it already is".
When we add one to a value, programmers say they are incrementing the value (because it is increasing
by one). When we subtract one from a value, we are decrementing the value (because it is decreasing by
one). The next time the loop block loops around, guessesTaken will have the value of 1 and will be
incremented to the value 2.
Is the Player's Guess Too Low?

Lines 19 and 20 check if the number that the player guessed is less than the secret random number that the
computer came up with. If so, then we want to tell the player that their guess was too low by printing this
message to the screen.
if Statements
19. if guess < number:

20. print('Your guess is too low.') # There are eight
spaces in front of print.
Line 19 begins an if statement with the keyword, if. Next to the if keyword is the condition. Line 20
starts a new block (you can tell because the indentation has increased from line 19 to line 20.) The block that
follows the if keyword is called an if-block. An if statement is used if you only want a bit of code to
execute if some condition is True. Line 19 has an if statement with the condition guess < number. If
the condition evaluates to True, then the code in the if-block is executed. If the condition is False, then the
code in the if-block is skipped.
Like the while statement, the if statement also has a keyword, followed by a condition, and then a block
of code. See Figure 4-3 for a comparison of the two statements.
38
The if statement works almost the same way as a
while statement, too. But unlike the while-block,
execution does not jump back to the if statement at the end
of the if-block. It just continues on down to the next line. In
other words, if blocks won't loop.
If the condition is True, then all the lines inside the if-
block are executed. The only line inside this if-block on line
19 is a print() function call.
If the integer the player enters is less than the random

integer the computer thought up, the program displays Your
guess is too low. If the integer the player enters is
equal to or larger than the random integer (in which case, the
condition next to the if keyword would have been False),
then this block would have been skipped over.
Figure 4-3: if and while statements.
Is the Player's Guess Too High?
Lines 22 to 26 in our program check if the player's guess is either too big or exactly equal to the secret
number.
22. if guess > number:

23. print('Your guess is too high.')
If the player's guess is larger than the random integer, we enter the if-block that follows the if statement.
The print() line tells the player that their guess is too big.
Leaving Loops Early with the break Statement

26. break
This if statement's condition checks to see if the guess is equal to the random integer. If it is, we enter line
26, the if-block that follows it.
The line inside the if-block is a break statement that tells the program to immediately jump out of the
while-block to the first line after the end of the while-block. (The break statement does not bother re-
checking the while loop's condition, it just breaks out immediately.)
The break statement is just the break keyword by itself, with no condition or colon (the : sign).
If the player's guess is not equal to the random integer, we do not break out of the while-block, we will
reach the bottom of the while-block anyway. Once we reach the bottom of the while-block, the program will
loop back to the top and recheck the condition (guessesTaken < 6). Remember after the
guessesTaken = guessesTaken + 1 line of code executed, the new value of guessesTaken is 1.
Because 1 is less than 6, we enter the loop again. 39
If the player keeps guessing too low or too high, the value of guessesTaken will change to 2, then 3,
then 4, then 5, then 6. If the player guessed the number correctly, the condition in the if guess ==
number statement would be True, and we would have executed the break statement. Otherwise, we keep
looping. But when guessesTaken has the number 6 stored, the while statement's condition is False,
since 6 is not less than 6. Because the while statement's condition is False, we will not enter the loop and
instead jump to the end of the while-block.
The remaining lines of code run when the player has finished guessing (either because the player guessed
the correct number, or because the player ran out of guesses). The reason the player exited the previous loop
will determine if they win or lose the game, and the program will display the appropriate message on the
screen for either case.
Check if the Player Won
Unlike the code in line 25, this line has no indentation, which means the while-block has ended and this is
the first line outside the while-block. When we left the while block, we did so either because the while
statement's condition was False (when the player runs out of guesses) or if we executed the break
statement (when the player guesses the number correctly). With line 28, check again to see if the player
guessed correctly. If so, we enter the if-block that follows.
29. guessesTaken = str(guessesTaken)

30. print('Good job, ' + myName + '! You guessed my number
in ' + guessesTaken + ' guesses!')
Lines 29 and 30 are inside the if-block. They only execute if the condition in the if statement on line 28
was True (that is, if the player correctly guessed the computer's number).
In line 29 (which is similar to the guess = int(guess) code on line 15), we call the new function
str(), which returns the string form of an argument. We use this function because we want to change the
integer value in guessesTaken into its string version because we can only use strings in calls to print
().
Line 29 tells the player that they have won, and how many guesses it took them. Notice in this line that we
change the guessesTaken value into a string because we can only add strings to other strings. If we were
to try to add a string to an integer, the Python interpreter would display an error.
Check if the Player Lost
32. if guess != number:
In Line 32, we use the comparison operator != with the if statement's condition to mean "is not equal to."
If the value of the player's guess is lower or higher than (and therefore, not equal to) the number chosen by
40
the computer, then this condition evaluates to True, and we enter the block that follows this if statement on
line 33.
Lines 33 and 34 are inside the if-block, and only execute if the condition is True.
33. number = str(number)

34. print('Nope. The number I was thinking of was ' +
number)
In this block, we tell the player what the number is because they failed to guess correctly. But first we have
to store the string version of number as the new value of number.
This line is also inside the if-block, and only executes if the condition was True. At this point, we have
reached the end of the code, and the program terminates.
Congratulations! We've just programmed our first real game!
Summary: What Exactly is Programming?

If someone asked you, "What exactly is programming anyway?" what could you say to them?
Programming is just the action of writing code for programs, that is, creating programs that can be executed
by a computer.
"But what exactly is a program?" When you see someone using a computer program (for example, playing
our Guess The Number game), all you see is some text appearing on the screen. The program decides what
exact text to show on the screen (which is called the output), based on its instructions (that is, the program)
and on the text that the player typed on the keyboard (which is called the input). The program has very
specific instructions on what text to show the user. A program is just a collection of instructions.
"What kind of instructions?" There are only a few different kinds of instructions, really.
Expressions, which are made up of values connected by operators. Expressions are all evaluated down to a
single value, like 2 + 2 evaluates to 4 or 'Hello' + ' ' + 'World' evaluates to 'Hello
World'. Function calls are also part of expressions because they evaluate to a single value themselves, and
this value can be connected by operators to other values. When expressions are next to the if and while
keywords, we also call them conditions.
Assignment statements, which simply store values in variables so we can remember the values later in our
program.
if, while and break are flow control statements because they decide which instructions are
executed. The normal flow of execution for a program is to start at the top and execute each instruction going
down one by one. But these flow control statements can cause the flow to skip instructions, loop over
instructions, or break out of loops. Function calls also change the flow of execution by jumping to the start of
a function.
The print() function, which displays text on the screen. Also, the input() function can get text from
the user through the keyboard. This is called I/O (pronounced like the letters, "eye-oh"), because it deals with
the input and output of the program.
41
And that's it, just those four things. Of course, there are many details about those four types of instructions.
In this book you will learn about new data types and operators, new flow control statements besides if,
while and break, and several new functions. There are also different types of I/O (input from the mouse,
and outputting sound and graphics and pictures instead of just text.)
For the person using your programs, they really only care about that last type, I/O. The user types on the
keyboard and then sees things on the screen or hears things from the speakers. But for the computer to figure
out what sights to show and what sounds to play, it needs a program, and programs are just a bunch of
instructions that you, the programmer, have written.
A Web Page for Program Tracing

If you have access to the Internet and a web browser, you can go to this book's website at
http://inventwithpython.com/traces you will find a page that traces through each of the programs in this book.
By following along with the trace line by line, it might become more clear what the Guess the Number
program does.
Figure 4-4: The tracing web page.
The left side of the web page shows the source code, and the highlighted line is the line of code that is
about to be executed. You execute this line and move to the next line by clicking the "Next" button. You can
also go back a step by clicking the "Previous" button, or jump directly to a step by typing it in the white box
and clicking the "Jump" button.
On the right side of the web page, there are three sections. The "Current variable values" section shows
you each variable that has been assigned a value, along with the value itself. The "Notes" section will give
you a hint about what is happening on the highlighted line. The "Program output" section shows the output
42
from the program, and the input that is sent to the program. (This web page automatically enters text to the
program when the program asks.)
So go to each of these web pages and click the "Next" and "Previous" buttons to trace through the program
like we did above.
43
• Using print()'s end keyword argument to skip newlines.
• Escape characters.
• Using single quotes and double quotes for strings.
Make the Most of print()

Most of the games in this book will have simple text for input and output. The input is typed by the user on
the keyboard and entered to the computer. The output is the text displayed on the screen. In Python, the
print() function can be used for displaying textual output on the screen. We've learned how the basics of
using the print() function, but there is more to learn about how strings and print() work in Python.
This next program is simpler compared to the "Guess the Number" game in chapter 4. Open a new file
editor window by clicking on File, then clicking on New Window and enter this source code:
Sample Run of Jokes
What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Frostbite!
What do dentists call an astronaut's cavity?
A black hole!
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
44
Interrupting cow wh-MOO!
Joke's Source Code

Here is the source code for our short jokes program. Type it into the file editor and save it as jokes.py. If
you do not want to type this code in, you can also download the source code from this book's website at the
URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter5.
jokes.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/jokes.py
1. print('What do you get when you cross a snowman with a

vampire?')
2. input()
3. print('Frostbite!')
4. print()
5. print('What do dentists call a astronaut\'s cavity?')
6. input()
7. print('A black hole!')
8. print()
9. print('Knock knock.')
10. input()
11. print("Who's there?")
12. input()
13. print('Interrupting cow.')
14. input()
15. print('Interrupting cow wh', end='')
16. print('-MOO!')
17.
Don't worry if you don't understand everything in the program. Just save and run the program. Remember,
if your program has bugs in it, you can use the online diff tool at http://inventwithpython.com/chapter5.
How the Code Works

Let's look at the code more carefully.
1. print('What do you get when you cross a snowman with a

vampire?')
2. input()
45
3. print('Frostbite!')
4. print()
Here we have three print() function calls. Because we don't want to tell the player what the joke's
punch line is, we have a call to the input() function after the first print(). The player can read the first
line, press ENTER, and then read the punch line.
The user can still type in a string and hit ENTER, but because we aren't storing this string in any variable,
the program will just forget about it and move to the next line of code.
The last print() function call has no string argument. This tells the program to just print a blank line.
Blank lines can be useful to keep our text from being bunched up together.
Escape Characters
5. print('What do dentists call a astronaut\'s cavity?')

6. input()
7. print('A black hole!')
8. print()
In the first print()above, you'll notice that we have a slash right before the single quote (that is, the
apostrophe). This backslash ( \ is a backslash, / is a forward slash) tells us that the letter right after it is an
escape character. An escape character helps us print out letters that are hard to enter into the source code.
There are several different escape characters, but in our call to print() the escape character is the single
quote.
We have to have the single quote escape character because otherwise the Python interpreter would think
that this quote meant the end of the string. But we want this quote to be a part of the string. When we print
this string, the backslash will not show up.
Some Other Escape Characters

What if you really want to display a backslash? This line of code would not work:
>>> print('He flew away in a green\teal helicopter.')
That print() function call would show up as:
He flew away in a green eal helicopter.
This is because the "t" in "teal" was seen as an escape character since it came after a backslash. The escape
character t simulates pushing the Tab key on your keyboard. Escape characters are there so that strings can
have characters that cannot be typed in.
Instead, try this line:

46
>>> print('He flew away in a green\\teal helicopter.')
Here is a list of escape characters in Python:
Table 5-1: Escape Characters

Escape Character What Is Actually Printed
\\ Backslash (\)
\' Single quote (')
\" Double quote (")
\n Newline
\t Tab
Quotes and Double Quotes

Strings don't always have to be in between single quotes in Python. You can also put them in between
double quotes. These two lines print the same thing:
>>> print('Hello world')

Hello world
>>> print("Hello world")
Hello world
But you cannot mix quotes. This line will give you an error if you try to use them:
>>> print('Hello world")

SyntaxError: EOL while scanning single-quoted string
>>>
I like to use single quotes because I don't have to hold down the shift key on the keyboard to type them. It's
easier to type, and the computer doesn't care either way.
But remember, just like you have to use the escape character \' to have a single quote in a string surrounded
by single quotes, you need the escape character \" to have a double quote in a string surrounded by double
quotes. For example, look at these two lines:
>>> print('I asked to borrow Abe\'s car for a week. He said,

"Sure."')
I asked to borrow Abe's car for a week. He said, "Sure."
>>> print("He said, \"I can't believe you let him borrow your
car.\"")
He said, "I can't believe you let him borrow your car."
47
Did you notice that in the single quote strings you do not need to escape double quotes, and in the double
quote strings you do not need to escape single quotes? The Python interpreter is smart enough to know that if
a string starts with one type of quote, the other type of quote doesn't mean the string is ending.
The end Keyword Argument
9. print('Knock knock.')
10. input()
11. print("Who's there?")
12. input()
13. print('Interrupting cow.')
14. input()
15. print('Interrupting cow wh', end='')
16. print('-MOO!')
Did you notice the second parameter on line 15's print()? Normally, print() adds a newline
character to the end of the string it prints. (This is why a blank print() function will just print a newline.)
But the print() function can optionally have a second parameter (which has the name end.) The blank
string we are passing is called a keyword argument. The end parameter has a specific name, and to pass an
argument to this specific parameter we need to use the end= syntax.
Notice that when you type the keyword and the keyword argument, you use only one = sign. It is end='',
and not end==''.
By passing a blank string for the end we tell the print() function to not add a newline at the end of the
string, but instead add a blank string. This is why '-MOO!' appears next to the previous line, instead of on
its own line. There was no newline printed after the 'Interrupting cow wh' string.
Summary
This chapter briefly covered how software (including our Python programs) runs on your computer.
Python is a higher-level programming language that the Python interpreter (that is, the Python software you
have downloaded and installed) converts into machine language. Machine language are the 1s and 0s that
make up instructions that your computer can understand and process.
The rest of this chapter explores the different ways you can use the print() function. Escape characters
are used for characters that are difficult or impossible to type into the code with the keyboard. Escape
characters are typed into strings beginning with a backslash \ followed by a single letter for the escape
character. For example, \n would print out a newline. To display a backslash, you would use the escape
character \\.
The print() function automatically appends a newline character to the end of the string we pass it to be
displayed on the screen. Most of the time, this is a helpful shortcut. But sometimes we don't want a newline
character at the end. To change this, we pass the end keyword argument with a blank string. For example, to
print "spam" to the screen without a newline character, you would call print('spam', end='').
By adding this level of control to the text we display on the screen, we have much more flexible ways to
display text on the screen the exact way we want to.
48
• The time module.
• The time.sleep() function.
• The return keyword.
• Creating our own functions with the def keyword.
• The and and or and not boolean operators.
• Truth tables
• Variable scope (Global and Local)
• Parameters and Arguments
• Flow charts
Introducing Functions
We've already used two functions in our previous programs: input() and print(). In our previous
programs, we have called these functions to execute the code that is inside these functions. In this chapter, we
will write our own functions for our programs to call. A function is like a mini-program that is inside of our
program. Many times in a program we want to run the exact same code multiple times. Instead of typing out
this code several times, we can put that code inside a function and call the function several times. This has the
added benefit that if we make a mistake, we only have one place in the code to change it.
The game we will create to introduce functions is called "Dragon Realm", and lets the player make a guess
between two caves which randomly hold treasure or certain doom.
How to Play "Dragon Realm"

In this game, the player is in a land full of dragons. The dragons all live in caves with their large piles of
collected treasure. Some dragons are friendly, and will share their treasure with you. Other dragons are
greedy and hungry, and will eat anyone who enters their cave. The player is in front of two caves, one with a
friendly dragon and the other with a hungry dragon. The player is given a choice between the two.
49
Open a new file editor window by clicking on the File menu, then click on New Window. In the blank
window that appears type in the source code and save the source code as dragon.py. Then run the program by
pressing F5.
Sample Run of Dragon Realm
You are in a land full of dragons. In front of you,

you see two caves. In one cave, the dragon is friendly
and will share his treasure with you. The other dragon
is greedy and hungry, and will eat you on sight.
Which cave will you go into? (1 or 2)

1
You approach the cave...
It is dark and spooky...
A large dragon jumps out in front of you! He opens his jaws and...
Gobbles you down in one bite!

Do you want to play again? (yes or no)
no
Dragon Realm's Source Code

Here is the source code for the Dragon Realm game. Typing in the source code is a great way to get used
to the code. But if you don't want to do all this typing, you can download the source code from this book's
website at the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter6. There are instructions on the website that will tell
you how to download and open the source code file. You can use the online diff tool on the website to check
for any mistakes in your code.
One thing to know as you read through the code below: The blocks that follow the def lines define a
function, but the code in that block does not run until the function is called. The code does not execute each
line in this program in top down order. This will be explained in more detail later in this chapter.
dragon.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/dragon.py
1. import random
2. import time
3.
4. def displayIntro():
5. print('You are on a planet full of dragons. In front
of you,')
6. print('you see two caves. In one cave, the dragon is
friendly')
50
7. print('and will share his treasure with you. The other
dragon')
8. print('is greedy and hungry, and will eat you on
sight.')
9. print()
10.
11. def chooseCave():
12. cave = ''
13. while cave != '1' and cave != '2':
14. print('Which cave will you go into? (1 or 2)')
15. cave = input()
16.
17. return cave
18.
19. def checkCave(chosenCave):
20. print('You approach the cave...')
21. time.sleep(2)
22. print('It is dark and spooky...')
23. time.sleep(2)
24. print('A large dragon jumps out in front of you! He
opens his jaws and...')
25. print()
26. time.sleep(2)
27.
28. friendlyCave = random.randint(1, 2)
29.
30. if chosenCave == str(friendlyCave):
31. print('Gives you his treasure!')
32. else:
33. print('Gobbles you down in one bite!')
34.
35. playAgain = 'yes'
36. while playAgain == 'yes' or playAgain == 'y':
37.
38. displayIntro()
39.
40. caveNumber = chooseCave()
41.
42. checkCave(caveNumber)
43.
44. print('Do you want to play again? (yes or no)')
45. playAgain = input()
How the Code Works

Let's look at the source code in more detail.
1. import random
51
2. import time
Here we have two import statements. We import the random module like we did in the Guess the
Number game. In Dragon Realm, we will also want some time-related functions that the time module
includes, so we will import that as well.
Defining the displayIntro() Function
4. def displayIntro():
5. print('You are on a planet full of dragons. In front
of you,')
6. print('you see two caves. In one cave, the dragon is
friendly')
7. print('and will share his treasure with you. The other
dragon')
8. print('is greedy and hungry, and will eat you on
sight.')
9. print()
Figure 6-1 shows a new type of statement, the def

statement. The def statement is made up of the def
keyword, followed by a function name with parentheses,
and then a colon (the : sign). There is a block after the
statement called the def-block.
Figure 6-1: Parts of a def statement.
def Statements
The def statement isn't a call to a function named displayIntro(). Instead, the def statement means
we are creating, or defining, a new function that we can call later in our program. After we define this
function, we can call it the same way we call other functions. When we call this function, the code inside the
def-block will be executed.
We also say we define variables when we create them with an assignment statement. The code spam =
42 defines the variable spam.
Remember, the def statement doesn't execute the code right now, it only defines what code is executed
when we call the displayIntro() function later in the program. When the program's execution reaches a
def statement, it skips down to the end of the def-block. We will jump back to the top of the def-block when
52
the displayIntro() function is called. It will then execute all the print() statements inside the def-
block. So we call this function when we want to display the "You are on a planet full of dragons..."
introduction to the user.
When we call the displayIntro() function, the program's execution jumps to the start of the function
on line 5. When the function's block ends, the program's execution returns to the line that called the function.
We will explain all of the functions that this program will use before we explain the main part of the
program. It may be a bit confusing to learn the program out of the order that it executes. But just keep in
mind that when we define the functions they just silently sit around waiting to be called into action.
Defining the chooseCave() Function
11. def chooseCave():
Here we are defining another function called chooseCave. The code in this function will prompt the user
to select which cave they should go into.
12. cave = ''

Inside the chooseCave() function, we create a new variable called cave and store a blank string in it.
Then we will start a while loop. This while statement's condition contains a new operator we haven't seen
before called and. Just like the - or * are mathematical operators, and == or != are comparison operators,
the and operator is a boolean operator.
Boolean Operators
Boolean logic deals with things that are either true or false. This is why the boolean data type only has two
values, True and False. Boolean statements are always either true or false. If the statement is not true, then
it is false. And if the statement is not false, then it is true.
Boolean operators compare two different boolean values and evaluate to a single boolean value. Do you
remember how the * operator will combine two integer values and produce a new integer value (the product
of the two original integers)? And do you also remember how the + operator can combine two strings and
produce a new string value (the concatenation of the two original strings)? The and boolean operator
combines two boolean values to produce a new boolean value. Here's how the and operator works.
Think of the sentence, "Cats have whiskers and dogs have tails." This sentence is true, because "cats have
whiskers" is true and "dogs have tails" is also true.
But the sentence, "Cats have whiskers and dogs have wings." would be false. Even though "cats have
whiskers" is true, dogs do not have wings, so "dogs have wings" is false. The entire sentence is only true if
both parts are true because the two parts are connected by the word "and." If one or both parts are false, then
the entire sentence is false.
53
The and operator in Python works this way too. If the boolean values on both sides of the and keyword
are True, then the expression with the and operator evaluates to True. If either of the boolean values are
False, or both of the boolean values are False, then the expression evaluates to False.
Evaluating an Expression That Contains Boolean Operators

So let's look at line 13 again:
This condition is made up of two expressions connected by the and boolean operator. We first evaluate
these expressions to get their boolean (that is, True or False) values. Then we evaluate the boolean values
with the and operator.
The string value stored in cave when we first execute this while statement is the blank string, ''. The
blank string does not equal the string '1', so the left side evaluates to True. The blank string also does not
equal the string '2', so the right side evaluates to True. So the condition then turns into True and
True. Because both boolean values are True, the condition finally evaluates to True. And because the
while statement's condition is True, the program execution enters the while-block.
This is all done by the Python interpreter, but it is important to understand how the interpreter does this.
This picture shows the steps of how the interpreter evaluates the condition (if the value of cave is the blank
string):
while cave != '1' and cave != '2':
while '' != '1' and cave != '2':
while True and cave != '2':
while True and '' != '2':
while True and True:
while True:
Experimenting with the and and or Operators
Try typing the following into the interactive shell:
>>> True and True

True
>>> True and False
54
False
>>> False and True
False
>>> False and False
False
There are two other boolean operators. The next one is the or operator. The or operator works similar to
the and, except it will evaluate to True if either of the two boolean values are True. The only time the or
operator evaluates to False is if both of the boolean values are False.
The sentence "Cats have whiskers or dogs have wings." is true. Even though dogs don't have wings, when
we say "or" we mean that one of the two parts is true. The sentence "Cats have whiskers or dogs have tails."
is also true. (Most of the time when we say "this OR that", we mean one thing is true but the other thing is
false. In programming, "or" means that either of the things are true, or maybe both of the things are true.)
>>> True or True

True
>>> True or False
True
>>> False or True
True
>>> False or False
False
Experimenting with the not Operator
The third boolean operator is not. The not operator is different from every other operator we've seen
before, because it only works on one value, not two. There is only value on the right side of the not
keyword, and none on the left. The not operator will evaluate to True as False and will evaluate False as
True.
>>> not True

False
>>> not False
True
>>> True not
SyntaxError: invalid syntax (<pyshell#0>, line 1)
Notice that if we put the boolean value on the left side of the not operator results in a syntax error.
We can use both the and and not operators in a single expression. Try typing True and not False
into the shell:
55
>>> True and not False
True
Normally the expression True and False would evaluate to False. But the True and not False
expression evaluates to True. This is because not False evaluates to True, which turns the expression
into True and True, which evaluates to True.
Truth Tables
If you ever forget how the boolean operators work, you can look at these charts, which are called truth
tables:
Table 6-1: The and operator's truth table.

A and B is Entire statement
True and True is True
True and False is False
False and True is False
False and False is False
Table 6-2: The or operator's truth table.

A or B is Entire statement
True or True is True
True or False is True
False or True is True
False or False is False
Table 6-3: The not operator's not table.

not A is Entire statement
not True is False
not False is True
Getting the Player's Input
14. print('Which cave will you go into? (1 or 2)')

15. cave = input()
Here, the player is asked to enter which cave they chose to enter by typing in 1 or 2 and hitting ENTER.
Whatever string the player typed will be stored in cave. After this code is executed, we jump back to the top
of the while statement and recheck the condition. Remember that the line was:
56
If this condition evaluates to True, we will enter the while-block again and ask the player for a cave
number to enter. But if the player typed in 1 or 2, then the cave value will either be '1' or '2'. This
causes the condition to evaluate to False, and the program execution will continue on past the while loop.
The reason we have a loop here is because the player may have typed in 3 or 4 or HELLO. Our program
doesn't make sense of this, so if the player did not enter 1 or 2, then the program loops back and asks the
player again. In fact, the computer will patiently ask the player for the cave number over and over again until
the player types in 1 or 2. When the player does that, the while-block's condition will be False, and we will
jump down past the while-block and continue with the program.
Return Values
17. return cave
This is the return keyword, which only appears inside def-blocks. Remember how the input() function
returns the string value that the player typed in? Or how the randint() function will return a random
integer value? Our function will also return a value. It returns the string that is stored in cave.
This means that if we had a line of code like spam = chooseCave(), the code inside chooseCave
() would be executed and the function call will evaluate to chooseCave()'s return value. The return value
will either be the string '1' or the string '2'. (Our while loop guarantees that chooseCave() will only
return either '1' or '2'.)
The return keyword is only found inside def-blocks. Once the return statement is executed, we
immediately jump out of the def-block. (This is like how the break statement will make us jump out of a
while-block.) The program execution moves back to the line that had called the function.
You can also use the return keyword by itself just to break out of the function, just like the break
keyword will break out of a while loop.
Variable Scope
Just like the values in our program's variables are forgotten after the program ends, variables created inside
the function are forgotten after the execution leaves the function. Not only that, but when execution is inside
the function, we cannot change the variables outside of the function, or variables inside other functions. The
variable's scope is this range that variables can be modified in. The only variables that we can use inside a
function are the ones we create inside of the function (or the parameter variables, described later). That is, the
scope of the variable is inside in the function's block. The scope of variables created outside of functions is
outside of all functions in the program.
Not only that, but if we have a variable named spam created outside of a function, and we create a variable
named spam inside of the function, the Python interpreter will consider them to be two separate variables.
That means we can change the value of spam inside the function, and this will not change the spam variable
that is outside of the function. This is because these variables have different scopes, the global scope and the
local scope.
57
Global Scope and Local Scope
We have names for these scopes. The scope outside of all functions is called the global scope. The scope
inside of a function is called the local scope. The entire program has only one global scope, and each
function has a local scope of its own.
Variables defined in the global scope can be read outside and inside functions, but can only be modified
outside of all functions. Variables defined in a function's local scope can only be read or modified inside that
function.
Specifically, we can read the value of global variables from the local scope, but attempting to change the
value in a global variable from the local scope will leave the global variable unchanged. What Python
actually does is create a local variable with the same name as the global variable. But Python will consider
these to be two different variables.
Look at this example to see what happens when you try to change a global variable from inside a local
scope. Remember that the code in the funky() function isn't run until the funky() function is called. The
comments explain what is going on:
# This block doesn't run until funky() is called:

def funky():
# We read the global variable's value:
print(spam) # 42
# We create a local variable named "spam"

# instead of changing the value of the global
# variable "spam":
spam = 99
# The name "spam" now refers to the local

# variable only for the rest of this
# function:
print(spam) # 99
# A global variable named "spam":

spam = 42
# Call the funky() function:

funky()
# The global variable was not changed in funky():

print(spam) # 42
It is important to know when a variable is defined because that is how we know the variable's scope. A
variable is defined the first time we use it in an assignment statement. When the program first executes the
line:
12. cave = ''
58
...the variable cave is defined.
If we call the chooseCave() function twice, the value stored in the variable the first time won't be
remember the second time around. This is because when the execution left the chooseCave() function
(that is, left chooseCave()'s local scope), the cave variable was forgotten and destroyed. But it will be
defined again when we call the function a second time because line 12 will be executed again.
The important thing to remember is that the value of a variable in the local scope is not remembered in
between function calls.
Defining the checkCave() Function
19. def checkCave(chosenCave):
Now we are defining yet another function named checkCave(). Notice that we put the text
chosenCave in between the parentheses. The variable names in between the parentheses are called
parameters.
Remember, for some functions like for the str() or randint(), we would pass an argument in
between the parentheses:
>>> str(5)
'5'
14
When we call checkCave(), we will also pass one value to it as an argument. When execution moves
inside the checkCave() function, a new variable named chosenCave will be assigned this value. This is
how we pass variable values to functions since functions cannot read variables outside of the function (that is,
outside of the function's local scope).
Parameters are local variables that get defined when a function is called. The value stored in the parameter
is the argument that was passed in the function call.
Parameters
For example, here is a short program that demonstrates parameters. Imagine we had a short program that
looked like this:
def sayHello(name):
print('Hello, ' + name)
print('Say hello to Alice.')

fizzy = 'Alice'
sayHello(fizzy)
59
print('Do not forget to say hello to Bob.')
sayHello('Bob')
If we run this program, it would look like this:
Say hello to Alice.

Hello, Alice
Do not forget to say hello to Bob.
Hello, Bob
This program calls a function we have created, sayHello() and first passes the value in the fizzy
variable as an argument to it. (We stored the string 'Alice' in fizzy.) Later, the program calls the
sayHello() function again, passing the string 'Bob' as an argument.
The value in the fizzy variable and the string 'Bob' are arguments. The name variable in sayHello
() is a parameter. The difference between arguments and parameters is that arguments are the values passed
in a function call, and parameters are the local variables that store the arguments. It might be easier to just
remember that the thing in between the parentheses in the def statement is an parameter, and the thing in
between the parentheses in the function call is an argument.
We could have just used the fizzy variable inside the sayHello() function instead of using a
parameter. (This is because the local scope can still see variables in the global scope.) But then we would
have to remember to assign the fizzy variable a string each time before we call the sayHello() function.
Parameters make our programs simpler. Look at this code:
def sayHello():
print('Hello, ' + fizzy)
print('Say hello to Alice.')

fizzy = 'Alice'
sayHello()
print('Do not forget to say hello to Bob.')
sayHello()
When we run this code, it looks like this:
Say hello to Alice.

Hello, Alice
Do not forget to say hello to Bob.
Hello, Alice
This program's sayHello() function does not have a parameter, but uses the global variable fizzy
directly. Remember that you can read global variables inside of functions, you just can't modify the value
stored in the variable.
Without parameters, we have to remember to set the fizzy variable before calling sayHello(). In this
program, we forgot to do so, so the second time we called sayHello() the value of fizzy was still
60
'Alice'. Using parameters makes function calling simpler to do, especially when our programs are very
big and have many functions.
Local Variables and Global Variables with the Same Name

Now look at the following program, which is a bit different. To make it clear to see, the global variable has
been bordered with a line, and the local variable has been bordered with dots.
def spam(myName):
print('Hello, ' + myName)
myName = 'Waffles'
print('Your new name is ' + myName)
myName = 'Albert'
spam(myName)
print('Howdy, ' + myName)
If we run this program, it would look like this:
Hello, Albert
Your new name is Waffles
Howdy, Albert
This program defines a new variable called myName and stores the string 'Albert' in it. Then the
program calls the spam() function, passing the value in myName as an argument. The execution moves to
the spam() function. The parameter in spam() is also named myName, and has the argument value
assigned to it. Remember, the myName inside the spam() function (the local scope) is considered a
different variable than the myName variable outside the function (the global scope).
The function then prints 'Hello, Albert', and then on the next line changes the value in myName to
'Waffles'. Remember, this only changes the local myName variable that is inside the function. The global
myName variable that is outside the function still has the value 'Albert' stored in it.
The function now prints out 'Your new name is Waffles', because the myName variable in the
local scope has changed to 'Waffles'. The execution has reached the end of the function, so it jumps back
down to where the function call was. The local myName is destroyed and forgotten. The next line after that is
print('Howdy, ' + myName), which will display Howdy, Albert.
Remember, the myName outside of functions (that is, in the global scope) still has the value 'Albert',
not 'Waffles'. This is because the myName in the global scope and the myName in spam()'s local scope
are different variables, even though they have the same name.
Where to Put Function Definitions

A function's definition (where we put the def statement and the def-block) has to come before you call the
function. This is like how you must assign a value to a variable before you can use the variable. If you put the
function call before the function definition, you will get an error. Look at this code:
61
sayGoodBye()
def sayGoodBye():
print('Good bye!')
If you try to run it, Python will give you an error message that looks like this:

File "C:\Python25\test1.py", line 1, in <module>
sayGoodBye()
NameError: name 'sayGoodBye' is not defined
To fix this, put the function definition before the function call:
def sayGoodBye():
print('Good bye!')
sayGoodBye()
Displaying the Game Results

Back to the game's source code:
20. print('You approach the cave...')

21. time.sleep(2)
We display some text to the player, and then call the time.sleep() function. Remember how in our
call to randint(), the function randint() is inside the random module? In the Dragon Realm game,
we also imported the time module. The time module has a function called sleep() that will pause the
program for a few seconds. We pass the integer value 2 as an argument to the time.sleep() function to
tell it to pause for exactly 2 seconds.
22. print('It is dark and spooky...')

23. time.sleep(2)
Here we print some more text and wait again for another 2 seconds. These short pauses add suspense to the
game, instead of displaying all the text all at once. In our jokes program, we called the input() function to
wait until the player pressed the ENTER key. Here, the player doesn't have to do anything at all except wait.
24. print('A large dragon jumps out in front of you! He

opens his jaws and...')
25. print() 62
26. time.sleep(2)
What happens next? And how does the program decide what happens?
Deciding Which Cave has the Friendly Dragon
28. friendlyCave = random.randint(1, 2)
Now we are going to have the program randomly chose which cave had the friendly dragon in it. Our call
to the random.randint() function will return either the integer 1 or the integer 2, and store this value in
a variable called friendlyCave.
30. if chosenCave == str(friendlyCave):

31. print('Gives you his treasure!')
Here we check if the integer of the cave we chose ('1' or '2') is equal to the cave randomly selected to
have the friendly dragon. But wait, the value in chosenCave was a string (because input() returns
strings) and the value in friendlyCave is an integer (because random.randint() returns integers).
We can't compare strings and integers with the == sign, because they will always be different ('1' does not
equal 1).
Comparing values of different data types with the == operator will always evaluate to False.
So we are passing friendlyCave to the str() function, which returns the string value of
friendlyCave.
What the condition in this if statement is really comparing is the string in chosenCave and the string
returned by the str() function. We could have also had this line instead:
if int(chosenCave) == friendlyCave:
Then the if statement's condition would compare the integer value returned by the int() function to the
integer value in friendlyCave. The return value of the int() function is the integer form of the string
stored in chosenCave.
If the if statement's condition evaluates to True, we tell the player they have won the treasure.
32. else:
33. print('Gobbles you down in one bite!')
63
Line 32 has a new keyword. The else keyword always comes after the if-block. The else-block that
follows the else keyword executes if the condition in the if statement was False. Think of it as the
program's way of saying, "If this condition is true then execute the if-block or else execute the else-block."
Remember to put the colon (the : sign) after the else keyword.
The Colon :
You may have noticed that we always place a colon at the end of if, else, while, and def statements.
The colon marks the end of the statement, and tells us that the next line should be the beginning of a new
block.
Where the Program Really Begins
35. playAgain = 'yes'
This is the first line that is not a def statement or inside a def-block. This line is where our program really
begins. The previous def statements merely defined the functions, it did not run the code inside of the
functions. Programs must always define functions before the function can be called. This is exactly like how
variables must be defined with an assignment statement before the variable can be used in the program.
36. while playAgain == 'yes' or playAgain == 'y':
Here is the beginning of a while loop. We enter the loop if playAgain is equal to either 'yes' or
'y'. The first time we come to this while statement, we have just assigned the string value 'yes' to the
playAgain variable. That means this condition will be True.
Calling the Functions in Our Program
38. displayIntro()
Here we call the displayIntro() function. This isn't a Python function, it is our function that we
defined earlier in our program. When this function is called, the program execution jumps to the first line in
the displayIntro() function on line 5. When all the lines in the function are done, the execution jumps
back down to the line after this one.
40. caveNumber = chooseCave()
This line also calls a function that we created. Remember that the chooseCave() function lets the
player type in the cave they choose to go into. When the return cave line in this function executes, the
program execution jumps back down here, and the local variable cave's value is the return value of this
64
function. The return value is stored in a new variable named caveNumber. Then the execution moves to the
next line.
42. checkCave(caveNumber)
This line calls our checkCave() function with the argument of caveNumber's value. Not only does
execution jump to line 20, but the value stored in caveNumber is copied to the parameter chosenCave
inside the checkCave() function. This is the function that will display either 'Gives you his
treasure!' or 'Gobbles you down in one bite!', depending on the cave the player chose to
go in.
Asking the Player to Play Again

45. playAgain = input()
After the game has been played, the player is asked if they would like to play again. The variable
playAgain stores the string that the user typed in. Then we reach the end of the while-block, so the
program rechecks the while statement's condition: while playAgain == 'yes' or playAgain
== 'y'
The difference is, now the value of playAgain is equal to whatever string the player typed in. If the
player typed in the string 'yes' or 'y', then we would enter the loop again at line 38.
If the player typed in 'no' or 'n' or something silly like 'Abraham Lincoln', then the while
statement's condition would be False, and we would go to the next line after the while-block. But since
there are no more lines after the while-block, the program terminates.
But remember, the string 'YES' is different from the string 'yes'. If the player typed in the string
'YES', then the while statement's condition would evaluate to False and the program would still
terminate.
We've just completed our second game! In our Dragon Realm game, we used a lot of what we learned in
the "Guess the Number" game and picked up a few new tricks as well. If you didn't understand some of the
concepts in this program, then read the summary at the end of this chapter, or go over each line of the source
code again, or try changing the source code and see how the program changes. In the next chapter we won't
create a game, but a computer program that will create secret codes out of ordinary messages and also decode
the secret code back to the original message.
We went through the source code from top to bottom. If you would like to go through the source code in
the order that the execution flows, then check out the online tracing web site for this program at the URL
http://inventwithpython.com/traces/dragon.html.
65
Designing the Program
Dragon Realm was a pretty simple game. The other games in this book will be a bit more complicated. It
sometimes helps to write down everything you want your game or program to do before you start writing
code. This is called "designing the program."
For example, it may help to draw a flow chart. A flow chart is a picture that shows every possible action
that can happen in our game, and in what order. Normally we would create a flow chart before writing our
program, so that we remember to write code for each thing that happens in the game. Here's a flow chart for
Dragon Realm:
Figure 6-2: Flow chart for the Dragon Realm game.
To see what happens in the game, put your finger on the "Start" box and follow one arrow from the box to
another box. Your finger is kind of like the program execution. Your finger will trace out a path from box to
box, until finally your finger lands on the "End" box. As you can see, when you get to the "Check for friendly
or hungry dragon" box, the program could either go to the "Player wins" box or the "Player loses" box. Either
way, both paths will end up at the "Ask to play again" box, and from there the program will either end or
show the introduction to the player again.
66
Summary
In the "Dragon Realm" game, we created our own functions that the main section of the program called.
You can think of functions as mini-programs within our program. The code inside the function is run when
our program calls that function. By breaking up our code into functions, we can organize our code into
smaller and easier to understand sections. We can also run the same code by placing it inside of a function,
instead of typing it out each time we want to run that code.
The inputs for functions are the arguments we pass when we make a function call. The function call itself
evaluates to a value called the return value. The return value is the output of the function.
We also learned about variable scopes. Variables that are created inside of a function exist in the local
scope, and variables created outside of all functions exist in the global scope. Code in the global scope can
not make use of local variables. If a local variable has the same name as a variable in the global scope,
Python considers it to be a separate variable and assigning new values to the local variable will not change
the value in the global variable.
Variable scopes might seem complicated, but they are very useful for organizing functions as pieces of
code that are separate from the rest of the function. Because each function has it's own local scope, we can be
sure that the code in one function will not cause bugs in other functions.
All nontrivial programs use functions because they are so useful, including the rest of the games in this
book. By understanding how functions work, we can save ourselves a lot of typing and make our programs
easier to read later on.
67
• How to play Hangman.
• ASCII art
• Designing our game by drawing a flow chart before programming.
In this chapter, we are going to make a Hangman game. This game is more complicated than our previous
game, but it is also much more fun. Because the game is advanced, we should first carefully plan it out by
creating a diagram called a flow chart (explained later). In the next two chapters, we will actually write out
the code for Hangman.
In case you've never played Hangman before, let's first learn the rules for Hangman.
How to Play "Hangman"

In case you don't know, Hangman is a game for two people that's usually played using paper and pencil.
One player thinks of a word, and then draws a blank on the page for each letter in the word. Then the second
player tries to guess letters that might be in the word. If they guess correctly, the first player writes the letter
in the blank. If they guess incorrectly, the first player draws a single body part of the hanging man. If the
second player can guess all the letters in the word before the man has been completely drawn, they win. But
if they can't figure it out in time, the man is hanged and they lose the game!
Sample Run of "Hangman"

Here is an example of what the player might see when they run the Hangman program we will write later.
The text that the player enters in shown in bold.
H A N G M A N
+---+
68
| |
|
|
|
|
=========
Missed letters:
_ _ _
Guess a letter.
a
+---+
| |
|
|
|
|
=========
Missed letters:
_ a _
Guess a letter.
o
+---+
| |
O |
|
|
|
=========
Missed letters: o
_ a _
Guess a letter.
r
+---+
| |
O |
| |
|
|
=========
Missed letters: or
_ a _
Guess a letter.
t
+---+
| |
O |
| |
|
|
=========
Missed letters: or
_ a t
Guess a letter.
a
You have already guessed that letter. Choose again.
Guess a letter.
c
69
Yes! The secret word is "cat"! You have won!
no
ASCII Art
Half of the lines of code in the Hangman program aren't really code at all, but are multiline strings that use
keyboard characters to draw pictures. This type of graphics is called ASCII art (pronounced "ask-ee"),
because keyboard characters (such as letters, numbers, and also all the other signs on the keyboard) are called
ASCII characters. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange (we'll learn more
about it in the Caesar Cipher chapter). Here are a couple cats done in ASCII art:
^___^
| )
|. . )
( v )
\____ |
| \
| |
| \
| | |
| | | \
| | | |-.
| | | ____/ |
((((()(______/
__________________
_____/ xx xxx \_____
_/xxx xx xxx xxx \__
__/ xxx xxx xx xxx \__
/xxxxxxxxx xx xx xx xx xxx\
/ xx /\ xx xx\
/ / \ x xx \
| /\ | \ xx x\
| | \ | \____ Z x \
| | \____/ \ z xxx |
| | \ z |
\/ \ \
/ ____/ | |
__| \____ | xxx|
/ | ___ ___------- __/ x|
/ | | | _______ ____/ |
| o\ -------- \_/ _/ ___/ xx /
|oo \ _____/ _/______/ xx/
\ \__ __/ xx /
\ \______________/ x_/
\ /
\____ _______/
\_______________________________/
70
Designing a Program with a Flowchart
This game is a bit more complicated than the ones we've seen so far, so let's take a moment to think about
how it's put together. First we'll create a flow chart (like the one at the end of the Dragon Realm chapter) to
help us visualize what this program will do. A flow chart is a diagram that shows a series of steps as a
number of boxes connected with arrows. Each box represents a step, and the arrows show how one step leads
to other steps. You can trace through the flow chart by putting your finger on the "Start" box of the flow chart
and following the arrows to other boxes until you get to the "End" box. You can only move from one box to
another in the direction of the arrow. You can never go backwards (unless there is a second arrow going
back, like in the "Player already guessed this letter" box below.) Here is the complete flow chart for the
Hangman game (Figure 7-1).
Figure 7-1: The complete flow chart for what happens in the Hangman game.
Of course, we don't have to make a flow chart. We could just start writing code. But often, once we start
programming, we will think of things that need to be added or changed that we hadn't considered before. We
may end up having to change or delete a lot of code that we had already written, which would be a waste of
effort. To avoid this, it's always best to think carefully, and plan how the program will work before we start
writing it.
The following flow chart is provided as an example of what flow charts look like and how to make them.
For now, since you're just using the source code from this book, you don't need to draw a flow chart before
71
writing code. The program is already written, so you don't have to plan anything out. But when you make
your own games, a flow chart can be very handy.
Creating the Flow Chart

Keep in mind, your flow charts don't always have to look exactly like this one. As long as you understand
the flow chart you made, it will be helpful when you start coding. We'll begin with a flow chart that only has
a "Start" and an "End" box, as shown in Figure 7-2:
Figure 7-2: Begin your flow chart with a Start and End box.
Now let's think about what happens when we play Hangman. First, one player (the computer in this case)
thinks of a secret word. Then the second player (the person running the program) will guess letters. Let's add
boxes for these events, as shown in Figure 6-2. (The boxes that are new to each flow chart have a dashed
outline around them.) The arrows show the order that the program should move. That is, first the program
should come up with a secret word, and after that it should ask the player to guess a letter.
72
Figure 7-3: Draw out the first two steps of Hangman as boxes with descriptions.
But the game doesn't end after the player guesses one letter. It needs to check to see if that letter is in the
secret word or not.
Branching from a Flowchart Box

There are two possibilities: the letter will either be in the word or it won't be. This means we need to add
two new boxes to our flowchart. From the "Ask player to guess a letter" box, we can only move to the "Letter
is in secret word" box or the "Letter is not in secret word" box. This will create a branch (that is, a split) in
the flow chart, as show in Figure 7-4:
73
Figure 7-4: There are two different things that could happen after the player guesses, so have two arrows going to separate boxes.
If the letter is in the secret word, we need to check to see if the player has guessed all the letters, which
would mean they've won the game. But, if the letter is not in the secret word, another body part is added to
the hanging man.
We can add boxes for those cases too. We don't need an arrow from the "Letter is in secret word" box to
the "Player has run out of body parts and loses" box, because it's impossible to lose as long as you are only
guessing correct letters. Also, it's impossible to win as long as you are guessing only incorrect letters, so we
don't need to draw that arrow either. Our flow chart now looks like Figure 7-5.
74
Figure 7-5: After the branch, the steps continue on their separate paths.
Ending or Restarting the Game

Once the player has won or lost, we'll ask them if they want to play again with a new secret word. If the
player doesn't want to play again, the program will end. If the program doesn't end, we think of a new secret
word, as shown in Figure 7-6:
75
Figure 7-6: The game ends if the player doesn't want to play again, or the game goes back to the beginning.
Guessing Again
This flow chart might look like it is finished, but there's something we're forgetting: the player doesn't
guess a letter just once. They have to keep guessing letters over and over until they either win or lose. We
need to draw two new arrows so the flow chart shows this, as shown in Figure 7-7.
76
Figure 7-7: The game does not always end after a guess. The new arrows (outlined) show that the player can guess again.
We are forgetting something else, as well. What if the player guesses a letter that they've guessed before?
Rather than have them win or lose in this case, we'll allow them to guess a different letter instead, as shown
in Figure 7-8.
77
Figure 7-8: Adding a step in case the player guesses a letter they already guessed.
Offering Feedback to the Player

We also need some way to show the player how they're doing. In order to do this, we'll show them the
hangman board, as well as the secret word (with blanks for the letters they haven't guessed yet). These visuals
will let them see how close they are to winning or losing the game.
We'll need to update this information every time the player guesses a letter. We can add a "Show the board
and blanks to the player." box to the flow chart between the "Come up with a secret word" box and the "Ask
player to guess a letter" box, as shown in Figure 7-9. This box will remind us that we need to show the player
an updated hangman board so they can see which letters they have guessed correctly and which letters are not
in the secret word.
78
Figure 7-9: Adding "Show the board and blanks to the player." to give the player feedback.
That looks good! This flow chart completely maps out everything that can possibly happen in Hangman,
and in which order. We can look at the flow chart while we are coding to remind ourselves of everything we
want the program to do. Of course this flow chart is just an example-you won't really need to use it, because
you're just using the source code that's given here. But when you design your own games, a flow chart can
help you remember everything you need to code. The flow chart is kind of like a cake recipe or blueprints for
a house. We could just start baking a cake or building a house, but without the plans we may forget to do a
step.
The Importance of Planning Out the Game

It may seem like a lot of work to sketch out a flow chart about the program first. After all, people want to
play games, not look at flowcharts! But it is much easier to make changes and notice problems by thinking
about how the program works before writing the code for it. If you jump in to write the code first, you may
discover problems that require you to change the code you've already written. Every time you change your
code, you are taking a chance that you create bugs by changing too little or too much. It is much better to
know what you want to build before you build it.
There are still a few more concepts we need to learn before we can make our hangman program. In the
next chapter, you will learn all about strings and a new data type called lists. We will go over the first half of
the Hangman source code. In the chapter after the next, we will learn some more programming concepts and
finish the Hangman game. 79
• Methods
• The append() list method
• The lower() and upper() string methods
• The reverse() list method
• The split() string method
• The range() function
• The list() function
• for loops
• elif statements
• The startswith() and endswith() string methods.
• The dictionary data type.
• key-value pairs
• The keys() and values() dictionary methods
• Multiple variable assignment, such as a, b, c = [1, 2, 3]
This game introduces many new concepts. But don't worry; we'll experiment with these programming
concepts in the interactive shell first. Some data types such as strings and lists have functions that are
associated with their values called methods. We will learn several different methods that can manipulate
strings and lists for us. We will also learn about a new type of loop called a for loop and a new type of data
type called a dictionary. Once you understand these concepts, it will be much easier to understand the game
in this chapter: Hangman.
Hangman's Source Code

This chapter's game is a bit longer than our previous games. You can either type in the code below directly
into the file editor (which I recommend) or you can obtain the code from this book's website. To grab the
code from the web, in a web browser go to the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter8 and follow the
instructions for downloading the source code.
80
hangman.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/hangman.py
1. import random
2. HANGMANPICS = ['''
3.
4. +---+
5. | |
6. |
7. |
8. |
9. |
10. =========''', '''
11.
12. +---+
13. | |
14. O |
15. |
16. |
17. |
18. =========''', '''
19.
20. +---+
21. | |
22. O |
23. | |
24. |
25. |
26. =========''', '''
27.
28. +---+
29. | |
30. O |
31. /| |
32. |
33. |
34. =========''', '''
35.
36. +---+
37. | |
38. O |
39. /|\ |
40. |
41. |
42. =========''', '''
43.
44. +---+
45. | |
46. O | 81
47. /|\ |
48. / |
49. |
50. =========''', '''
51.
52. +---+
53. | |
54. O |
55. /|\ |
56. / \ |
57. |
58. =========''']
59. words = 'ant baboon badger bat bear beaver camel cat clam
cobra cougar coyote crow deer dog donkey duck eagle ferret
fox frog goat goose hawk lion lizard llama mole monkey
moose mouse mule newt otter owl panda parrot pigeon python
rabbit ram rat raven rhino salmon seal shark sheep skunk
sloth snake spider stork swan tiger toad trout turkey
turtle weasel whale wolf wombat zebra'.split()
60.
61. def getRandomWord(wordList):
62. # This function returns a random string from the
passed list of strings.
63. wordIndex = random.randint(0, len(wordList) - 1)
64. return wordList[wordIndex]
65.
66. def displayBoard(HANGMANPICS, missedLetters,
correctLetters, secretWord):
67. print(HANGMANPICS[len(missedLetters)])
68. print()
69.
70. print('Missed letters:', end=' ')
71. for letter in missedLetters:
72. print(letter, end=' ')
73. print()
74.
75. blanks = '_' * len(secretWord)
76.
77. for i in range(len(secretWord)): # replace blanks with
correctly guessed letters
78. if secretWord[i] in correctLetters:
79. blanks = blanks[:i] + secretWord[i] + blanks
[i+1:]
80.
81. for letter in blanks: # show the secret word with
spaces in between each letter
83. print()
84.
85. def getGuess(alreadyGuessed):
82
86. # Returns the letter the player entered. This function
makes sure the player entered a single letter, and not
something else.
87. while True:
88. print('Guess a letter.')
89. guess = input()
90. guess = guess.lower()
91. if len(guess) != 1:
92. print('Please enter a single letter.')
93. elif guess in alreadyGuessed:
94. print('You have already guessed that letter.
Choose again.')
95. elif guess not in 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz':
96. print('Please enter a LETTER.')
97. else:
98. return guess
99.
100. def playAgain():
101. # This function returns True if the player wants to
play again, otherwise it returns False.
103. return input().lower().startswith('y')
104.
105.
106. print('H A N G M A N')
107. missedLetters = ''
108. correctLetters = ''
109. secretWord = getRandomWord(words)
110. gameIsDone = False
111.
112. while True:
113. displayBoard(HANGMANPICS, missedLetters,
correctLetters, secretWord)
114.
115. # Let the player type in a letter.
116. guess = getGuess(missedLetters + correctLetters)
117.
118. if guess in secretWord:
119. correctLetters = correctLetters + guess
120.
121. # Check if the player has won
122. foundAllLetters = True
123. for i in range(len(secretWord)):
124. if secretWord[i] not in correctLetters:
125. foundAllLetters = False
126. break
127. if foundAllLetters:
128. print('Yes! The secret word is "' + secretWord
+ '"! You have won!')
129. gameIsDone = True
130. else:
83
131. missedLetters = missedLetters + guess
132.
133. # Check if player has guessed too many times and
lost
134. if len(missedLetters) == len(HANGMANPICS) - 1:
136. print('You have run out of guesses!\nAfter ' +
str(len(missedLetters)) + ' missed guesses and ' + str(len
(correctLetters)) + ' correct guesses, the word was "' +
secretWord + '"')
138.
139. # Ask the player if they want to play again (but only
if the game is done).
140. if gameIsDone:
141. if playAgain():
146. else:
147. break
After typing in the source code (don't forget to save!) you can run this game by pressing F5. If any errors
come up, be sure you typed the source code in exactly as it appears here. Remember that the indentation is
important, and that lines will have zero, four, eight, or even twelve spaces in front of them.
Code Explanation
1. import random
The Hangman program is going to randomly select a secret word from a list of secret words. This means
we will need the random module imported.
2. HANGMANPICS = ['''
3.
4. +---+
5. | |
6. |
7. |
8. |
9. |
10. =========''', '''
84
...the rest of the code is too big to show here...
This "line" of code a simple variable assignment, but it actually stretches over several real lines in the
source code. The actual "line" doesn't end until line 58. To help you understand what this code means, you
should learn about multi-line strings and lists:
Multi-line Strings
Ordinarily when you write strings in your source code, the string has to be on one line. However, if you
use three single-quotes instead of one single-quote to begin and end the string, the string can be on several
lines:
>>> fizz = '''Dear Alice,

I will return home at the end of the month. I will see you
then.
Your friend,
Bob'''
>>> print fizz
Dear Alice,
then.
Your friend,
Bob
>>>
If we didn't have multi-line strings, we would have to use the \n escape character to represent the new
lines. But that can make the string hard to read in the source code, like in this example:
>>> fizz = 'Dear Alice,\nI will return home at the end of the
month. I will see you then.\nYour friend,\nBob'
>>> print fizz
Dear Alice,
then.
Your friend,
Bob
>>>
Multi-line strings do not have to keep the same indentation to remain in the same block. Within the multi-
line string, Python ignores the indentation rules it normally has for where blocks end.
def writeLetter():
# inside the def-block
print '''Dear Alice,
How are you? Write back to me soon.
Sincerely,
85
Bob''' # end of the multi-line string and print statement
print 'P.S. I miss you.' # still inside the def-block
writeLetter() # This is the first line outside the def-block.
Constant Variables
You may have noticed that HANGMANPICS's name is in all capitals. This is the programming convention
for constant variables. Constants are variables whose values do not change throughout the program.
Although we can change HANGMANPICS just like any other variable, the all-caps reminds the programmer to
not write code that does so.
Constant variables are helpful for providing descriptions for values that have a special meaning. Since the
multi-string value never changes, there is no reason we couldn't copy this multi-line string each time we
needed that value. The HANGMANPICS variable never varies. But it is much shorter to type HANGMANPICS
than it is to type that large multi-line string.
Also, there are cases where typing the value by itself may not be obvious. If we set a variable eggs =
72, we may forget why we were setting that variable to the integer 72. But if we define a constant variable
DOZEN = 12, then we could set eggs = DOZEN * 6 and by just looking at the code know that the
eggs variable was set to six dozen.
Like all conventions, we don't have to use constant variables, or even put the names of constant variables
in all capitals. But doing it this way makes it easier for other programmers to understand how these variables
are used. (It even can help you if you are looking at code you wrote a long time ago.)
Lists
I will now tell you about a new data type called a list. A list value can contain several other values in it.
Try typing this into the shell: ['apples', 'oranges', 'HELLO WORLD']. This is a list value that
contains three string values. Just like any other value, you can store this list in a variable. Try typing spam =
['apples', 'oranges', 'HELLO WORLD'], and then type spam to view the contents of spam.
>>> spam = ['apples', 'oranges', 'HELLO WORLD']

>>> spam
['apples', 'oranges', 'HELLO WORLD']
>>>
Lists are a good way to store several different values into one variable. The individual values inside of a
list are also called items. Try typing: animals = ['aardvark', 'anteater', 'antelope',
'albert'] to store various strings into the variable animals. The square brackets can also be used to get
an item from a list. Try typing animals[0], or animals[1], or animals[2], or animals[3] into
the shell to see what they evaluate to.
>>> animals = ['aardvark', 'anteater', 'antelope', 'albert']

>>> animals[0]
'aardvark'
>>> animals[1]
86
'anteater'
>>> animals[2]
'antelope'
>>> animals[3]
'albert'
>>>
The number between the square brackets is the index. In Python, the first index is the number 0 instead of
the number 1. So the first item in the list is at index 0, the second item is at index 1, the third item is at index
2, and so on. Lists are very good when we have to store lots and lots of values, but we don't want variables
for each one. Otherwise we would have something like this:
>>> animals1 = 'aardvark'

>>> animals2 = 'anteater'
>>> animals3 = 'antelope'
>>> animals4 = 'albert'
>>>
This makes working with all the strings as a group very hard, especially if you have hundreds or thousands
(or even millions) of different strings that you want stored in a list. Using the square brackets, you can treat
items in the list just like any other value. Try typing animals[0] + animals[2] into the shell:
>>> animals[0] + animals[2]

'aardvarkantelope'
>>>
Because animals[0] evaluates to the string 'aardvark' and animals[2] evaluates to the string
'antelope', then the expression animals[0] + animals[2] is the same as 'aardvark' +
'antelope'. This string concatenation evaluates to 'aardvarkantelope'.
What happens if we enter an index that is larger than the list's largest index? Try typing animals[4] or
animals[99] into the shell:

>>> animals[4]
File "", line 1, in
animals[4]
IndexError: list index out of range
>>> animals[99]
File "", line 1, in
animals[99]
IndexError: list index out of range
>>>
If you try accessing an index that is too large, you will get an index error.
87
Changing the Values of List Items with Index Assignment
You can also use the square brackets to change the value of an item in a list. Try typing animals[1] =
'ANTEATER', then type animals to view the list.

>>> animals[1] = 'ANTEATER'
>>> animals[99]
['aardvark', 'ANTEATER', 'antelope', 'albert']
>>>
The second item in the animals list has been overwritten with a new string.
List Concatenation
You can join lists together into one list with the + operator, just like you can join strings. When joining
lists, this is known as list concatenation. Try typing [1, 2, 3, 4] + ['apples', 'oranges']
+ ['Alice', 'Bob'] into the shell:
>>> [1, 2, 3, 4] + ['apples', 'oranges'] + ['Alice', 'Bob']

[1, 2, 3, 4, 'apples', 'oranges', 'Alice', 'Bob']
>>>
Notice that lists do not have to store values of the same data types. The example above has a list with both
integers and strings in it.
The in Operator
The in operator makes it easy to see if a value is inside a list or not. Expressions that use the in operator
return a boolean value: True if the value is in the list and False if the value is not in the list. Try typing
'antelope' in animals into the shell:

>>> 'antelope' in animals
True
>>>
The expression 'antelope' in animals returns True because the string 'antelope' can be
found in the list, animals. (It is located at index 2.)
But if we type the expression 'ant' in animals, this will return False because the string 'ant'
does not exist in the list. We can try the expression 'ant' in ['beetle', 'wasp', 'ant'], and
see that it will return True.
88
>>> 'antelope' in animals
True
>>> 'ant' in animals
False
>>> 'ant' in ['beetle', 'wasp', 'ant']
True
>>>
The in operator also works for strings as well as lists. You can check if one string exists in another the
same way you can check if a value exists in a list. Try typing 'hello' in 'Alice said hello to
Bob.' into the shell. This expression will evaluate to True.
>>> 'hello' in 'Alice said hello to Bob.'

True
>>>
Removing Items from Lists with del Statements

You can remove items from a list with a del statement. ("del" is short for "delete.") Try creating a list of
numbers by typing: spam = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10] and then del spam[1]. Type spam to view the
list's contents:
>>> spam = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

>>> del spam[1]
>>> spam
[2, 6, 8, 10]
>>>
Notice that when you deleted the item at index 1, the item that used to be at index 2 became the new index
1. The item that used to be at index 3 moved to be the new index 2. Everything above the item that we
deleted moved down one index. We can type del spam[1] again and again to keep deleting items from
the list:
>>> spam = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

>>> del spam[1]
>>> spam
[2, 6, 8, 10]
>>> del spam[1]
>>> spam
[2, 8, 10]
>>> del spam[1]
>>> spam
[2, 10]
>>>
89
Just remember that del is a statement, not a function or an operator. It does not evaluate to any return
value.
Lists of Lists
Lists are a data type that can contain other values as items in the list. But these items can also be other lists.
Let's say you have a list of groceries, a list of chores, and a list of your favorite pies. You can put all three of
these lists into another list. Try typing this into the shell:
>>> groceries = ['eggs', 'milk', 'soup', 'apples', 'bread']

>>> chores = ['clean', 'mow the lawn', 'go grocery shopping']
>>> favoritePies = ['apple', 'frumbleberry']
>>> listOfLists = [groceries, chores, favoritePies]
>>> listOfLists
[['eggs', 'milk', 'soup', 'apples', 'bread'], ['clean', 'mow
the lawn', 'go grocery shopping'], ['apple', 'frumbleberry']]
>>>
You could also type the following and get the same values for all four variables:
>>> listOfLists = [['eggs', 'milk', 'soup', 'apples',

'bread'], ['clean', 'mow the lawn', 'go grocery shopping'],
['apple', 'frumbleberry']]
>>> groceries = listOfLists[0]
>>> chores = listOfLists[1]
>>> favoritePies = listOfLists[2]
>>> groceries
['eggs', 'milk', 'soup', 'apples', 'bread']
>>> chores
['clean', 'mow the lawn', 'go grocery shopping']
>>> favoritePies
['apple', 'frumbleberry']
>>>
To get an item inside the list of lists, you would use two sets of square brackets like this: listOfLists
[1][2] which would evaluate to the string 'go grocery shopping'. This is because listOfLists
[1] evaluates to the list ['clean', 'mow the lawn', 'go grocery shopping'][2]. That
finally evaluates to 'go grocery shopping'.
Here is another example of a list of lists, along with some of the indexes that point to the items in the list of
lists named x. The red arrows point to indexes of the inner lists themselves. The image is also flipped on its
side to make it easier to read:
90
Figure 8-1: The indexes of a list of lists.
Methods
Methods are just like functions, but they are always attached to a value. For example, all string values
have a lower() method, which returns a copy of the string value in lowercase. You cannot just call lower
() by itself and you do not pass a string argument to lower() by itself (as in lower('Hello')). You
must attach the method call to a specific string value using a period.
The lower() and upper() String Methods
Try entering 'Hello world!'.lower() into the interactive shell to see an example of this method:
>>> 'Hello world'.lower()

'hello world!'
>>>
There is also an upper() method for strings, which changes all the characters in a string to uppercase.
Try entering 'Hello world'.upper() into the shell:
>>> 'Hello world'.upper()

'HELLO WORLD! '
>>>
Because the upper() method returns a string, you can call a method on that string as well. Try typing
'Hello world!'.upper().lower() into the shell:
91
>>> 'Hello world'.upper().lower()
'hello world!'
>>>
'Hello world!'.upper() evaluates to the string 'HELLO WORLD!', and then we call that string's
lower() method. This returns the string 'hello world!', which is the final value in the evaluation.
The order is important. 'Hello world!'.lower().upper() is not the same as 'Hello
world!'.upper().lower():
>>> 'Hello world'.lower().upper()

'HELLO WORLD!'
>>>
Remember, if a string is stored in a variable, you can call a string method on that variable. Look at this
example:
>>> fizz = 'Hello world'

>>> fizz.upper()
'HELLO WORLD'
>>>
The reverse() List Method
The list data type also has methods. The reverse() method will reverse the order of the items in the list.
Try entering spam = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 'meow', 'woof'], and then spam.reverse() to
reverse the list. Then enter spam to view the contents of the variable.
>>> spam = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 'meow', 'woof']

>>> spam.reverse()
>>> spam
['woof', 'meow', 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
>>>
The most common list method you will use is append(). This method will add the value you pass as an
argument to the end of the list. Try typing the following into the shell:
>>> eggs = []
>>> eggs.append('hovercraft')
>>> eggs
['hovercraft']
>>> eggs.append('eels')
>>> eggs
['hovercraft', 'eels']
>>> eggs.append(42)
>>> eggs
92
['hovercraft', 'eels', 42]
>>>
Though string and list data types have methods, integers do not happen to have any methods.
The Difference Between Methods and Functions

You may be wondering why Python has methods, since they seem to act just like functions. Some data
types have methods. Methods are functions associated with values of that data type. For example, string
methods are functions that can be called on any string. If you have the string value 'Hello', you could call
the string method upper() like this: 'Hello'.upper(). Or if the string 'Hello' were stored in a
variable named spam, it would look like this: spam.upper()
You cannot call string methods on values of other data types. For example, [1, 2, 'apple'].upper
() would cause an error because [1, 2, 'apple'] is a list and upper() is a string method.
Methods are associated with a value of a certain data type. Functions are never associated with values.
Function calls for functions that are inside modules may look like methods because they have a name and
period in front, such as random.randint(). But random is the name of a module, it is not a value or a
variable with a value in it.
The values of data types that have methods are also called objects. Object-oriented programming is a bit
advanced for this book, and you don't need to completely understand it to make games. Just understand that
objects are another name for a values of data types that have methods.
The split() List Method

Line 59 is a very long line of code, but it is really just a simple assignment statement. This line also uses
the split() method, which is a method for the string data type (just like the lower() and upper()
methods).
59. words = 'ant baboon badger bat bear beaver camel cat clam
cobra cougar coyote crow deer dog donkey duck eagle ferret
fox frog goat goose hawk lion lizard llama mole monkey
moose mouse mule newt otter owl panda parrot pigeon python
rabbit ram rat raven rhino salmon seal shark sheep skunk
sloth snake spider stork swan tiger toad trout turkey
turtle weasel whale wolf wombat zebra'.split()
As you can see, this line is just one very long string, full of words separated by spaces. And at the end of
the string, we call the split() method. The split() method changes this long string into a list, with
each word making up a single list item. The "split" occurs wherever a space occurs in the string. The reason
we do it this way, instead of just writing out the list, is that it is easier for us to type as one long string. If we
created it as a list to begin with, we would have to type: ['ant', 'baboon', 'badger',... and so on,
with quotes and commas for every single word.
For an example of how the split() string method works, try typing this into the shell:
93
>>> 'My very energetic mother just served us nine pies'.split
()
['My', 'very', 'energetic', 'mother', 'just', 'served', 'us',
'nine', 'pies']
>>>
The result is a list of nine strings, one string for each of the words in the original string. The spaces are
dropped from the items in the list. Once we've called split(), the words list will contain all the possible
secret words that can be chosen by the computer for our Hangman game. You can also add your own words
to the string, or remove any you don't want to be in the game. Just make sure that the words are separated by
spaces.
How the Code Works

Starting on line 61, we define a new function called getRandomWord(), which has a single parameter
named wordList. We will call this function when we want to pick a single secret word from a list of secret
words.

The function getRandomWord() is passed a list of strings as the argument for the wordList
parameter. On line 63, we will store a random index in this list in the wordIndex variable. We do this by
calling randint() with two arguments. Remember that arguments in a function call are separated by
commas, so the first argument is 0 and the second argument is len(wordList) - 1. The second
argument is an expression that is first evaluated. len(wordList) will return the integer size of the list
passed to getRandomWord(), minus one.
The reason we need the - 1 is because the indexes for list start at 0, not 1. If we have a list of three items,
the index of the first item is 0, the index of the second item is 1, the index of the third item is 2. The length of
this list is 3, but the index 3 is after the last index. This is why we subtract 1 from the length.
For example, if we passed ['apple', 'orange', grape'] as an argument to getRandomWord(), then len
(wordList) would return the integer 3 and the expression 3 - 1 would evaluate to the integer 2.
That means that wordIndex would contain the return value of randint(0, 2), which means wordIndex would
equal 0, 1, or 2. On line 64, we would return the element in wordList at the integer index stored in
wordIndex.
Let's pretend we did send ['apple', 'orange', grape'] as the argument to getRandomWord
() and that randint(0, 2) returned the integer 2. That would mean that line 64 would become return
wordList[2], which would evaluate to return 'grape'. This is how the getRandomWord()
returns a random string in the wordList list. The following code entered into the interactive shell
demonstrates this:
94
>>> import random
>>> print(wordIndex)
2
>>> print(['apple', 'orange', 'grape'][wordIndex])
grape
>>>
And remember, we can pass any list of strings we want to the getRandomWord() function, which is
what makes it so useful for our Hangman game.
Displaying the Board to the Player

Next we need to create another function which will print the hangman board on the screen, along with how
many letters the player has correctly (and incorrectly) guessed.
66. def displayBoard(HANGMANPICS, missedLetters,

correctLetters, secretWord):
67. print(HANGMANPICS[len(missedLetters)])
68. print()
This code defines a new function named displayBoard(). This function has four parameters. This
function will implement the code for the "Show the board and blanks to the player" box in our flow chart.
Here is what each parameter means:
• HANGMANPICS - This is a list of multi-line strings that will display the board as ASCII art. We will
always pass the global HANGMANPICS variable as the argument for this parameter.
• missedLetters - This is a string made up of the letters the player has guessed that are not in the
secret word.
• correctLetters - This is a string made up of the letters the player has guessed that are in the
secret word.
• secretWord - This string is the secret word.
The first print() function call will display the board. HANGMANPICS will be a list of strings for each
possible board. HANGMANPICS[0] shows an empty gallows, HANGMANPICS[1] shows the head (this
happens when the player misses one letter), HANGMANPICS[2] shows a head and body (this happens when
the player misses two letters), and so on until HANGMANPICS[6] when the full hangman is shown and the
player loses.
The number of letters in missedLetters will tell us how many incorrect guesses the player has made.
We can call len(missedLetters) to find out this number. This number can also be used as the index to
the HANGMANPICS list, which will allow us to print the correct board for the number of incorrect guesses.
So, if missedLetters is 'aetr' then len('aetr') will return 4 and we will display the string
HANGMANPICS[4]. This is what HANGMANPICS[len(missedLetters)] evaluates to. This line
shows the correct hangman board to the player.
70. print('Missed letters:', end=' ')

71. for letter in missedLetters:
95
73. print()
Line 71 is a new type of loop, called a for loop. A for loop is kind of like a while loop. Line 72 is the
entire body of the for loop. The range() function is often used with for loops. I will explain both in the
next two sections.
Remember that the keyword argument end=' ' uses only one = sign, not two.
The range() and list() Functions

The range() function is easy to understand. You can call it with either one or two integer arguments.
When called with one argument, range() will return a range object of integers from 0 up to (but not
including) the argument. This range object can be converted to the more familiar list data type with the list
() function. Try typing list(range(10)) into the shell:
>>> list(range(10))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>>
The list() function is very similar to the str() or int() functions. It just converts the object it is
passed into a list. It's very easy to generate huge lists with the range() function. Try typing in list
(range(10000)) into the shell:
>>> list(range(10000))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,...
...The text here has been skipped for brevity...
...9989, 9990, 9991, 9992, 9993, 9994, 9995, 9996, 9997, 9998,
9999]
>>>
The list is so huge, that it won't even all fit onto the screen. But we can save the list into the variable just
like any other list by entering this:
>>> spam = list(range(10000))

>>>
If you pass two arguments to range(), the list of integers it returns is from the first argument up to (but
not including) the second argument. Try typing list(range(10, 20)) into the shell:
>>> list(range(10, 20))

[10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19]
>>>
96
The range() is a very useful function, because we often use it in for loops (which are much like the
while loops we have already seen).
for Loops
The for loop is very good at looping over a list of values. This is different from the while loop, which
loops as long as a certain condition is true. A for statement begins with the for keyword, followed by a
variable, followed by the in keyword, followed by a sequence (such as a list or string) or a range object
(returned by the range() function), and then a colon. Each time the program execution goes through the
loop (that is, on each iteration through the loop) the variable in the for statement takes on the value of the
next item in the list.
For example, you just learned that the range() function will return a list of integers. We will use this list
as the for statement's list. In the shell, type for i in range(10): and press ENTER. Nothing will
happen, but the shell will indent the cursor, because it is waiting for you to type in the for-block. Type
print(i) and press ENTER. Then, to tell the interactive shell you are done typing in the for-block, press
ENTER again to enter a blank line. The shell will then execute your for statement and block:
>>> for i in range(10):

... print(i)
...
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
>>>
Notice that with for loops, you do not need to convert the range object returned by the range()
function into a list with list(). For loops do this for us automatically.
The for loop executes the code inside the for-block once for each item in the list. Each time it executes
the code in the for-block, the variable i is assigned the next value of the next item in the list. If we used the
for statement with the list [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] instead of range(10), it would
have been the same since the range() function's return value is the same as that list:
>>> for i in range([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]):

... print(i)
...
0
1
2
3
4
97
5
6
7
8
9
>>>
Try typing this into the shell: for thing in ['cats', 'pasta', 'programming',
'spam']: and press ENTER, then type print('I really like ' + thing) and press ENTER,
and then press ENTER again to tell the shell to end the for-block. The output should look like this:
>>> for thing in ['cats', 'pasta', 'programming', 'spam']:

... print('I really like ' + thing)
...
I really like cats
I really like pasta
I really like programming
I really like spam
>>
And remember, because strings are also a sequence data type just like lists, you can use them in for
statements as well. This example uses a single character from the string on each iteration:
>>> for i in 'Hello world!':

... print(i)
...
H
e
l
l
o
w
o
r
l
d
!
>>>
A while Loop Equivalent of a for Loop
The for loop is very similar to the while loop, but when you only need to iterate over items in a list,
using a for loop is much less code to type. You can make a while loop that acts the same way as a for
loop by adding extra code:
>>> sequence = ['cats', 'pasta', 'programming', 'spam']

>>> index = 0 98
>>> while (index < len(sequence)):
... thing = sequence[index]
... print('I really like ' + thing)
... index = index + 1
...
I really like cats
I really like pasta
I really like programming
I really like spam
>>>
But using the for statement automatically does all this extra code for us and makes programming easier
since we have less to type. Our Hangman game will use for loops so you can see how useful they are in real
games.
One more thing about for loops, is that the for statement has the in keyword in it. But when you use the
in keyword in a for statement, Python does not treat it like the in operator you would use in something like
42 in [0, 42, 67]. The in keyword in for statements is just used to separate the variable and the list
it gets its values from.
The rest of the displayBoard() function displays the missed letters and creates the string of the secret
word with all the unguessed letters as blanks.
print('Missed letters:', end=' ')

for letter in missedLetters:
print(letter, end=' ')
print()
This for loop one line 71 will display all the missed guesses that the player has made. When you play
Hangman on paper, you usually write down these letters off to the side so you know not to guess them again.
On each iteration of the loop the value of letter will be each letter in missedLetters in turn.
Remember that the end=' ' will replace the newline character that is printed after the string is replaced by
a single space character.
If missedLetters was 'ajtw' then this for loop would display a j t w.
Displaying the Secret Word with Blanks

So by this point we have shown the player the hangman board and the missed letters. Now we want to print
the secret word, except we want blank lines for the letters. We can use the _ character (called the underscore
character) for this. But we should print the letters in the secret word that the player has guessed, and use _
characters for the letters the player has not guessed yet. We can first create a string with nothing but one
underscore for each letter in the secret word. Then we can replace the blanks for each letter in
correctLetters. So if the secret word was 'otter' then the blanked out string would be
'_____' (five _ characters). If correctLetters was the string 'rt' then we would want to change the
blanked string to '_tt_r'. Here is the code that does that:
75. blanks = '_' * len(secretWord)

99
76.
[i+1:]
80.
Line 75 creates the blanks variable full of _ underscores using string replication. Remember that the *
operator can also be used on a string and an integer, so the expression 'hello' * 3 evaluates to
'hellohellohello'. This will make sure that blanks has the same number of underscores as
secretWord has letters.
Then we use a for loop to go through each letter in secretWord and replace the underscore with the
actual letter if it exists in correctLetters. Line 79 may look confusing. It seems that we are using the
square brackets with the blanks and secretWord variables. But wait a second, blanks and
secretWord are strings, not lists. And the len() function also only takes lists as parameters, not strings.
But in Python, many of the things you can do to lists you can also do to strings:
Replacing the Underscores with Correctly Guessed Letters

[i+1:]
Let's pretend the value of secretWord is 'otter' and the value in correctLetters is 'tr'.
Then len(secretWord) will return 5. Then range(len(secretWord)) becomes range(5),
which in turn returns the list [0, 1, 2, 3, 4].
Because the value of i will take on each value in [0, 1, 2, 3, 4], then the for loop code is
equivalent to this:
if secretWord[0] in correctLetters:
blanks = blanks[:0] + secretWord[0] + blanks[1:]
100
(By the way, writing out the code like this instead of using a loop is called loop unrolling.)
If you are confused as to what the value of something like secretWord[0] or blanks[3:] is, then
look at this picture. It shows the value of the secretWord and blanks variables, and the index for each
letter in the string.
Figure 8-2: The indexes of the blanks and secretWord strings.
If we replace the list slices and the list indexes with the values that they represent, the unrolled loop code
would be the same as this:
if 'o' in 'tr': # Condition is False, blanks == '_____'

blanks = '' + 'o' + '____' # This line is skipped.
if 't' in 'tr': # Condition is True, blanks == '_____'
blanks = '_' + 't' + '___' # This line is executed.
if 't' in 'tr': # Condition is True, blanks == '_t___'
blanks = '_t' + 't' + '__' # This line is executed.
if 'e' in 'tr': # Condition is False, blanks == '_tt__'
blanks = '_tt' + 'e' + '_' # This line is skipped.
if 'r' in 'tr': # Condition is True, blanks == '_tt__'
blanks = '_tt_' + 'r' + '' # This line is executed.
# blanks now has the value '_tt_r'
The above three code examples all do the same thing (at least, they do when secretWord is 'otter'
and correctLetters is 'tr'. The first box is the actual code we have in our game. The second box
shows code that does the same thing except without a for loop. The third box is the same as the second box,
except we have evaluated many of the expressions in the second box.
The next few lines of code display the new value of blanks with spaces in between each letter.

83. print()
This for loop will print out each character in the string blanks. Remember that by now, blanks may
have some of its underscores replaced with the letters in secretWord. The end keyword argument in line
101
82's print() call makes the print() function put a space character at the end of the string instead of a
newline character. This is the end of the displayBoard() function.
Get the Player's Guess

The getGuess() function we create next will be called whenever we want to let the player type in a
letter to guess. The function returns the letter the player guessed as a string. Further, getGuess() will
make sure that the player types a valid letter before returning from the function.
85. def getGuess(alreadyGuessed):

86. # Returns the letter the player entered. This function
makes sure the player entered a single letter, and not
something else.
The getGuess() function has a string parameter called alreadyGuessed which contains the letters
the player has already guessed, and will ask the player to guess a single letter. This single letter will be the
return value for this function.
87. while True:

88. print('Guess a letter.')
89. guess = input()
90. guess = guess.lower()
We will use a while loop because we want to keep asking the player for a letter until they enter text that
is a single letter they have not guessed previously. Notice that the condition for the while loop is simply the
Boolean value True. That means the only way execution will ever leave this loop is by executing a break
statement (which leaves the loop) or a return statement (which leaves the entire function). Such a loop is
called an infinite loop, because it will loop forever (unless it reaches a break statement).
The code inside the loop asks the player to enter a letter, which is stored in the variable guess. If the
player entered a capitalized letter, it will be converted to lowercase on line 90.
elif ("Else If") Statements

Take a look at the following code:
if catName == 'Fuzzball':
print('Your cat is fuzzy.')
else:
print('Your cat is not very fuzzy at all.')
We've seen code like this before and it's rather simple. If the catName variable is equal to the string
'Fuzzball', then the if statement's condition is True and we tell the user that her cat is fuzzy. If
catName is anything else, then we tell the user her cat is not fuzzy.
102
But what if we wanted something else besides "fuzzy" and "not fuzzy"? We could put another if and
else statement inside the first else block like this:
else:
if catName == 'Spots'
print('Your cat is spotted.')
else:
print('Your cat is neither fuzzy nor spotted.')
But if we wanted more things, then the code starts to have a lot of indentation:
else:
if catName == 'Spots'
else:
if catName == 'FattyKitty'
print('Your cat is fat.')
else:
if catName == 'Puff'
print('Your cat is puffy.')
else:
print('Your cat is neither fuzzy nor spotted
nor fat nor puffy.')
Typing all those spaces means you have more chances of making a mistake with the indentation. So
Python has the elif keyword. Using elif, the above code looks like this:
elif catName == 'Spots'
elif catName == 'FattyKitty'
print('Your cat is fat.')
elif catName == 'Puff'
print('Your cat is puffy.')
else:
print('Your cat is neither fuzzy nor spotted nor fat nor
puffy.')
If the condition for the if statement is False, then the program will check the condition for the first
elif statement (which is catName == 'Spots'. If that condition is False, then the program will
check the condition of the next elif statement. If all of the conditions for the if and elif statements are
False, then the code in the else block executes.
103
But if one of the elif conditions are True, the elif-block code is executed and then execution jumps
down to the first line past the else-block. So only one of the blocks in this if-elif-else statement will be
executed. You can also leave off the else-block if you don't need one, and just have an if-elif statement.
Making Sure the Player Entered a Valid Guess
91. if len(guess) != 1:
92. print('Please enter a single letter.')
93. elif guess in alreadyGuessed:
94. print('You have already guessed that letter.
Choose again.')
95. elif guess not in 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz':
96. print('Please enter a LETTER.')
97. else:
98. return guess
The guess variable contains the text the player typed in for their guess. We need to make sure they typed
in a single lowercase letter. If they didn't, we should loop back and ask them again. The if statement's
condition checks that the text is one and only letter. If it is not, then we execute the if-block code, and then
execution jumps down past the else-block. But since there is no more code after this if-elif-else statement,
execution loops back to line 87.
If the condition for the if statement is False, we check the elif statement's condition on line 93. This
condition is True if the letter exists inside the alreadyGuessed variable (remember, this is a string that
has every letter the player has already guessed). If this condition is True, then we display the error message
to the player, and jump down past the else-block. But then we would be at the end of the while-block, so
execution jumps back up to line 87.
If the condition for the if statement and the elif statement are both False, then we check the second
elif statement's condition on line 95. If the player typed in a number or a funny character (making guess
have a value like '5' or '!'), then guess would not exist in the string
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'. If this is the case, the elif statement's condition is True.
Figure 8-3: The elif statement.
104
Unless these three conditions are all False, the player will keep looping and keep being asked for a letter.
But when all three of the conditions are False, then the else-block's return statement will run and we will
exit this loop and function.

The playAgain() function has just a print() function call and a return statement. The return
statement has an expression that looks complicated, but we can break it down. Once we evaluate this
expression to a value, that value will be returned from this function.
The expression on line 103 doesn't have any operators, but it does have a function call and two method
calls. The function call is input() and the method calls are lower() and startswith('y').
Remember that method calls are function calls that are attached by a period to the value on their left. lower
() is attached to the return value of input().
input() returns a string of the text that the user typed in. Here's a step by step look at how Python
evaluates this expression if the user types in YES.
return input().lower().startswith('y')
return 'YES'.lower().startswith('y')
return 'yes'.startswith('y')
return True
The point of the playAgain() function is to let the player type in yes or no to tell our program if they
want to play another round of Hangman. If the player types in YES, then the return value of input() is the
string 'YES'. 'YES'.lower() returns the lowercase version of the attached string. So the return value of
'YES'.lower() is 'yes'.
But there's the second method call, startswith('y'). This function returns True if the associated string
begins with the string parameter between the parentheses, and False if it doesn't. The return value of
'yes'.startswith('y') is True.
Now we have evaluated this expression! We can see that what this does is let the player type in a response,
we lowercase the response, check if it begins with the letter 'y' or 'Y', and then return True if it does and
False if it doesn't. Whew!
105
On a side note, there is also a endswith(someString) string method that will return True if the
string ends with the string in someString and False if it doesn't.
Review of the Functions We Defined

That's all the functions we are creating for this game!
• getRandomWord(wordList) will take a list of strings passed to it as a parameter, and return one
string from it. That is how we will choose a word for the player to guess.
• displayBoard(HANGMANPICS, missedLetters, correctLetters, secretWord)
will show the current state of the board, including how much of the secret word the player has guessed
so far and the wrong letters the player has guessed. This function needs four parameters passed to work
correctly. HANGMANPICS is a list of strings that hold the ASCII art for each possible hangman board.
correctLetters and missedLetters are strings made up of the letters that the player has
guessed that are in and not in the secret word. And secretWord is the secret word the player is
trying to guess. This function has no return value.
• getGuess(alreadyGuessed) takes a string of letters the player has already guessed and will
keep asking the player for a letter that is a letter that he hasn't already guessed. (That is, a letter that is
not in alreadyGuessed. This function returns the string of the acceptable letter the player guessed.
• playAgain() is a function that asks if the player wants to play another round of Hangman. This
function returns True if the player does and False if the player doesn't.
We'll now start the code for the main part of the game, which will call the above functions as needed. Look
back at our flow chart.
106
Figure 8-4: The complete flow chart of Hangman.
The Main Code for Hangman

We need to write code that does everything in this flow chart, and does it in order. The main part of the
code starts at line 106. Everything previous was just function definitions and a very large variable assignment
for HANGMANPICS.
Setting Up the Variables
106. print('H A N G M A N')

Line 106 is the first actual line that executes in our game. We start by assigning a blank string for
missedLetters and correctLetters, because the player has not guessed any missed or correct
letters yet. Then we call getRandomWord(words), where words is a variable with the huge list of
107
possible secret words we assigned on line 59. The return value of getRandomWord(words) is one of
these words, and we save it to the secretWord variable. Then we also set a variable named gameIsDone
to False. We will set gameIsDone to True when we want to signal that the game is over and the program
should ask the player if they want to play again.
Setting the values of these variables is what we do before the player starts guessing letters.
Displaying the Board to the Player
112. while True:

The while loop's condition is always True, which means we will always loop forever until a break
statement is encountered. We will execute a break statement when the game is over (either because the
player won or the player lost).
Line 113 calls our displayBoard() function, passing it the list of hangman ASCII art pictures and the
three variables we set on lines 107, 108, and 109. Program execution moves to the start of displayBoard
() at line 66. Based on how many letters the player has correctly guessed and missed, this function displays
the appropriate hangman board to the player.
Letting the Player Enter Their Guess
115. # Let the player type in a letter.

116. guess = getGuess(missedLetters + correctLetters)
If you look at our flow chart, you see only one arrow going from the "Show the board and the blanks to the
player." box to the "Ask a player to guess a letter." box. Since we have already written a function to get the
guess from the player, let's call that function. Remember that the function needs all the letters in
missedLetters and correctLetters combined, so we will pass as an argument a string that is a
concatenation of both of those strings. This argument is needed by getGuess() because the function has
code to check if the player types in a letter that they have already guessed.
Checking if the Letter is in the Secret Word
118. if guess in secretWord:

119. correctLetters = correctLetters + guess
Now let's see if the single letter in the guess string exists in secretWord. If it does exist, then we
should concatenate the letter in guess to the correctLetters string. Next we can check if we have
guessed all of the letters and won.
108
Checking if the Player has Won
121. # Check if the player has won

122. foundAllLetters = True
123. for i in range(len(secretWord)):
124. if secretWord[i] not in correctLetters:
125. foundAllLetters = False
126. break
How do we know if the player has guessed every single letter in the secret word? Well,
correctLetters has each letter that the player correctly guessed and secretWord is the secret word
itself. We can't just check if correctLetters == secretWord because consider this situation: if
secretWord was the string 'otter' and correctLetters was the string 'orte', then
correctLetters == secretWord would be False even though the player has guessed each letter in
the secret word.
The player simply guessed the letters out of order and they still win, but our program would incorrectly
think the player hasn't won yet. Even if they did guess the letters in order, correctLetters would be the
string 'oter' because the player can't guess the letter t more than once. The expression 'otter' ==
'oter' would evaluate to False even though the player won.
The only way we can be sure the player won is to go through each letter in secretWord and see if it
exists in correctLetters. If, and only if, every single letter in secretWord exists in
correctLetters will the player have won.
Note that this is different than checking if every letter in correctLetters is in secretWord. If
correctLetters was the string 'ot' and secretWord was 'otter', it would be true that every
letter in 'ot' is in 'otter', but that doesn't mean the player has guessed the secret word and won.
So how can we do this? We can loop through each letter in secretWord and if we find a letter that does
not exist in correctLetters, we know that the player has not guessed all the letters. This is why we
create a new variable named foundAllLetters and set it to the Boolean value True. We start out
assuming that we have found all the letters, but will change foundAllLetters to False when we find a
letter in secretWord that is not in correctLetters.
The for loop will go through the numbers 0 up to (but not including) the length of the word. Remember
that range(5) will evaluate to the list [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]. So on line 123, the program executes all the
code inside the for-block with the variable i will be set to 0, then 1, then 2, then 3, then 4.
We use range(len(secretWord)) so that i can be used to access each letter in the secret word. So if
the first letter in secretWord (which is located at secretWord[0]) is not in correctLetters, we
know we can set foundAllLetters to False. Also, because we don't have to check the rest of the letters
in secretWord, we can just break out of this loop. Otherwise, we loop back to line 123 and check the next
letter.
If foundAllLetters manages to survive every single letter without being turned to False, then it will
keep the original True value we gave it. Either way, the value in foundAllLetters is accurate by the
time we get past this for loop and run line 127.
109
129. if foundAllLetters:
130. print('Yes! The secret word is "' + secretWord
+ '"! You have won!')
This is a simple check to see if we found all the letters. If we have found every letter in the secret word, we
should tell the player that they have won. We will also set the gameIsDone variable to True. We will
check this variable to see if we should let the player guess again or if the player is done guessing.
When the Player Guesses Incorrectly
130. else:
This is the start of the else-block. Remember, the code in this block will execute if the condition was
False. But which condition? To find out, point your finger at the start of the else keyword and move it
straight up. You will see that the else keyword's indentation is the same as the if keyword's indentation on
line 118. So if the condition on line 118 was False, then we will run the code in this else-block. Otherwise,
we skip down past the else-block to line 140.
131. missedLetters = missedLetters + guess
Because the player's guessed letter was wrong, we will add it to the missedLetters string. This is like
what we did on line 119 when the player guessed correctly.
133. # Check if player has guessed too many times and

lost
134. if len(missedLetters) == len(HANGMANPICS) - 1:
136. print('You have run out of guesses!\nAfter ' +
str(len(missedLetters)) + ' missed guesses and ' + str(len
(correctLetters)) + ' correct guesses, the word was "' +
secretWord + '"')
Think about how we know when the player has guessed too many times. When you play Hangman on
paper, this is when the drawing of the hangman is finished. We draw the hangman on the screen with print
() calls, based on how many letters are in missedLetters. Remember that each time the player guesses
wrong, we add (or as a programmer would say, concatenate) the wrong letter to the string in
missedLetters. So the length of missedLetters (or, in code, len(missedLetters)) can tell us
the number of wrong guesses.
110
At what point does the player run out of guesses and lose? Well, the HANGMANPICS list has 7 pictures
(really, they are ASCII art strings). So when len(missedLetters) equals 6, we know the player has
lost because the hangman picture will be finished. (Remember that HANGMANPICS[0] is the first item in
the list, and HANGMANPICS[6] is the last one. This is because the index of a list with 7 items goes from 0
to 6, not 1 to 7.)
So why do we have len(missedLetters) == len(HANGMANPICS) - 1 as the condition on line

134, instead of len(missedLetters) == 6? Pretend that we add another string to the HANGMANPICS
list (maybe a picture of the full hangman with a tail, or a third mutant arm). Then the last picture in the list
would be at HANGMANPICS[7]. So not only would we have to change the HANGMANPICS list with a new
string, but we would also have to remember to change line 134 to len(missedLetters) == 7. This
might not be a big deal for a program like Hangman, but when you start writing larger programs you may
have to change several different lines of code all over your program just to make a change in the program's
behavior. This way, if we want to make the game harder or easier, we just have to add or remove ASCII art
strings to HANGMANPICS and change nothing else.
A second reason we user len(HANGMANPICS) - 1 is so that when we read the code in this program
later, we know why this program behaves the way it does. If you wrote len(missedLetters) == 6
and then looked at the code two weeks later, you may wonder what is so special about the number 6. You
may have forgotten that 6 is the last index in the HANGMANPICS list. Of course, you could write a comment
to remind yourself, like:
134. if len(missedLetters) == 6: # 6 is the last index in the

HANGMANPICS list
But it is easier to just use len(HANGMANPICS) - 1 instead.
So, when the length of the missedLetters string is equal to len(HANGMANPICS) - 1, we know
the player has run out of guesses and has lost the game. We print a long string telling the user what the secret
word was, and then set the gameIsDone value to the Boolean value True. This is how we will tell
ourselves that the game is done and we should start over.
Remember that when we have \n in a string, that represents the newline character.
139. # Ask the player if they want to play again (but only
if the game is done).
140. if gameIsDone:
141. if playAgain():
If the player won or lost after guessing their letter, then our code would have set the gameIsDone
variable to True. If this is the case, we should ask the player if they want to play again. We already wrote
the playAgain() function to handle getting a yes or no from the player. This function returns a Boolean
value of True if the player wants to play another game of Hangman, and False if they've had enough.
111
If the player does want to play again, we will reset the values in missedLetters and
correctLetters to blank strings, set gameIsDone to False, and then choose a new secret word by
calling getRandomWord() again, passing it the list of possible secret words.
This way, when we loop back to the beginning of the loop (on line 112) the board will be back to the start
(remember we decide which hangman picture to show based on the length of missedLetters, which we
just set as the blank string) and the game will be just as the first time we entered the loop. The only difference
is we will have a new secret word, because we programmed getRandomWord() to return a randomly
chosen word each time we call it.
There is a small chance that the new secret word will be the same as the old secret word, but this is just a
coincidence. Let's say you flipped a coin and it came up heads, and then you flipped the coin again and it also
came up heads. Both coin flips were random, it was just a coincidence that they came up the same both times.
Accordingly, you may get the same word return from getRandomWord() twice in a row, but this is just a
coincidence.
146. else:
147. break
If the player typed in 'no' when asked if they wanted to play again, then they return value of the call to
the playAgain() function would be False and the else-block would have executed. This else-block only
has one line, a break statement. This causes the execution to jump to the end of the loop that was started on
line 112. But because there is no more code after the loop, the program terminates.
Making New Changes to the Hangman Program

This program was much bigger than the Dragon Realm program, but this program is also more
sophisticated. It really helps to make a flow chart or small sketch to remember how you want everything to
work. Take a look at the flow chart and try to find the lines of code that represent each block.
At this point, you can move on to the next chapter. But I suggest you keep reading on to find out about
some ways we can improve our Hangman game.
After you have played Hangman a few times, you might think that six guesses aren't enough to get many of
the words. We can easily give the player more guesses by adding more multi-line strings to the
HANGMANPICS list. It's easy, just change the ] square bracket on line 58 to a ,''' comma and three quotes (see
line 57 below). Then add the following:
58. ==========''', '''

59.
60. +----+
61. | |
62. [O |
63. /|\ |
64. / \ |
65. |
66. ==========''', '''
67.
112
68. +----+
69. | |
70. [O] |
71. /|\ |
72. / \ |
73. |
74. ==========''']
We have added two new multi-line strings to the HANGMANPICS list, one with the hangman's left ear
drawn, and the other with both ears drawn. Because our program will tell the player they have lost when the
number of guesses is the same as the number of strings in HANGMANPICS (minus one), this is the only
change we need to make.
We can also change the list of words by changing the words on line 59. Instead of animals, we could have
colors:
59. words = 'red orange yellow green blue indigo violet white
black brown'.split()
60. Or shapes:
61. words = 'square triangle rectangle circle ellipse rhombus
trapazoid chevron pentagon hexagon septagon octogon'.split
()
62. Or fruits:
63. words = 'apple orange lemon lime pear watermelon grape
grapefruit cherry banana cantalope mango strawberry
tomato'.split()
Dictionaries
With some modification, we can change our code so that our Hangman game can use all of these words as
separate sets. We can tell the player which set the secret word is from (like "animal", "color", "shape", or
"fruit"). This way, the player isn't guessing animals all the time.
To make this change, we will introduce a new data type called a dictionary. A dictionary is a collection
of other values much like a list, but instead of accessing the items in the dictionary with an integer index, you
access them with an index of any data type (but most often strings).
Try typing the following into the shell:
>>> stuff = {'hello':'Hello there, how are you?', 'chat':'How

is the weather?', 'goodbye':'It was nice talking to you!'} >>>
Those are curly braces { and }. On the keyboard they are on the same key as the square braces [ and ]. We
use curly braces to type out a dictionary value in Python. The values in between them are key-value pairs.
The keys are the things on the left of the colon and the values are on the right of the colon. You can access
the values (which are like items in lists) in the dictionary by using the key (which are like indexes in lists).
Try typing into the shell stuff['hello'] and stuff['chat'] and stuff['goodbye']:
113
>>> stuff['hello']
'Hello there, how are you?'
>>> stuff['chat']
'How is the weather?'
>>> stuff['goodbye']
'It was nice talking to you!'
>>>
Getting the Size of Dictionaries with len()
You see, instead of putting an integer index in between the square brackets, you put a key string index.
This will evaluate to the value for that key. You can get the size (that is, how many key-value pairs in the
dictionary) with the len() function. Try typing len(stuff) into the shell:
>>> len(stuff)
3
>>>
The list version of this dictionary would have only the values, and look something like this:
listStuff = ['Hello there, how are you?', 'How is the

weather?', 'It was nice talking to you!']
The list doesn't have any keys, like 'hello' and 'chat' and 'goodbye' in the dictionary. We have
to use integer indexes 0, 1, and 2.
The Difference Between Dictionaries and Lists

Dictionaries are different from lists because they are unordered. The first item in a list named
listStuff would be listStuff[0]. But there is no "first" item in a dictionary, because dictionaries do
not have any sort of order. Try typing this into the shell:
>>> favorites1 = {'fruit':'apples', 'animal':'cats',

'number':42}
>>> favorites2 = {'animal':'cats', 'number':42,
'fruit':'apples'}
>>> favorites1 == favorites2
True
>>>
As you can see, the expression favorites1 == favorites2 evaluates to True because dictionaries
are unordered, and they are considered to be the same if they have the same key-value pairs in them. Lists are
ordered, so a list with the same values in them but in a different order are not the same. Try typing this into
the shell:
114
>>> listFavs1 = ['apples', 'cats', 42]
>>> listFavs2 = ['cats', 42, 'apples']
>>> listFavs1 == listFavs2
False
>>>
As you can see, the two lists listFavs1 and listFavs2 are not considered to be the same because
order matters in lists.
You can also use integers as the keys for dictionaries. Dictionaries can have keys of any data type, not just
strings. But remember, because 0 and '0' are different values, they will be different keys. Try typing this
into the shell:
>>> myDict = {'0':'a string', 0:'an integer'}

>>> myDict[0]
'an integer'
>>> myDict['0']
'a string'
>>>
You might think that using a for loop is hard with dictionaries because they do not have integer indexes.
But actually, it's easy. Try typing the following into the shell. (Here's a hint, in IDLE, you do not have to type
spaces to start a new block. IDLE does it for you. To end the block, just insert a blank line by just hitting the
Enter key. Or you could start a new file, type in this code, and then press F5 to run the program.)
>>> favorites = {'fruit':'apples', 'animal':'cats',

'number':42}
>>> for i in favorites:
... print(i)
fruit
number
animal
>>> for i in favorites:
... print(favorites[i])
apples
42
cats
>>>
As you can see, if you just use a dictionary in a for loop, the variable i will take on the values of the
dictionary's keys, not its values. But if you have the dictionary and the key, you can get the value as we do
above with favorites[i]. But remember that because dictionaries are unordered, you cannot predict
which order the for loop will execute in. Above, we typed the 'animal' key as coming before the
'number' key, but the for loop printed out 'number' before 'animal'.
115
Dictionaries also have two useful methods, keys() and values(). These will return (ordered) lists of
the key values and the value values, respectively. Try typing the following into the shell:
>>> favorites = {'fruit':'apples', 'animal':'cats',

'number':42}
>>> favorites.keys()
['fruit', 'number', 'animal']
>>> favorites.values()
['apples', 42, 'cats']
>>>
Using these methods to get a list of the keys and values that are in a dictionary can be very helpful.
Sets of Words for Hangman

So how can we use dictionaries in our game? First, let's change the list words into a dictionary whose
keys are strings and values are lists of strings. (Remember that the string method split() evaluates to a
list.
59. words = {'Colors':'red orange yellow green blue indigo

violet white black brown'.split(),
60. 'Shapes':'square triangle rectangle circle ellipse rhombus
trapazoid chevron pentagon hexagon septagon octogon'.split
(),
61. 'Fruits':'apple orange lemon lime pear watermelon grape
grapefruit cherry banana cantalope mango strawberry
tomato'.split(),
62. 'Animals':'bat bear beaver cat cougar crab deer dog donkey
duck eagle fish frog goat leech lion lizard monkey moose
mouse otter owl panda python rabbit rat shark sheep skunk
squid tiger turkey turtle weasel whale wolf wombat
zebra'.split()}
This code is put across multiple lines in the file, even though the Python interpreter thinks of it as just one
"line of code." (The line of code doesn't end until the final } curly brace.)
The random.choice() Function
Now we will have to change our getRandomWord() function so that it chooses a random word from a
dictionary of lists of strings, instead of from a list of strings. Here is what the function originally looked like:

116
Change the code in this function so that it looks like this:
61. def getRandomWord(wordDict):

passed dictionary of lists of strings, and the key also.
63.
64. # First, randomly select a key from the dictionary:
65. wordKey = random.choice(wordDict.keys())
66.
67. # Second, randomly select a word from the key's list
in the dictionary:
68. wordIndex = random.randint(0, len(wordDict[wordKey]) -
1)
69.
70. return [wordDict[wordKey][wordIndex], wordKey]
Line 61 just changes the name of the parameter to something a little more descriptive. Now instead of
choosing a random word from a list of strings, first we choose a random key from the dictionary and then we
choose a random word from the key's list of strings. Line 65 calls a new function in the random module
named choice(). The choice() function has one parameter, a list. The return value of choice() is an
item randomly selected from this list each time it is called.
Remember that randint(a, b) will return a random integer between (and including) the two integers
a and b and choice(a) returns a random item from the list a. Look at these two lines of code, and figure
out why they do the exact same thing:
random.randint(0, 9)
random.choice(range(0, 10))
Line 64 (line 70 in the new code) has also been changed. Now instead of returning the string wordList
[wordIndex], we are returning a list with two items. The first item is wordDict[wordKey]
[wordIndex]. The second item is wordKey. We return a list because we actually want the
getRandomWord() to return two values, so putting those two values in a list and returning the list is the
easiest way to do this.
Evaluating a Dictionary of Lists

wordDict[wordKey][wordIndex] may look kind of complicated, but it is just an expression you
can evaluate one step at a time like anything else. First, imagine that wordKey had the value
'Fruits' (which was chosen on line 65) and wordIndex has the value 5 (chosen on line 68). Here is
how wordDict[wordKey][wordIndex] would evaluate:
117
wordDict[wordKey][wordIndex]
wordDict['Fruits'][5]
['apple', 'orange', 'lemon', 'lime', 'pear', 'watermelon',

'grape', 'grapefruit', 'cherry', 'banana', 'cantalope',
'mango', 'strawberry', 'tomato'][5]
'watermelon'
In the above case, the first item in the list this function returns would be the string 'watermelon'.
There are just three more changes to make to our program. The first two are on the lines that we call the
getRandomWord() function. The function is called on lines 109 and 145 in the original program:

...

146. else:
Because the getRandomWord() function now returns a list of two items instead of a string,
secretWord will be assigned a list, not a string. We would then have to change the code as follows:

110. secretKey = secretWord[1]
111. secretWord = secretWord[0]
...

146. secretKey = secretWord[1]
147. secretWord = secretWord[0]
118
148. else:
With the above changes, secretWord is first a list of two items. Then we add a new variable named
secretKey and set it to the second item in secretWord. Then we set secretWord itself to the first
item in the secretWord list. That means that secretWord will then be a string.
Multiple Assignment
But there is an easier way by doing a little trick with assignment statements. Try typing the following into
the shell:
>>> a, b, c = ['apples', 'cats', 42]

>>> a
'apples'
>>> b
'cats'
>>> c
42
>>>
The trick is to put the same number of variables (delimited by commas) on the left side of the = sign as are
in the list on the right side of the = sign. Python will automatically assign the first item's value in the list to
the first variable, the second item's value to the second variable, and so on. But if you do not have the same
number of variables on the left side as there are items in the list on the right side, the Python interpreter will
give you an error.
>>> a, b, c, d = ['apples', 'cats', 42]

a, b, c, d = ['apples', 'cats', 42]
ValueError: need more than 3 values to unpack
>>> a, b, c, d = ['apples', 'cats']

a, b, c = ['apples', 'cats']
ValueError: need more than 2 values to unpack
>>>
So we should change our code in Hangman to use this trick, which will mean our program uses fewer lines
of code.

109. secretWord, secretKey = getRandomWord(words)
110. gameIsDone = False 119
...

145. secretWord, secretKey = getRandomWord(words)
146. else:
Printing the Word Category for the Player

The last change we will make is to add a simple print() call to tell the player which set of words they
are trying to guess. This way, when the player plays the game they will know if the secret word is an animal,
color, shape, or fruit. Add this line of code after line 112. Here is the original code:
112. while True:

Add the line so your program looks like this:
112. while True:

113. print('The secret word is in the set: ' + secretKey)
Now we are done with our changes. Instead of just a single list of words, the secret word will be chosen
from many different lists of words. We will also tell the player which set of words the secret word is from.
Try playing this new version. You can easily change the words dictionary on line 59 to include more sets of
words.
Summary
We're done with Hangman. This has been a long chapter, and several new concepts have been introduced.
But Hangman has been our most advanced game yet. As your games get more and more complex, it'll be a
good idea to sketch out a flow chart on paper of what happens in your program.
Methods are functions that are associated with values. The return values of methods depend on the values
that the method is associated with. 'Howdy'.lower() is an example of a string method called lower()
which is associated with the string 'Howdy'. The return value is the string 'howdy'.
for loops are similar to while loops except that they iterate over the items in a list instead of iterate
while a condition is True. The range() function is often used with for loops because it is an easy way to
create lists of sequential numbers.
Else if statements (which use the elif keyword) expands if and else statements. While the if-block
runs if the condition is True and the else-block runs if the condition is False, the elif statement can
120
provide another condition to check and run the elif-block if that condition is True. (In that case, the else-
block runs only if all if and elif statement's conditions evaluate to False.) An if statement can have
any number of elif statements.
Dictionaries are very similar to lists except that they can use any value for an index. (Lists can only use
integers from 0 to the length of the list minus 1 for indexes.) The indexes in dictionaries are called keys. Keys
can be strings, integers, or any value of any data type. While lists can contain many values in a specific order,
the values stored in a dictionary are unordered. The len() function can return the size of the dictionary, just
like it returns the size of a list.
Now that we have learned these new concepts, let's learn about artificial intelligence with our next game,
Tic Tac Toe!
121
• Artificial Intelligence
• List References
• Short-Circuit Evaluation
• The None Value
We will now create a Tic Tac Toe game where the player plays against a simple artificial intelligence. An
artificial intelligence (or AI) is a computer program that can intelligently respond to the player's moves.
This game doesn't introduce any complicated new concepts. We will see that the artificial intelligence that
plays Tic Tac Toe is really just several lines of code.
Tic Tac Toe is a simple game to play with a paper and pencil between two people. One player is X and the
other player is O. On a simple nine square grid (which we call the board), the players take turns placing their
X or O on the board. If a player gets three of their marks on the board in a row, column or one of the two
diagonals, they win.
Most games of Tic Tac Toe end in a draw. The board is filled up with neither player having three marks in
a row. Instead of second player, our artificial intelligence will make moves against the user.
While this chapter may not introduce many new programming concepts, it does make use of our existing
programming knowledge to make an intelligent Tic Tac Toe player. Let's get started by looking at a sample
run of the program.
Sample Run of Tic Tac Toe
Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!

Do you want to be X or O?
X
The computer will go first.
| |
122
O | |
| |
-----------
| |
| |
| |
-----------
| |
| |
| |
What is your next move? (1-9)
3
| |
O | |
| |
-----------
| |
| |
| |
-----------
| |
O | | X
| |
4
| |
O | | O
| |
-----------
| |
X | |
| |
-----------
| |
O | | X
| |
5
| |
O | O | O
| |
-----------
| |
X | X |
| |
-----------
| |
O | | X
| |
The computer has beaten you! You lose.
no
Source Code of Tic Tac Toe

In a new file editor window, type in this source code and save it as tictactoe.py. Then run the game by
pressing F5. You do not need to type in this program before reading this chapter. You can also download the
source code by visiting the website at the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter9 and following the
instructions on the webpage.
123
tictactoe.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/tictactoe.py
1. # Tic Tac Toe

2.
3. import random
4.
5. def drawBoard(board):
6. # This function prints out the board that it was
passed.
7.
8. # "board" is a list of 10 strings representing the
board (ignore index 0)
9. print(' | |')
10. print(' ' + board[7] + ' | ' + board[8] + ' | ' +
board[9])
11. print(' | |')
12. print('-----------')
13. print(' | |')
board[6])
15. print(' | |')
16. print('-----------')
17. print(' | |')
board[3])
19. print(' | |')
20.
21. def inputPlayerLetter():
22. # Let's the player type which letter they want to be.
23. # Returns a list with the player's letter as the first
item, and the computer's letter as the second.
24. letter = ''
25. while not (letter == 'X' or letter == 'O'):
26. print('Do you want to be X or O?')
27. letter = input().upper()
28.
29. # the first element in the tuple is the player's
letter, the second is the computer's letter.
30. if letter == 'X':
31. return ['X', 'O']
32. else:
33. return ['O', 'X']
34.
35. def whoGoesFirst():
36. # Randomly choose the player who goes first.
37. if random.randint(0, 1) == 0:
38. return 'computer'
39. else: 124
40. return 'player'
41.
46.
47. def makeMove(board, letter, move):
48. board[move] = letter
49.
50. def isWinner(bo, le):
51. # Given a board and a player's letter, this function
returns True if that player has won.
52. # We use bo instead of board and le instead of letter
so we don't have to type as much.
53. return ((bo[7] == le and bo[8] == le and bo[9] == le)
or # across the top
54. (bo[4] == le and bo[5] == le and bo[6] == le) or #
across the middle
across the bottom
down the left side
down the middle
down the right side
diagonal
60. (bo[9] == le and bo[5] == le and bo[1] == le)) #
diagonal
61.
62. def getBoardCopy(board):
63. # Make a duplicate of the board list and return it the
duplicate.
64. dupeBoard = []
65.
66. for i in board:
67. dupeBoard.append(i)
68.
69. return dupeBoard
70.
71. def isSpaceFree(board, move):
72. # Return true if the passed move is free on the passed
board.
73. return board[move] == ' '
74.
75. def getPlayerMove(board):
76. # Let the player type in his move.
77. move = ' '
125
78. while move not in '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split() or not
isSpaceFree(board, int(move)):
79. print('What is your next move? (1-9)')
80. move = input()
81. return int(move)
82.
83. def chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, movesList):
84. # Returns a valid move from the passed list on the
passed board.
85. # Returns None if there is no valid move.
86. possibleMoves = []
87. for i in movesList:
88. if isSpaceFree(board, i):
89. possibleMoves.append(i)
90.
91. if len(possibleMoves) != 0:
92. return random.choice(possibleMoves)
93. else:
94. return None
95.
96. def getComputerMove(board, computerLetter):
97. # Given a board and the computer's letter, determine
where to move and return that move.
98. if computerLetter == 'X':
99. playerLetter = 'O'
100. else:
101. playerLetter = 'X'
102.
103. # Here is our algorithm for our Tic Tac Toe AI:
104. # First, check if we can win in the next move
105. for i in range(1, 10):
106. copy = getBoardCopy(board)
107. if isSpaceFree(copy, i):
108. makeMove(copy, computerLetter, i)
109. if isWinner(copy, computerLetter):
110. return i
111.
112. # Check if the player could win on his next move, and
block them.
116. makeMove(copy, playerLetter, i)
117. if isWinner(copy, playerLetter):
118. return i
119.
120. # Try to take one of the corners, if they are free.
121. move = chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, [1, 3, 7, 9])
122. if move != None:
123. return move
124.
126
125. # Try to take the center, if it is free.
126. if isSpaceFree(board, 5):
127. return 5
128.
129. # Move on one of the sides.
130. return chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, [2, 4, 6, 8])
131.
132. def isBoardFull(board):
133. # Return True if every space on the board has been
taken. Otherwise return False.
136. return False
137. return True
138.
139.
140. print('Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!')
141.
142. while True:
143. # Reset the board
144. theBoard = [' '] * 10
145. playerLetter, computerLetter = inputPlayerLetter()
146. turn = whoGoesFirst()
147. print('The ' + turn + ' will go first.')
148. gameIsPlaying = True
149.
150. while gameIsPlaying:
151. if turn == 'player':
152. # Player's turn.
153. drawBoard(theBoard)
154. move = getPlayerMove(theBoard)
155. makeMove(theBoard, playerLetter, move)
156.
157. if isWinner(theBoard, playerLetter):
159. print('Hooray! You have won the game!')
160. gameIsPlaying = False
161. else:
162. if isBoardFull(theBoard):
164. print('The game is a tie!')
165. break
166. else:
167. turn = 'computer'
168.
169. else:
170. # Computer's turn.
171. move = getComputerMove(theBoard,
computerLetter)
172. makeMove(theBoard, computerLetter, move)
173.
127
174. if isWinner(theBoard, computerLetter):
176. print('The computer has beaten you! You
lose.')
178. else:
182. break
183. else:
184. turn = 'player'
185.
186. if not playAgain():
187. break

Tic Tac Toe is a very easy and short game to play on paper. In our Tic Tac Toe computer game, we'll let
the player choose if they want to be X or O, randomly choose who goes first, and then let the player and
computer take turns making moves on the board. Here is what a flow chart of this game could look like:
Figure 9-1: Flow chart for Tic Tac Toe
You can see a lot of the boxes on the left side of the chart are what happens during the player's turn. The
right side of the chart shows what happens on the computer's
128 turn. The player has an extra box for drawing
the board because the computer doesn't need the board printed on the screen. After the player or computer
makes a move, we check if they won or caused a tie, and then the game switches turns. If either the computer
or player ties or wins the game, we ask the player if they want to play again.
Representing the Board as Data

First, we need to figure out how we are going to represent the board as a variable. On paper, the Tic Tac
Toe board is drawn as a pair of horizontal lines and a pair of vertical lines, with either an X, O, or empty
space in each of the nine spaces.
In our program, we are going to represent the Tic Tac Toe board as a list of strings. Each string will
represent one of the nine positions on the board. We will give a number to each of the spaces on the board.
To make it easier to remember which index in the list is for which piece, we will mirror the numbers on the
keypad of our keyboard. See Figure 9-2.
Figure 9-2: The board will be numbered like the keyboard's number pad.
The strings will either be 'X' for the X player, 'O' for the O player, or a space string ' ' to mark a spot
on the board where no one has marked yet. The index of the string in the list will also be the number of the
space on the board.
So if we had a list with ten strings named board, then board[7] would be the top-left square on the
board (either an X, O, or blank space). board[5] would be the very center. When the player types in which
place they want to move, they will type a number from 1 to 9. (Because there is no 0 on the keypad, we will
just ignore the string at index 0 in our list.)
Game AI
When we talk about how our AI behaves, we will be talking about which types of spaces on the board it
will move on. Just to be clear, we will label three types of spaces on the Tic Tac Toe board: corners, sides,
and the center. Figure 9-3 is a chart of what each space is:
The AI for this game will follow a simple algorithm. An algorithm is a series of instructions to compute
something. This is a very loose In the case of our Tic Tac Toe AI's algorithm, the series of steps will
determine which is the best place to move. There is nothing in the code that says, "These lines are an
algorithm." like there is with a function's def-block. We just consider the AI algorithm as all the code that is
used in our program that determines the AI's next move.
129
Our algorithm will have the following steps:
1. First, see if there is a move the computer can make that

will win the game. If there is, take that move.
Otherwise, go to step 2.
2. See if there is a move the player can make that will
cause the computer to lose the game. If there is, we
should move there to block the player. Otherwise, go to
step 3.
3. Check if any of the corner spaces (spaces 1, 3, 7, or 9)
are free. (We always want to take a corner piece instead
of the center or a side piece.) If no corner piece is free,
then go to step 4.
4. Check if the center is free. If so, move there. If it isn't,
then go to step 5. Figure 9-3: Locations of the side, corner, and center places.
5. Move on any of the side pieces (spaces 2, 4, 6, or 8).
There are no more steps, because if we have reached step 5 the side spaces are the only spaces left.
This all takes place in the "Get computer's move." box on our flow chart. We could add this information to
our flow chart like this:
Figure 9-4: The five steps of the "Get computer's move" algorithm.
We will implement this algorithm as code in our getComputerMove() function, and the other
functions that getComputerMove() calls.
How the Code Works: Lines 1 to 81

Now that we know about how we want the program to work, let's look at what each line does.
130
The Start of the Program
1. # Tic Tac Toe

2.
3. import random
The first couple of lines are a comment and importing the random module so we can use the randint
() function in our game.
Printing the Board on the Screen
passed.
7.
8. # "board" is a list of 10 strings representing the
board (ignore index 0)
9. print(' | |')
board[9])
11. print(' | |')
12. print('-----------')
13. print(' | |')
board[6])
15. print(' | |')
16. print('-----------')
17. print(' | |')
board[3])
19. print(' | |')
This function will print out the game board, marked as directed by the board parameter. Remember that
our board is represented as a list of ten strings, where the string at index 1 is the mark on space 1 on the Tic
Tac Toe board. (And remember that we ignore the string at index 0, because the spaces are labeled with
numbers 1 to 9.) Many of our functions will work by passing the board as a list of ten strings to our functions.
Be sure to get the spacing right in the strings that are printed, otherwise the board will look funny when it is
printed on the screen.
Just as an example, here are some values that the board parameter could have (on the left) and what the
drawBoard() function would print out:
Table 7-1: Examples of values of board and output from drawBoard(board) calls.
board data structure drawBoard(board) output
[' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', 'X', 'O', ' ', 'X', ' ', 'O'] | |
131 X | | O
| |
-----------
| |
X | O |
| |
-----------
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
-----------
| |
[' ', 'O', 'O', ' ', ' ', 'X', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '] | X |
| |
-----------
| |
O | O |
| |
| |
| |
| |
-----------
| |
[' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '] | |
| |
-----------
| |
| |
| |
| |
X | X | X
| |
-----------
| |
[' ', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X', 'X'] X | X | X
| |
-----------
| |
X | X | X
| |
| |
7 | 8 | 9
| |
['0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'] -----------
| |
4 | 5 | 6
| |
-----------
132
| |
1 | 2 | 3
| |
The second to last board filled with X's could not possibly have happened (unless the X player skipped all
of the O player's turns!) And the last board has strings of digits instead of X and O, which are invalid strings
for the board. But the drawBoard() function doesn't care. It just prints the board parameter that it was
passed. Computer programs only do exactly what you tell them, even if you tell them the wrong things to do.
We will just make sure these invalid strings are not put into the passed list in the first place.
Letting the Player be X or O
21. def inputPlayerLetter():

22. # Let's the player type which letter they want to be.
23. # Returns a list with the player's letter as the first
item, and the computer's letter as the second.
24. letter = ''
25. while not (letter == 'X' or letter == 'O'):
27. letter = input().upper()
The inputPlayerLetter() is a simple function. It asks if the player wants to be X or O, and will
keep asking the player (with the while loop) until the player types in an X or O. Notice on line 26 that we
automatically change the string returned by the call to input() to uppercase letters with the upper()
string method.
The while loop's condition contains parentheses, which means the expression inside the parentheses is
evaluated first. If the letter variable was set to 'X', the expression would evaluate like this:
while not (letter == 'X' or letter == 'O'):
while not ('X' == 'X' or 'X' == 'O'):
while not (True or False):
while not (True):
while not True:
while False:
As you can see, if letter has the value 'X' or 'O', then the loop's condition will be False and lets
the program execution continue.
133
29. # the first element in the tuple is the player's
letter, the second is the computer's letter.
30. if letter == 'X':
31. return ['X', 'O']
32. else:
33. return ['O', 'X']
This function returns a list with two items. The first item (that is, the string at index 0) will be the player's
letter, and the second item (that is, the string at index 1) will be the computer's letter. This if-else statement
chooses the appropriate list to return.
Deciding Who Goes First

39. else:
40. return 'player'
The whoGoesFirst() function does a virtual coin flip to determine who goes first, the computer or the
player. Instead of flipping an actual coin, this code gets a random number of either 0 or 1 by calling the
random.randint() function. If this function call returns a 0, the whoGoesFirst() function returns
the string 'computer'. Otherwise, the function returns the string 'player'. The code that calls this
function will use the return value to know who will make the first move of the game.

The playAgain() function asks the player if they want to play another game. The function returns
True if the player types in 'yes' or 'YES' or 'y' or anything that begins with the letter Y. For any other
response, the function returns False. The order of the method calls on line 151 is important. The return
value from the call to the input() function is a string that has its lower() method called on it. The
lower() method returns another string (the lowercase string) and that string has its startswith()
method called on it, passing the argument 'y'.
There is no loop, because we assume that if the user entered anything besides a string that begins with
'y', they want to stop playing. So, we only ask the player once.
134
Placing a mark on the Board

The makeMove() function is very simple and only one line. The parameters are a list with ten strings
named board, one of the player's letters (either 'X' or 'O') named letter, and a place on the board
where that player wants to go (which is an integer from 1 to 9) named move.
But wait a second. You might think that this function doesn't do much. It seems to change one of the items
in the board list to the value in letter. But because this code is in a function, the board variable will be
forgotten when we exit this function and leave the function's scope.
Actually, this is not the case. This is because lists are special when you pass them as arguments to
functions. This is because you pass a reference to the list and not the list itself. Let's learn about the difference
between lists and list references.
List References
Try entering the following into the shell:
>>> spam = 42
>>> cheese = spam
>>> spam = 100
>>> spam
100
>>> cheese
42
This makes sense from what we know so far. We assign 42 to the spam variable, and then we copy the
value in spam and assign it to the variable cheese. When we later change the value in spam to 100, this
doesn't affect the value in cheese. This is because spam and cheese are different variables that store
different values.
But lists don't work this way. When you assign a list to a variable with the = sign, you are actually
assigning a reference to the list. A reference is a value that points to some bit of data, and a list reference
is a value that points to a list. Here is some code that will make this easier to understand. Type this into the
shell:
>>> spam = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

>>> cheese = spam
>>> cheese[1] = 'Hello!'
>>> spam
[0, 'Hello!', 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> cheese
[0, 'Hello!', 2, 3, 4, 5]
135
Notice that the line cheese = spam copies the list reference in spam to cheese, instead of copying
the list value itself. This means that the values stored in both spam and cheese refer to the same list. There
is only one list because the list was not copied, the reference to the list was copied. So when you modify
cheese in the cheese[1] = 'Hello!' line, you are modifying the same list that spam refers to. This
is why spam seems to have the same list value that cheese does.
Remember when you first learned about variables, I said that variables were like mailboxes that contain
values. List variables don't actually contain lists at all, they contain references to lists. Here are some pictures
that explain what happens in the code you just typed in:
Figure 9-5: Variables do no store lists, but rather references to lists.
On the first line, the actual list is not contained in the spam variable but a reference to the list. The list
itself is not stored in any variable.
Figure 9-6: Two variables store two references to the same list.
136
When you assign the reference in spam to cheese, the cheese variable contains a copy of the reference
in spam. Now both cheese and spam refer to the same list.
Figure 9-7: Changing the list changes all variables with references to that list.
When you alter the list that cheese refers to, the list that spam refers to is also changed because they are
the same list. If you want spam and cheese to store two different lists, you have to create two different lists
instead of copying a reference:
>>> spam = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

>>> cheese = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In the above example, spam and cheese have two different lists stored in them (even though these lists
are identical in content). Now if you modify one of the lists, it will not affect the other because spam and
cheese have references to two different lists:
>>> spam = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

>>> cheese = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> cheese[1] = 'Hello!'
>>> spam
[0, 'Hello!', 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> cheese
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Figure 9-8 shows how the two references point to two different lists:
137
Figure 9-8: Two variables each storing references to two different lists.
Using List References in makeMove()
Let's go back to the makeMove() function:

When we pass a list value as the argument for the board parameter, we are actually passing a copy of the
reference, not a copy of the list itself. The letter and move parameters are copies of the string and integer
values that we pass. Since they are copies, if we modify letter or move in this function, the original
variables we used when we called makeMove() would not be modified. Only the copies would be modified.
But a copy of the reference still refers to the same list that the original reference refers to. So if we make
changes to board in this function, the original list is modified. When we exit the makeMove() function,
the copy of the reference is forgotten along with the other parameters. But since we were actually changing
the original list, those changes remain after we exit the function. This is how the makeMove() function
modifies the list that a reference of is passed.
Checking if a Player Has Won
50. def isWinner(bo, le):

51. # Given a board and a player's letter, this function
returns True if that player has won.
52. # We use bo instead of board and le instead of letter
so we don't have to type as much.
or # across the top
across the middle
138
across the bottom
down the left side
down the middle
down the right side
diagonal
diagonal
Lines 53 to 60 in the isWinner() function are actually one very long if statement. We use bo and le
for the board and letter parameters so that we have less to type in this function. (This is a trick programmers
sometimes use to reduce the amount they need to type. Be sure to add a comment though, otherwise you may
forget what bo and le are supposed to mean.)
There are eight possible ways to win at Tic Tac Toe. First, have a line across the top, middle, and bottom.
Second, have a line down the left, middle, or right. And finally, have either of the two diagonals. Note that
each line of the condition checks if the three spaces are equal to the letter provided (combined with the and
operator) and we use the or operator to combine the eight different ways to win. This means only one of the
eight ways must be true in order for us to say that the player who owns letter in le is the winner.
Let's pretend that le is 'O', and the board looks like this:
| |
X | |
| |
-----------
| |
| X |
| |
-----------
| |
O | O | O
| |
If the board looks like that, then bo must be equal to [' ', 'O', 'O', 'O', ' ', 'X', ' ',
'X', ' ', ' ']. Here is how the expression after the return keyword on line 53 would evaluate:
Here is the expression as it is in the code:

or # across the top
across the middle
139
across the bottom
down the left side
down the middle
down the right side
diagonal
diagonal
First Python will replace the variable bo with the value inside of it:
53. return (('X' == 'O' and ' ' == 'O' and ' ' == 'O') or
# across the top
54. (' ' == 'O' and 'X' == 'O' and ' ' == 'O') or # across
the middle
55. ('O' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O') or # across
the bottom
56. ('X' == 'O' and ' ' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O') or # down
the left side
57. (' ' == 'O' and 'X' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O') or # down
the middle
58. (' ' == 'O' and ' ' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O') or # down
the right side
59. ('X' == 'O' and 'X' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O') or #
diagonal
60. (' ' == 'O' and 'X' == 'O' and 'O' == 'O')) # diagonal
Next, Python will evaluate all those == comparisons inside the parentheses to a
boolean value:
53. return ((False and False and False) or # across the

top
54. (False and False and False) or # across the middle
55. (True and True and True) or # across the bottom
56. (False and False and True) or # down the left side
57. (False and False and True) or # down the middle
58. (False and False and True) or # down the right side
59. (False and False and True) or # diagonal
60. (False and False and True)) # diagonal
Then the Python interpreter will evaluate all those expressions inside the parentheses:
140
53. return ((False) or # across the top
54. (False) or # across the middle
55. (True) or # across the bottom
56. (False) or # down the left side
57. (False) or # down the middle
58. (False) or # down the right side
59. (False) or # diagonal
60. (False)) # diagonal
Since now there is only one value inside the parentheses, we can get rid of them:
53. return (False or # across the top

54. False or # across the middle
55. True or # across the bottom
56. False or # down the left side
57. False or # down the middle
58. False or # down the right side
59. False or # diagonal
60. False) # diagonal
Now we evaluate the expression that is connecter by all those or operators:
53. return (True)
Once again, we get rid of the parentheses, and we are left with one value:
53. return True
So given those values for bo and le, the expression would evaluate to True. Remember that the value of
le matters. If le is 'O' and X has won the game, the isWinner() would return False.
Duplicating the Board Data

63. # Make a duplicate of the board list and return it the
duplicate.
64. dupeBoard = []
65.
66. for i in board:
67. dupeBoard.append(i)
68.
141
The getBoardCopy() function is here so that we can easily make a copy of a given 10-string list that
represents a Tic Tac Toe board in our game. There are times that we will want our AI algorithm to make
temporary modifications to a temporary copy of the board without changing the original board. In that case,
we call this function to make a copy of the board's list.
Line 64 actually creates a brand new list and stores a reference to it in dupeBoard. But the list stored in
dupeBoard is just an empty list. The for loop will go through the board parameter, appending a copy of
the string values in the original board to our duplicate board. Finally, after the loop, we will return the
dupeBoard variable's reference to the duplicate board. So you can see how the getBoardCopy()
function is building up a copy of the original board and returning a reference to this new board, and not the
original one.
Checking if a Space on the Board is Free
71. def isSpaceFree(board, move):

72. # Return true if the passed move is free on the passed
board.
73. return board[move] == ' '
This is a simple function that, given a Tic Tac Toe board and a possible move, will return if that move is
available or not. Remember that free spaces on our board lists are marked as a single space string.
Letting the Player Enter Their Move
75. def getPlayerMove(board):

76. # Let the player type in his move.
77. move = ' '
78. while move not in '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split() or not
isSpaceFree(board, int(move)):
79. print('What is your next move? (1-9)')
80. move = input()
81. return int(move)
The getPlayerMove() function asks the player to enter the number for the space they wish to move.
The function makes sure that they enter a space that is a valid space (an integer 1 through 9). It also checks
that the space that is not already taken, given the Tic Tac Toe board passed to the function in the board
parameter.
The two lines of code inside the while loop simply ask the player to enter a number from 1 to 9. The
loop's condition will keep looping, that is, it will keep asking the player for a space, as long as the condition
is True. The condition is True if either of the expressions on the left or right side of the or keyword is
True.
142
The expression on the left side checks if the move that the player entered is equal to '1', '2', '3', and
so on up to '9' by creating a list with these strings (with the split() method) and checking if move is in
this list. '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split() evaluates to be the same as ['1', '2', '3', '4',
'5', '6', '7', '8', '9'], but it easier to type.
The expression on the right side checks if the move that the player entered is a free space on the board. It
checks this by calling the isSpaceFree() function we just wrote. Remember that isSpaceFree() will
return True if the move we pass is available on the board. Note that isSpaceFree() expects an integer
for move, so we use the int() function to evaluate an integer form of move.
We add the not operators to both sides so that the condition will be True when both of these
requirements are unfulfilled. This will cause the loop to ask the player again and again until they enter a
proper move.
Finally, on line 81, we will return the integer form of whatever move the player entered. Remember that
input() returns a string, so we will want to use the int() function to evaluate the string as an integer.
Short-Circuit Evaluation
You may have noticed there is a possible problem in our getPlayerMove() function. What if the
player typed in 'X' or some other non-integer string? The move not in '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9'.split() expression on the left side of or would return False as expected, and then we would
evaluate the expression on the right side of the or operator. But when we pass 'X' (which would be the value
in move) to the int() function, int('X') would give us an error. It gives us this error because the int
() function can only take strings of number characters, like '9' or '42', not strings like 'X'
As an example of this kind of error, try entering this into the shell:
>>> int('42')
42
>>> int('X')

int('X')
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'X'
But when you play our Tic Tac Toe game and try entering 'X' in for your move, this error doesn't happen.
The reason is because the while loop's condition is being short-circuited.
What short-circuiting means is that because the expression on the left side of the or keyword (move not in
'1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split()) evaluates to True, the Python interpreter knows that the entire
expression will evaluate to True. It doesn't matter if the expression on the right side of the or keyword
evaluates to True or False, because only one value on the side of the or operator needs to be True.
Think about it: The expression True or False evaluates to True and the expression True or
True also evaluates to True. If the value on the left side is True, it doesn't matter what the value is on the
right side. So Python stops checking the rest of the expression and doesn't even bother evaluating the not
isSpaceFree(board, int(move)) part. This means neither the int() nor the isSpaceFree()
functions are ever called.
143
This works out well for us, because if the expression on the right side is True then move is not a string in
number form. That would cause int() to give us an error. The only times move not in '1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9'.split() evaluates to False are when move is not a single-digit string. In that case, the call
to int() would not give us an error.
An Example of Short-Circuit Evaluation

Here's a short program that gives a good example of short-circuiting. Open a new file in the IDLE editor
and type in this program, save it as truefalsefizz.py, then press F5 to run it. Don't add the numbers down the
left side of the program, those just appear in this book to make the program's explanation easier to
understand.
1. def TrueFizz(message):
2. print(message)
3. return True
4.
5. def FalseFizz(message):
6. print(message)
7. return False
8.
9. if FalseFizz('Cats') or TrueFizz('Dogs'):
10. print('Step 1')
11.
12. if TrueFizz('Hello') or TrueFizz('Goodbye'):
13. print('Step 2')
14.
15. if TrueFizz('Spam') and TrueFizz('Cheese'):
16. print('Step 3')
17.
18. if FalseFizz('Red') and TrueFizz('Blue'):
19. print('Step 4')
When you run this program, you can see the output (the letters on the left side have been added to make the
output's explanation easier to understand):
A. Cats
B. Dogs
C. Step 1
D. Hello
E. Step 2
F. Spam
G. Cheese
H. Step 3
I. Red
144
This small program has two functions: TrueFizz() and FalseFizz(). TrueFizz() will display a
message and return the value True, while FalseFizz() will display a message and return the value
False. This will help us determine when these functions are being called, or when these functions are being
skipped due to short-circuiting.
The First if Statement
The first if statement on line 9 in our small program will first evaluate TrueFizz(). We know this
happens because Cats is printed to the screen (on line A in the output). The entire expression could still be
True if the expression to the right of the or keyword is True. So the call TrueFizz('Dogs') one line 9
is evaluated, Dogs is printed to the screen (on line B in the output) and True is returned. On line 9, the if
statement's condition evaluates to False or True, which in turn evaluates to True. Step 1 is then printed
to the screen. No short-circuiting took place for this expression's evaluation.
The Second if Statement
The second if statement on line 12 also has short-circuiting. This is because when we call TrueFizz
('Hello') on line 12, it prints Hello (see line D in the output) and returns True. Because it doesn't
matter what is on the right side of the or keyword, the Python interpreter doesn't call TrueFizz
('Goodbye'). You can tell it is not called because Goodbye is not printed to the screen. The if
statement's condition is True, so Step 2 is printed to the screen on line E.
The Third if Statement
The third if statement on line 15 does not have short-circuiting. The call to TrueFizz('Spam')
returns True, but we do not know if the entire condition is True or False because of the and operator. So
Python will call TrueFizz('Cheese'), which prints Cheese and returns True. The if statement's
condition is evaluated to True and True, which in turn evaluates to True. Because the condition is
True, Step 3 is printed to the screen on line H.
The Fourth if Statement
The fourth if statement on line 18 does have short-circuiting. The FalseFizz('Red') call prints Red
on line I in the output and returns False. Because the left side of the and keyword is False, it does not
matter if the right side is True or False, the condition will evaluate to False anyway. So TrueFizz
('Blue') is not called and Blue does not appear on the screen. Because the if statement's condition
evaluated to False, Step 4 is also not printed to the screen.
Short-circuiting can happen for any expression that includes the Boolean operators and and or. It is
important to remember that this can happen; otherwise you may find that some function calls in the
expression are never called and you will not understand why.

Choosing a Move from a List of Moves
83. def chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, movesList):
145
84. # Returns a valid move from the passed list on the
passed board.
85. # Returns None if there is no valid move.
86. possibleMoves = []
87. for i in movesList:
89. possibleMoves.append(i)
The chooseRandomMoveFromList() function will be of use to us when we are implementing the

code for our AI. The first parameter board is the 10-string list that represents a Tic Tac Toe board. The
second parameter movesList is a list of integers that represent possible moves. For example, if movesList
is [1, 3, 7, 9], that means we should return the number for one of the corner spaces on the board. This
function will choose one of those moves from the list. It also makes sure that the move that it chooses is not
already taken. To do this, we create a blank list and assign it to possibleMoves. The for loop will go
through the list of moves passed to this function in movesList. If that move is available (which we figure
out with a call to isSpaceFree()), then we add it to possibleMoves with the append() method.
91. if len(possibleMoves) != 0:
92. return random.choice(possibleMoves)
93. else:
94. return None
At this point, the possibleMoves list has all of the moves that were in movesList that are also free
spaces on the board represented by board. If the list is not empty, then there is at least one possible move
that can be made on the board.
This list might be empty. For example, if movesList was [1, 3, 7, 9] but the board represented by
the board parameter had all the corner spaces already taken, the possibleMoves list would have been
empty.
If possibleMoves is empty, then len(possibleMoves) will evaluate to 0 and the code in the else-
block will execute. Notice that it returns something called None.
The None Value

None is a special value that you can assign to a variable. The None value represents the lack of a value.
None is the only value of the data type NoneType. (Just like the boolean data type has only two values, the
NoneType data type has only one value, None.) It can be very useful to use the None value when you have
not set a variables value yet. For example, say you had a variable named quizAnswer which holds the
user's answer to some True-False pop quiz question. You could set quizAnswer to None if the user
skipped the question or did not answer it. Using None would be better because if you set it to True or
False before assigning the value of the user's answer, it may look like the user gave an answer the question
even though they didn't.
Calls to functions that do not return anything (that is, they exit by reaching the end of the function and not
from a return statement) will evaluate to None. The None value is written without quotes and with a capital
"N" and lowercase "one".
146
Creating the Computer's Artificial Intelligence
96. def getComputerMove(board, computerLetter):

97. # Given a board and the computer's letter, determine
where to move and return that move.
98. if computerLetter == 'X':
99. playerLetter = 'O'
100. else:
101. playerLetter = 'X'
The None function is where our AI will be coded. The parameters are a Tic Tac Toe board (in the board
parameter) and which letter the computer is (either 'X' or 'O'). The first few lines simply assign the other
letter to a variable named None. This lets us use the same code, no matter who is X and who is O. This
function will return the integer that represents which space the computer will move.
Remember how our algorithm works:
First, see if there is a move the computer can make that will win the game. If there is, take that move.
Otherwise, go to step 2.
See if there is a move the player can make that will cause the computer to lose the game. If there is, we
should move there to block the player. Otherwise, go to step 3.
Check if any of the corner spaces (spaces 1, 3, 7, or 9) are free. (We always want to take a corner piece
instead of the center or a side piece.) If no corner piece is free, then go to step 4.
Check if the center is free. If so, move there. If it isn't, then go to step 5.
Move on any of the side pieces (spaces 2, 4, 6, or 8). There are no more steps, because if we have reached
step 6 the side spaces are the only spaces left.
The Computer Checks if it Can Win in One Move
103. # Here is our algorithm for our Tic Tac Toe AI:
104. # First, check if we can win in the next move
108. makeMove(copy, computerLetter, i)
109. if isWinner(copy, computerLetter):
110. return i
More than anything, if the computer can win in the next move, the computer should make that winning
move. We will do this by trying each of the nine spaces on the board with a for loop. The first line in the
loop makes a copy of the board list. We want to make a move on the copy of the board, and then see if that
147
move results in the computer winning. We don't want to modify the original Tic Tac Toe board, which is why
we make a call to getBoardCopy(). We check if the space we will move is free, and if so, we move on
that space and see if this results in winning. If it does, we return that space's integer.
If moving on none of the spaces results in winning, then the loop will finally end and we move on to line
112.
The Computer Checks if the Player Can Win in One Move
112. # Check if the player could win on his next move, and
block them.
116. makeMove(copy, playerLetter, i)
117. if isWinner(copy, playerLetter):
118. return i
At this point, we know we cannot win in one move. So we want to make sure the human player cannot win
in one more move. The code is very similar, except on the copy of the board, we place the player's letter
before calling the isWinner() function. If there is a position the player can move that will let them win,
the computer should move there.
If the human player cannot win in one more move, the for loop will eventually stop and execution
continues on to line 120.
Checking the Corner, Center, and Side Spaces in that Order
120. # Try to take one of the corners, if they are free.

121. move = chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, [1, 3, 7, 9])
122. if move != None:
123. return move
Our call to chooseRandomMoveFromList() with the list of [1, 3, 7, 9] will ensure that it
returns the integer for one of the corner spaces. (Remember, the corner spaces are represented by the integers
1, 3, 7, and 9.) If all the corner spaces are taken, our chooseRandomMoveFromList() function will
return the None value. In that case, we will move on to line 125.
125. # Try to take the center, if it is free.

126. if isSpaceFree(board, 5):
127. return 5
If none of the corners are available, we will try to move on the center space if it is free. If the center space
is not free, the execution moves on to line 129.
148
129. # Move on one of the sides.
130. return chooseRandomMoveFromList(board, [2, 4, 6, 8])
This code also makes a call to chooseRandomMoveFromList(), except we pass it a list of the side
spaces ([2, 4, 6, 8]). We know that this function will not return None, because the side spaces are the
only spaces we have not yet checked. This is the end of the getComputerMove() function and our AI
algorithm.
Checking if the Board is Full
132. def isBoardFull(board):

133. # Return True if every space on the board has been
taken. Otherwise return False.
136. return False
137. return True
The last function we will write is isBoardFull(), which returns True if the 10-string list board
argument it was passed has an 'X' or 'O' on every single space. If there is at least one space in board that
is set to a single space ' ' then it will return False.
The for loop will let us check spaces 1 through 9 on the Tic Tac Toe board. (Remember that range(1,
10) will make the for loop iterate over the integers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.) As soon as it finds a free
space in the board (that is, when isSpaceFree(board, i) returns True), the isBoardFull()
function will return False.
If execution manages to go through every iteration of the loop, we will know that none of the spaces are
free. So at that point, we will execute return True.
The Start of the Game
140. print('Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!')
Line 140 is the first line that isn't inside of a function, so it is the first line of code that is executed when we
run this program.
142. while True:

143. # Reset the board
144. theBoard = [' '] * 10
This while loop has True for the condition, so that means we will keep looping in this loop until we
encounter a break statement. Line 144 sets up the main Tic Tac Toe board that we will use, named
149
theBoard. It is a 10-string list, where each string is a single space ' '. Remember the little trick using the
multiplication operator with a list to replicate it: [' '] * 10. That evaluates to [' ', ' ', ' ', '
', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '], but is shorter for us to type [' '] * 10.
Deciding the Player's Mark and Who Goes First
145. playerLetter, computerLetter = inputPlayerLetter()
The inputPlayerLetter() function lets the player type in whether they want to be X or O. The
function returns a 2-string list, either ['X', 'O'] or ['O', 'X']. We use the multiple assignment trick
here that we learned in the Hangman chapter. If inputPlayerLetter() returns ['X', 'O'], then
playerLetter is set to 'X' and computerLetter is set to 'O'. If inputPlayerLetter() returns
['O', 'X'], then playerLetter is set to 'O' and computerLetter is set to 'X'.

148. gameIsPlaying = True
The whoGoesFirst() function randomly decides who goes first, and returns either the string
'player' or the string 'computer'. On line 147, we tell the player who will go first. The
gameIsPlayer variable is what we will use to keep track of whether the game has been won, lost, tied or
if it is the other player's turn.
Running the Player's Turn
150. while gameIsPlaying:
This is a loop that will keep going back and forth between the player's turn and the computer's turn, as long
as gameIsPlaying is set to True.

154. move = getPlayerMove(theBoard)
155. makeMove(theBoard, playerLetter, move)
The turn variable was originally set by whoGoesFirst(). It is either set to 'player' or
'computer'. If turn contains the string 'computer', then the condition is False and execution will
jump down to line 169.
The first thing we do when it is the player's turn (according to the flow chart we drew at the beginning of
this chapter) is show the board to the player. Calling the drawBoard() and passing the theBoard
150
variable will print the board on the screen. We then let the player type in his move by calling our
getPlayerMove() function, and set the move on the board by calling our makeMove() function.
157. if isWinner(theBoard, playerLetter):

159. print('Hooray! You have won the game!')
Now that the player has made his move, our program should check if they have won the game with this
move. If the isWinner() function returns True, we should show them the winning board (the previous
call to drawBoard() shows the board before they made the winning move) and print a message telling
them they have won.
Then we set gameIsPlaying to False so that execution does not continue on to the computer's turn.
161. else:
165. break
If the player did not win with his last move, then maybe his last move filled up the entire board and we
now have a tie. In this else-block, we check if the board is full with a call to the isBoardFull() function.
If it returns True, then we should draw the board by calling drawBoard() and tell the player a tie has
occurred. The break statement will break us out of the while loop we are in and jump down to line 186.
Running the Computer's Turn
166. else:
If the player has not won or tied the game, then we should just set the turn variable to 'computer' so
that when this while loop loops back to the start it will execute the code for the computer's turn.
169. else:
If the turn variable was not set to 'player' for the condition on line 151, then we know it is the
computer's turn and the code in this else-block will execute. This code is very similar to the code for the
player's turn, except the computer does not need the board printed on the screen so we skip calling the
drawBoard() function.
151
171. move = getComputerMove(theBoard,
computerLetter)
172. makeMove(theBoard, computerLetter, move)
This code is almost identical to the code for the player's turn.
174. if isWinner(theBoard, computerLetter):

176. print('The computer has beaten you! You
lose.')
We want to check if the computer won with its last move. The reason we call drawBoard() here is
because the player will want to see what move the computer made to win the game. We then set
gameIsPlaying to False so that the game does not continue.
178. else:
182. break
These lines of code are identical to the code on lines 162 to 165. The only difference is this is a check for a
tied game after the computer has moved.
183. else:
If the game is neither won nor tied, it then becomes the player's turn. There are no more lines of code
inside the while loop, so execution would jump back to the while statement on line 150.

187. break
These lines of code are located immediately after the while-block started by the while statement on line
150. Remember, we would only exit out of that while loop if it's condition (the gameIsPlaying
variable) was False. gameIsPlaying is set to False when the game has ended, so at this point we are
going to ask the player if they want to play again.
152
Remember, when we evaluate the condition in this if statement, we call the playAgain() function
which will let the user type in if they want to play or not. playAgain() will return True if the player
typed something that began with a 'y' like 'yes' or 'y'. Otherwise playAgain() will return False.
If playAgain() returns False, then the if statement's condition is True (because of the not operator
that reverses the Boolean value) and we execute the break statement. That breaks us out of the while loop
that was started on line 142. But there are no more lines of code after that while-block, so the program
terminates.
Summary: Creating Game-Playing Artificial Intelligences

Creating a program that can play a game comes down to carefully considering all the possible situations
the AI can be in and how it should respond in each of those situations. Our Tic Tac Toe AI is fairly simple
because there are not many possible moves in Tic Tac Toe compared to a game like chess or checkers.
Our AI simply blocks the players move if the player is about to win. If the player is not about to win, it
checks if any possible move can allow itself to win. If there is no such move, the AI simply chooses to any
available corner space. If no corner space is free, it moves on the center space. And if the center space is not
free, the computer moves on one of the side spaces. This is a simple algorithm for the computer to follow.
(It's so simple, you can probably predict which move the computer is going to make even before it makes it.)
If you follow these same steps when you play Tic Tac Toe on paper, you'll be sure not to lose because of any
silly mistakes.
The key to implementing our AI is by making copies of the board data and simulating moves on the copy.
That way, the AI code can see if a move will result in a win or loss. Then the AI can make that move on the
real board. This type of simulation is very effective at predicting what is a good move or not.
We also learned how to store a representation of the Tic Tac Toe board in a variable, and how to properly
draw it to the screen using print() calls. It is very useful to know how to take a drawing of something like
a Tic Tac Toe board and represent it in a Python program. We will be going into this more in the Sonar and
Reversi games later in this book. But first, let's create a new game called Bagels.
153
• Hard-coding
• Augmented Assignment Operators, +=, -=, *=, /=
• The random.shuffle() Function
• The sort() List Method
• The join() List Method
• String Interpolation (also called String Formatting)
• Conversion Specifier %s
• Nested Loops
In this chapter you will learn a few new methods and functions that come with Python. You will also learn
about augmented assignment operators and string interpolation. These concepts don't let you do anything you
couldn't do before, but they are nice shortcuts that make typing your code easier.
Bagels is a simple game you can play with a friend. Your friend thinks up a random 3-digit number with
no repeating digits, and you try to guess what the number is. After each guess, your friend gives you clues on
how close your guess was. If the friend tells you "bagels", that means that none of the three digits you
guessed is in the secret number. If your friend tells you "pico", then one of the digits is in the secret number,
but your guess has the digit in the wrong place. If your friend tells you "fermi", then your guess has a correct
digit in the correct place. Of course, even if you get a pico or fermi clue, you still don't know which digit in
your guess is the correct one.
You can also get multiple clues after each guess. Say the secret number is 456, and your guess is 546. The
clue you get from your friend would be "fermi pico pico" because one digit is correct and in the correct place
(the digit 6), and two digits are in the secret number but in the wrong place (the digits 4 and 5).
154
Sample Run
I am thinking of a 3-digit number. Try to guess what it is.

Here are some clues:
When I say: That means:
Pico One digit is correct but in the wrong position.
Fermi One digit is correct and in the right position.
Bagels No digit is correct.
I have thought up a number. You have 10 guesses to get it.
Guess #1:
123
Fermi
Guess #2:
453
Pico
Guess #3:
425
Fermi
Guess #4:
326
Bagels
Guess #5:
489
Bagels
Guess #6:
075
Fermi Fermi
Guess #7:
015
Fermi Pico
Guess #8:
175
You got it!
no
Bagel's Source Code
bagels.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/bagels.py
1. import random
2. def getSecretNum(numDigits):
3. # Returns a string that is numDigits long, made up of
unique random digits.
4. numbers = list(range(10))
5. random.shuffle(numbers)
6. secretNum = ''
7. for i in range(numDigits):
8. secretNum += str(numbers[i])
9. return secretNum
155
10.
11. def getClues(guess, secretNum):
12. # Returns a string with the pico, fermi, bagels clues
to the user.
13. if guess == secretNum:
14. return 'You got it!'
15.
16. clue = []
17.
18. for i in range(len(guess)):
19. if guess[i] == secretNum[i]:
20. clue.append('Fermi')
21. elif guess[i] in secretNum:
22. clue.append('Pico')
23. if len(clue) == 0:
24. return 'Bagels'
25.
26. clue.sort()
27. return ' '.join(clue)
28.
29. def isOnlyDigits(num):
30. # Returns True if num is a string made up only of
digits. Otherwise returns False.
31. if num == '':
32. return False
33.
34. for i in num:
35. if i not in '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split():
36. return False
37.
38. return True
39.
44.
45. NUMDIGITS = 3
46. MAXGUESS = 10
47.
48. print('I am thinking of a %s-digit number. Try to guess
what it is.' % (NUMDIGITS))
49. print('Here are some clues:')
50. print('When I say: That means:')
51. print(' Pico One digit is correct but in the
wrong position.')
52. print(' Fermi One digit is correct and in the
right position.')
53. print(' Bagels No digit is correct.')
54.
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55. while True:
56. secretNum = getSecretNum(NUMDIGITS)
57. print('I have thought up a number. You have %s guesses
to get it.' % (MAXGUESS))
58.
59. numGuesses = 1
60. while numGuesses <= MAXGUESS:
61. guess = ''
62. while len(guess) != NUMDIGITS or not isOnlyDigits
(guess):
63. print('Guess #%s: ' % (numGuesses))
64. guess = input()
65.
66. clue = getClues(guess, secretNum)
67. print(clue)
68. numGuesses += 1
69.
71. break
72. if numGuesses > MAXGUESS:
73. print('You ran out of guesses. The answer was
%s.' % (secretNum))
74.
76. break

Here is a flow chart for this program. The flow chart describes the basic events of what happens in this
game, and in what order they can happen:
157
Figure 10-1: Flow chart for the Bagels game.
And here is the source code for our game. Start a new file and type the code in, and then save the file as
bagels.py. We will design our game so that it is very easy to change the size of the secret number. It can be 3
digits or 5 digits or 30 digits. We will do this by using a constant variable named NUMDIGITS instead of
hard-coding the integer 3 into our source code.
Hard-coding means writing a program in a way that it changing the behavior of the program requires
changing a lot of the source code. For example, we could hard-code a name into a print() function call
like: print('Hello, Albert'). Or we could use this line: print('Hello, ' + name) which
would let us change the name that is printed by changing the name variable while the program is running.

At the start of the program we import the random module and also create a function for generating a
random secret number for the player to guess. The process of creating this number isn't hard, and also
guarantees that it only has unique digits in it.
1. import random
This game imports the random module so we can use the module's random numbers function.
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Shuffling a Unique Set of Digits
2. def getSecretNum(numDigits):
3. # Returns a string that is numDigits long, made up of
unique random digits.
4. numbers = list(range(10))
5. random.shuffle(numbers)
Our first function is named getSecretNum(), which will generate the random secret number. Instead of
having the code only produce 3-digit numbers, we use a parameter named numDigits to tell us how many
digits the secret number should have. (This way, we can make the game produce secret numbers with four or
six digits, for example, just by passing 4 or 6 as numDigits.)
You may have noticed that the return value of our call to range() was in turn passed to a function called
list(). The list() function returns a list value of the value passed to it, much like the str() function
returns a string form or the int() function returns an integer form. The reason we do this is because the
range() function technically does not return a list but something called an iterator. Iterators are a topic that
you don't need to know at this point, so they aren't covered in this book.
Just about every time we use the range() function it is in a for loop. Iterators are fine to use in for
loops (just like lists are), but if we ever want to store a list of integers in a variable, be sure to convert the
return value of range() to a list with the list() function first. (Just like we do on line 4.)
The random.shuffle() Function
First, we create a list of integers 0 to 9 by calling range(10) and store a reference to this list in
numbers. Then we call a function in the random module named shuffle(). The only parameter to
random.shuffle() is a reference to a list. The shuffle() function will randomly change the order of
all the items in the list.
Notice that random.shuffle() does not return a value. It changes the list you pass it "in place" (just
like our makeMove() function in the Tic Tac Toe chapter modified the list it was passed in place, rather
than return a new list with the change). It would actually be incorrect to write numbers =
random.shuffle(numbers).
Try experimenting with the random.shuffle() function by entering the following code into the
interactive shell:
>>> import random

>>> spam = range(list(10))
>>> print(spam)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>> random.shuffle(spam)
>>> print(spam)
[1, 2, 5, 9, 4, 7, 0, 3, 6, 8]
>>> print(spam)
[3, 0, 5, 9, 6, 8, 2, 4, 1, 7]
159
>>> print(spam)
[9, 8, 3, 5, 4, 7, 1, 2, 0, 6]
>>>
Every time you pass a list reference to random.shuffle(), the list it references has all the same items
but in a different order. The reason we do this is because we want the secret number to have unique values.
The Bagels game is much more fun if you don't have duplicate numbers in the secret number, such as '244'
or '333'.
Getting the Secret Number from the Shuffled Digits
6. secretNum = ''
7. for i in range(numDigits):
8. secretNum += str(numbers[i])
9. return secretNum
The secret number will be a string of the first three digits (because we'll pass 3 for the numDigits
parameter) of the shuffled list of integers. For example, if the shuffled list is [9, 8, 3, 5, 4, 7, 1, 2, 0, 6] then
we want the string returned by getSecretNum() to be '983'.
The secretNum variable starts out as a blank string. We then loop a number of times equal to the integer
value in numDigits. On each iteration through the loop, a new integer is pulled from the shuffled list,
converted to a string, and concatenated to the end of secretNum. So if numDigits is 3, the loop will
iterate three times and three random digits will be concatenated as strings.
For example, if numbers refers to the list [9, 8, 3, 5, 4, 7, 1, 2, 0, 6], then on the first
iteration, numbers[0] (that is, 9) will be passed to str(), which in turn returns '9' which is
concatenated to the end of secretNum. On the second iteration, the same happens with numbers[1] (that
is, 8) and on the third iteration the same happens with numbers[2] (that is, 3). The final value of
secretNum that is returned is '983'.
You may notice that secretNum in this function is a string, not an integer. This may seem odd, but
remember that our secret number could be something like '012'. If we stored this as an integer, it would
look like 12 which would make it harder to work with in our program.
Augmented Assignment Operators

The += operator on line 8 is new. This is one of the augmented assignment operators. Normally, if you
wanted to add or concatenate a value to a variable, you would use code that looked like this:
spam = 42
spam = spam + 10
cheese = 'Hello '
cheese = cheese + 'world!'
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After running the above code, spam would have the value 52 and cheese would have the value
'Hello world!'. The augmented assignment operators are a shortcut that frees you from retyping the
variable name. The following code does the exact same thing as the above code:
spam = 42
spam += 10 # Same as spam = spam + 10
cheese = 'Hello '
cheese += 'world!' # Same as cheese = cheese + 'world!'
There are other augmented assignment operators. -= will subtract a value from an integer. *= will
multiply the variable by a value. /= will divide a variable by a value. Notice that these augmented
assignment operators do the same math operations as the -, *, and / operators. Augmented assignment
operators are a neat shortcut.

Now that we have a way of creating secret numbers, we also need a way of getting the clues to show to the
player based on their guess and what the secret number is.
11. def getClues(guess, secretNum):

12. # Returns a string with the pico, fermi, bagels clues
to the user.
14. return 'You got it!'
The getClues() function will return a string with the fermi, pico, and bagels clues, depending on what
it is passed for the guess and secretNum parameters. The most obvious and easiest step is to check if the
guess is the exact same as the secret number. In that case, we can just return 'You got it!'.
16. clue = []
17.
18. for i in range(len(guess)):
19. if guess[i] == secretNum[i]:
20. clue.append('Fermi')
21. elif guess[i] in secretNum:
22. clue.append('Pico')
If the guess is not the exact same as the secret number, we need to figure out what clues to give the player.
First we'll set up a list named clue, which we will add the strings 'Fermi' and 'Pico' as needed. We
will combine the strings in this list into a single string to return.
We do this by looping through each possible index in guess and secretNum (they both are the same
size). We will assume that guess and secretNum are the same size. As the value of i changes from 0 to 1
to 2, and so on, the if statement checks if the first, second, third, etc. letter of guess is the same as the
number in the same position in secretNum. If so, we will add a string 'Fermi' to clue.
161
If that condition is False we will check if the number at the ith position in guess exists anywhere in
secretNum. If this condition is True we know that the number is somewhere in the secret number but not
in the same position. This is why we add the 'Pico' to clue.
23. if len(clue) == 0:
24. return 'Bagels'
If we go through the entire for loop above and never add anything to the clue list, then we know that
there are no correct digits at all in guess. In this case, we should just return the string 'Bagels' as our
only clue.
The sort() List Method
26. clue.sort()
Lists have a method named sort() that rearranges the items in the list to be in alphabetical order. Try
entering the following into the interactive shell:
>>> spam = [5, 3, 4, 1, 2]

>>> spam.sort()
>>> spam
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Notice that the sort() method does not return a sorted list, but rather just sorts the list it is called on "in
place". This is much like how the reverse() method works. You would never want to use this line of
code: return spam.sort() because that would return the value None (which is what sort() returns).
Instead you would want a separate line spam.sort() and then the line return spam.
The reason we want to sort the clue list is because we might return extra clues that we did not intend
based on the order of the clues. If clue referenced the list ['Pico', 'Fermi', 'Pico'], then that
would tell us that the center digit of our guess is in the correct position. Since the other two clues are both
Pico, then we know that all we have to do is swap the first and third digit and we have the secret number. But
if the clues are always sorted in alphabetical order, the player can't be sure which number the Fermi clue
refers to.
The join() String Method
27. return ' '.join(clue)
The join() string method returns a string of each item in the list argument joined together. The string
that the method is called on (on line 27, this is a single space, ' ') appears in between each item in the list.
162
So the string that is returned on line 27 is each string in clue combined together with a single space in
between each string.
For an example, enter the following into the interactive shell:
>>> 'x'.join(['hello', 'world'])

'helloxworld'
>>> 'ABCDEF'.join(['x', 'y', 'z'])
'xABCDEFyABCDEFz'
>>> ' '.join(['My', 'name', 'is', 'Sam'])
'My name is Sam'

We need a couple more functions for our game to use. The first is a function that will tell us if the guess
that the player entered is a valid integer. Remember that the input() function returns a string of whatever
the player typed in. If the player enters in anything but numbers for their guess, we want to ask the player
again for a proper guess.
The second function is something we've seen before in previous games. We want a function that will ask
the player if they want to play the game again and from the player's response, figure out if it was a Yes or No
answer.
Checking if a String Only has Numbers
29. def isOnlyDigits(num):

30. # Returns True if num is a string made up only of
digits. Otherwise returns False.
31. if num == '':
32. return False
The isOnlyDigits() is a small function that will help us determine if the player entered a guess that
was only made up of numbers. To do this, we will check each individual letter in the string named num and
make sure it is a number.
Line 31 does a quick check to see if we were sent the blank string, and if so, we return False.
34. for i in num:

35. if i not in '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'.split():
36. return False
37.
38. return True
We use a for loop on the string num. The value of i will have a single character from the num string on
each iteration. Inside the for-block, we check if i does not exist in the list returned by '0 1 2 3 4 5 6
163
7 8 9'.split(). If it doesn't, we know that there is a character in num that is something besides a
number. In that case, we should return the value False.
If execution continues past the for loop, then we know that every character in num is a number because
we did not return out of the function. In that case, we return the value True.
Finding out if the Player Wants to Play Again

The playAgain() function is the same one we used in Hangman and Tic Tac Toe. The long expression
on line 43 will evaluate to either True or False. The return value from the call to the input() function is
a string that has its lower() method called on it. The lower() method returns another string (the
lowercase string) and that string has its startswith() method called on it, passing the argument 'y'.
45. NUMDIGITS = 3
46. MAXGUESS = 10
47.
48. print('I am thinking of a %s-digit number. Try to guess
what it is.' % (NUMDIGITS))
49. print('Here are some clues:')
50. print('When I say: That means:')
51. print(' Pico One digit is correct but in the
wrong position.')
52. print(' Fermi One digit is correct and in the
right position.')
53. print(' Bagels No digit is correct.')
This is the actual start of the program. Instead of hard-coding three digits as the size of the secret number,
we will use the constant variable NUMDIGITS. And instead of hard-coding a maximum of ten guesses that
the player can make, we will use the constant variable MAXGUESS. (This is because if we increase the
number of digits the secret number has, we also might want to give the player more guesses. We put the
variable names in all capitals to show they are meant to be constant.)
The print() function call will tell the player the rules of the game and what the Pico, Fermi, and Bagels
clues mean. Line 48's print() call has % (NUMDIGITS) added to the end and %s inside the string. This
is a technique know as string interpolation.
164
String Interpolation
String interpolation is another shortcut, like augmented assignment operators. Normally, if you want to use
the string values inside variables in another string, you have to use the + concatenation operator:
>>> name = 'Alice'

>>> event = 'party'
>>> where = 'the pool'
>>> when = 'Saturday'
>>> time = '6:00pm'
>>> print('Hello, ' + name + '. Will you go to the ' + event +
' at ' + where + ' this ' + when + ' at ' + time + '?')
Hello, Alice. Will you go to the party at the pool this
Saturday at 6:00pm?
>>>
As you can see, it can be very hard to type a line that concatenates several strings together. Instead, you
can use string interpolation, which lets you put placeholders like %s (these placeholders are called
conversion specifiers), and then put all the variable names at the end. Each %s is replaced with the value
in the variable at the end of the line. For example, the following code does the same thing as the above code:
name = 'Alice'
event = 'party'
where = 'the pool'
when = 'Saturday'
time = '6:00pm'
print('Hello, %s. Will you go to the %s at %s this %s at %s?'
% (name, event, where, when, time))
Hello, Alice. Will you go to the party at the pool this
Saturday at 6:00pm?
>>>
String interpolation can make your code much easier to type and read, rather than using several +
concatenation operators.
The final line has the print() call with a string with conversion specifiers, followed by the % sign,
followed by a set of parentheses with the variables in them. The first variable name will be used for the first
%s, the second variable with the second %s and so on. The Python interpreter will give you an error if you do
not have the same number of %s conversion specifiers as you have variables.
Another benefit of using string interpolation instead of string concatenation is that interpolation works with
any data type, not just strings. All values are automatically converted to the string data type. (This is what the
s in %s stands for.) If you typed this code into the shell, you'd get an error:
>>> spam = 42
>>> print('Spam == ' + spam)
165
TypeError: Can't convert 'int' object to str implicitly
>>>
You get this error because string concatenation can only combine two strings, and spam is an integer. You
would have to remember to put str(spam) in there instead. But with string interpolation, you can have any
data type. Try entering this into the shell:
>>> spam = 42
>>> print('Spam == %s' % (spam))
Spam == 42
>>>
As you can see, using string interpolation instead of string concatenation is much easier because you don't
have to worry about the data type of the variable. Also, string interpolation can be done on any strings, not
just strings used in print() function calls.
String interpolation is also known as string formatting.

Now that the program has displayed the rules to Bagels to the player, the program will randomly create a
secret number and then enter a loop where it repeatedly asks for the player's guesses until she has either
correctly guessed the secret number, or has run out of guesses. After that, we will ask the player if she wants
to play again.
Creating the Secret Number
55. while True:

56. secretNum = getSecretNum(NUMDIGITS)
57. print('I have thought up a number. You have %s guesses
to get it.' % (MAXGUESS))
58.
59. numGuesses = 1
60. while numGuesses <= MAXGUESS:
We start with a while loop that has a condition of True, meaning it will loop forever until we execute a
break statement. Inside the infinite loop, we get a secret number from our getSecretNum() function
(passing it NUMDIGITS to tell how many digits we want the secret number to have) and assign it to
secretNum. Remember that secretNum is a string, not an integer.
We tell the player how many digits is in our secret number by using string interpolation instead of string
concatenation. We set a variable numGuesses to 1, to denote that this is the first guess. Then we enter a
new while loop which will keep looping as long as numGuesses is less than or equal to MAXGUESS.
166
Getting the Player's Guess
Notice that this second while loop on line 60 is inside another while loop that started on line 55.
Whenever we have these loops-inside-loops, we call them nested loops. You should know that any break
or continue statements will only break or continue out of the innermost loop, and not any of the outer
loops.
61. guess = ''

62. while len(guess) != NUMDIGITS or not isOnlyDigits
(guess):
63. print('Guess #%s: ' % (numGuesses))
64. guess = input()
The guess variable will hold the player's guess. We will keep looping and asking the player for a guess
until the player enters a guess that has the same number of digits as the secret number and is made up only of
digits. This is what the while loop on line 62 is for. We set guess as the blank string on line 61 so that the
while loop's condition is False the first time, ensuring that we enter the loop at least once.
Getting the Clues for the Player's Guess
66. clue = getClues(guess, secretNum)

67. print(clue)
68. numGuesses += 1
After execution gets past the while loop on line 62, we know that guess contains a valid guess. We pass
this and the secret number in secretNum to our getClues() function. It returns a string that contains our
clues, which we will display to the player. We then increment numGuesses by 1 using the augmented
assignment operator for addition.
Checking if the Player Won or Lost

71. break
72. if numGuesses > MAXGUESS:
73. print('You ran out of guesses. The answer was
%s.' % (secretNum))
If guess is the same value as secretNum, then we know the player has correctly guessed the secret
number and we can break out of this loop (the while loop that was started on line 60). If not, then execution
continues to line 72, where we check to see if the player ran out of guesses. If so, then we tell the player that
they have lost and what the secret number was. We know that the condition for the while loop on line 55
will be False, so there is no need for a break statement.
167
At this point, execution jumps back to the while loop on line 60 where we let the player have another
guess. If the player ran out of guesses (or we broke out of the loop with the break statement on line 71),
then execution would proceed to line 75.

76. break
After leaving the while loop on line 60, we ask the player if want to play again by calling our
playAgain() function. If playAgain() returns False, then we should break out of the while loop
that was started on line 55. Since there is no more code after this loop, the program terminates.
If playAgain() returned True, then we would not execute the break statement and execution would
jump back to line 55. A new secret number would be generated so that the player can play a new game.
Summary: Getting Good at Bagels

Bagels is a fairly simple game to program but can be difficult to win at. But if you keep playing, you will
eventually discover better ways to guess and make use of the clues the game gives you.
This chapter introduced a few new functions and methods (random.shuffle(), sort(), and join
()), along with a couple handy shortcuts. Using the augmented assignment operators involve less typing
when you want to change a variable's relative value (such as in spam = spam + 1, which can be shortend
to spam += 1). String interpolation can make your code much more readable by placing %s (called a
conversion specifier) inside the string instead of using many string concatenation operations.
The join() string method is passed a list of strings that will be concatenated together, with the original
associated string in between them. For example, 'X'.join( ['hello', 'world', 'yay'] ) will
evaluate to the string, 'helloXworldXyay'.
The sort() list method will rearrange the items in the list to be in alphabetical order.
The append() list method will add a value to the end of the associated list. If spam contains the list
['a', 'b', 'c'], then calling spam.append('d') will change the list in spam to be ['a',
'b', 'c', 'd'].
The next chapter is not about programming directly, but will be necessary for the games we want to create
in the later chapters of this book. We will learn about the math concepts of Cartesian coordinates and
negative numbers. These will be used in the Sonar, Reversi, and Dodger games, but Cartesian coordinates
and negative numbers are used in almost all games (especially graphical games). If you already know about
these concepts, give the next chapter a brief reading anyway just to freshen up. Let's dive in!
168
• Cartesian coordinate systems.
• The X-axis and Y-axis.
• The Commutative Property of Addition.
• Absolute values and the abs() function.
This chapter does not introduce a new game, but instead goes over some simple mathematical concepts
that we will use in the rest of the games in this book.
When you look at 2D games (such as Tetris or old Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis games) you can see
that most of the graphics on the screen can move left or right (the first dimension) and up or down (the
second dimension, hence 2D). In order for us to create games that have objects moving around two
dimensions (such as the two dimensional computer screen), we need a system that can translate a place on the
screen to integers that our program can deal with.
This is where Cartesian coordinate systems come in. The coordinates can point to a very specific point on
the screen so that our program can keep track of different areas on the screen.
Negative numbers are often used with Cartesian coordinate systems as well. The second half of this
chapter will explain how we can do math with negative numbers.
You may already know about Cartesian coordinate systems and negative numbers from math class. In that
case, you can just give this chapter a quick read anyway to refresh yourself.
Grids and Cartesian Coordinates

A problem in many games is how to talk about exact points on the board. A common way of solving this is
by marking each individual row and column on a board with a letter and a number. Figure 11-1 is a chess
board that has each row and each column marked.
169
In chess, the knight piece looks like a horse. The white
knight is located at the point e, 6 and the black knight is
located at point a, 4. We can also see that every space on row 7
and every space in column c is empty.
A grid with labeled rows and columns like the chess board is
a Cartesian coordinate system. By using a row label and
column label, we can give a coordinate that is for one and only
one space on the board. This can really help us describe to a
computer the exact location we want. If you have learned
about Cartesian coordinate systems in math class, you may
know that usually we have numbers for both the rows and
columns. This is handy, because otherwise after the 26th
column we would run out of letters. That board would look
like Figure 11-2.
The numbers going left and right that describe the columns
are part of the X-axis. The numbers going up and down that
Figure 11-1: A sample chessboard with a
describe the rows are part of the Y-axis. When we describe black knight at a, 4 and a white knight at e, 6.
coordinates, we always say the X coordinate first, followed by
the Y coordinate. That means the white knight in the above picture is located at the coordinate 5, 6 (and not 6,
5). The black knight is located at the coordinate 1, 4 (not to be confused with 4, 1).
Notice that for the black knight to move to the white knight's
position, the black knight must move up two spaces, and then
to the right by four spaces. (Or move right four spaces and then
move up two spaces.) But we don't need to look at the board to
figure this out. If we know the white knight is located at 5, 6
and the black knight is located at 1, 4, then we can just use
subtraction to figure out this information.
Subtract the black knight's X coordinate and white knight's

X coordinate: 5 - 1 = 4. That means the black knight has to
move along the X-axis by four spaces.
Subtract the black knight's Y coordinate and white knight's

Y coordinate: 6 - 4 = 2. That means the black knight has to
move along the Y-axis by two spaces.
Negative Numbers Figure 11-2: The same chessboard but with

numeric coordinates for both rows and columns.
Another concept that Cartesian coordinates use is negative

numbers. Negative numbers are numbers that are smaller than zero. We put a minus sign in front of a
number to show that it is a negative number. -1 is smaller than 0. -2 is smaller than -1. -3 is smaller than -2. If
you think of regular numbers (called positive numbers) as starting from 1 and increasing, you can think of
negative numbers as starting from -1 and decreasing. 0 itself is not positive or negative. In this picture, you
can see the positive numbers increasing to the right and the negative numbers decreasing to the left:
170
Figure 11-3: A number line.
The number line is really useful for doing subtraction and addition with negative numbers. The expression
4 + 3 can be thought of as the white knight starting at position 4 and moving 3 spaces over to the right
(addition means increasing, which is in the right direction).
Figure 11-4: Moving the white knight to the right adds to the coordinate.
As you can see, the white knight ends up at position 7. This makes sense, because 4 + 3 is 7.
Subtraction can be done by moving the white knight to the left. Subtraction means decreasing, which is in
the left direction. 4 - 6 would be the white knight starting at position 4 and moving 6 spaces to the left:
Figure 11-5: Moving the white knight to the left subtracts from the coordinate.
The white knight ends up at position -2. That means 4 - 6 equals -2.
If we add or subtract a negative number, the white knight would move in the opposite direction. If you add
a negative number, the knight moves to the left. If you subtract a negative number, the knight moves to the
right. The expression -6 - -4 would be equal to -2. The knight starts at -6 and moves to the right by 4 spaces.
Notice that -6 - -4 has the same answer as -6 + 4.
Figure 11-6: Even if the white knight starts at a negative coordinate, moving right still adds to the coordinate.
171
The number line is the same as the X-axis. If we made the number line go up and down instead of left and
right, it would model the Y-axis. Adding a positive number (or subtracting a negative number) would move
the knight up the number line, and subtracting a positive number (or adding a negative number) would move
the knight down. When we put these two number lines together, we have a Cartesian coordinate system.
Figure 11-7: Putting two number lines together creates a Cartesian coordinate system.
The 0, 0 coordinate has a special name: the origin.
Changing the Signs

Subtracting negative numbers or adding negative numbers seems easy when you have a number line in
front of you, but it can be easy when you only have the numbers too. Here are three tricks you can do to make
evaluating these expressions by yourself easier to do.
Trick 1: "A Minus Eats the Plus Sign on its Left"

The first is if you are adding a negative number, for example; 4 + -2. The first trick is "a minus eats the
plus sign on its left". When you see a minus sign with a plus sign on the left, you can replace the plus sign
with a minus sign. The answer is still the same, because adding a negative value is the same as subtracting a
positive value. 4 + -2 and 4 - 2 both evaluate to 2.
Figure 11-8: Adding a positive and negative number.
172
Trick 2: "Two Minuses Combine Into a Plus"
The second trick is if you are subtracting a negative number, for example, 4 - -2. The second trick is "two
minuses combine into a plus". When you see the two minus signs next to each other without a number in
between them, they can combine into a plus sign. The answer is still the same, because subtracting a negative
value is the same as adding a positive value.
Figure 11-9: Subtracting a positive and negative number.
Trick 3: The Commutative Property of Addition

A third trick is to remember that when you add two numbers like 6 and 4, it doesn't matter what order they
are in. (This is called the commutative property of addition.) That means that 6 + 4 and 4 + 6 both equal
the same value, 10. If you count the boxes in the figure below, you can see that it doesn't matter what order
you have the numbers for addition.
Figure 11-10: The commutative property of addition.
Say you are adding a negative number and a positive number, like -6 + 8. Because you are adding
numbers, you can swap the order of the numbers without changing the answer. -6 + 8 is the same as 8 + -6.
But when you look at 8 + -6, you see that the minus sign can eat the plus sign to its left, and the problem
becomes 8 - 6 = 2. But this means that -6 + 8 is also 2! We've rearranged the problem to have the same
answer, but made it easier for us to solve without using a calculator or the computer.
173
Figure 11-11: Using our math tricks together.
Of course, you can always use the interactive shell as a calculator to evaluate these expressions. It is still
very useful to know the above three tricks when adding or subtracting negative numbers. After all, you won't
always be in front of a computer with Python all the time!
>>> 4 + -2
2
>>> -4 + 2
-2
>>> -4 + -2
-6
>>> 4 - -2
6
>>> -4 - 2
-6
>>> -4 - -2
-2
>>>
Absolute Values and the abs() Function

The absolute value of a number is the number without the negative sign in front of it. This means that
positive numbers do not change, but negative numbers become positive. For example, the absolute value of -
4 is 4. The absolute value of -7 is 7. The absolute value of 5 (which is positive) is 5.
We can find how far away two things on a number line are from each other by taking the absolute value of
their difference. Imagine that the white knight is at position 4 and the black knight is at position -2. To find
out the distance between them, you would find the difference by subtracting their positions and taking the
absolute value of that number.
It works no matter what the order of the numbers is. -2 - 4 (that is, negative two minus four) is -6, and the
absolute value of -6 is 6. However, 4 - -2 (that is, four minus negative two) is 6, and the absolute value of 6 is
6. Using the absolute value of the difference is a good way of finding the distance between two points on a
number line (or axis).
174
The abs() function can be used to return the absolute value of an integer. The abs() function is a built-
in function, so you do not need to import any modules to use it. Pass it an integer or float value and it will
return the absolute value:
>>> abs(-5)
5
>>> abs(42)
42
>>> abs(-10.5)
10.5
Coordinate System of a Computer Monitor

It is common that computer monitors use a
coordinate system that has the origin (0, 0) at the
top left corner of the screen, which increases going
down and to the right. There are no negative
coordinates. This is because text is printed starting
at the top left, and is printed going to the right and
downwards. Most computer graphics use this
coordinate system, and we will use it in our games.
Also it is common to assume that monitors can
display 80 text characters per row and 25 text
characters per column (look at Figure 11-12). This
used to be the maximum screen size that monitors
could support. While today's monitors can usually
display much more text, we will not assume that the
user's screen is bigger than 80 by 25.
Summary: Using this Math in

Games Figure 11-12: The Cartesian coordinate system on a computer monitor.
This hasn't been too much math to learn for programming. In fact, most programming does not require
understanding a lot of math. Up until this chapter, we have been getting by on simple addition and
multiplication.
Cartesian coordinate systems are needed to describe exactly where in a two dimensional area a certain
position is. Coordinates are made up of two numbers: the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate. The X-axis runs
left and right and the Y-axis runs up and down. On a computer screen (and in most computer programming),
the X-axis starts at 0 at the top and increases on the way down. The Y-axis starts at 0 on the left side and
increases on the way to the right.
The three tricks we learned in this chapter make it very easy to add positive and negative integers. The first
trick is that a minus sign will eat the plus sign on its left. The second trick is that two minuses next to each
other will combine into a plus sign. And the third trick is that you can swap the position of the numbers you
are adding. This is called the commutative property of addition.
For the rest of the book, we will use the concepts we learned in this chapter in our games because they
have two dimensional areas in them. All graphical games also require understanding how Cartesian
coordinates work.
175
• Data structures.
• The remove() list method.
• The isdigit() string method.
• The sys.exit() function.
The game in this chapter only introduces a couple new helpful methods that come with Python, the
remove() list method and the isdigit() string method. But this is the first program which will make
use of Cartesian coordinates and the mathematical concepts we learned in chapter 11. This program will also
use make use of data structures (which is really just a fancy way of saying variables that contain lists of lists.)
As our games become more complicated, we will need to store our data in well-organized ways.
Sonar is a technology that ships use to locate objects under the sea. In this chapter's game, the player places
sonar devices at various places in the ocean to locate sunken treasure chests. The sonar devices in our game
can tell the player how far away a treasure chest is from the sonar device, but not in what direction. But by
placing multiple sonar devices down, the player can figure out where exactly the treasure chest is. There are
three chests to collect, but the player has only sixteen sonar devices to use to find them. Imagine that we
could not see the treasure chest (the red dot) in the following picture. Because each sonar device can only
find the distance but not direction, the possible places the treasure could be is anywhere in a ring around the
sonar device:
176
Figure 12-1: The first sonar device shows a blue ring of possible places the treasure could be located.
But if we have multiple sonar devices working together, we can narrow it down to an exact place where all
the rings intersect each other:
Figure 12-2: Combining the rings of all three sonar devices shows only one possible place for the treasure.
Sample Run
S O N A R !
Would you like to view the instructions? (yes/no)

no
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 `~~~`~~~`~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~`~`~~~`~``~``~~````~`~```~`~~~~`` 0
1 ~`~~~```~~~~`~`~~`~``~`~~```~`~`~~`~`~~~~~~`~`````~`~~`~~~~` 1
2 `~``~``~~~`~``~`~`~``~`````~~~~~~~~~`~`~~`~``~~~~~```~~`~``` 2
3 ``~`~~``~`~``~`~`~`~~`~`~~`~`~``~~~`~``~````~``````~~~~``~`` 3
4 ``~~`~~~``~``~~````~`~`~`~``~~~``~~```~`~~`~~`~`~`~~`~~~~``` 4
5 ~~```~~~`~`~~``~`~``~```~`~~`~~~~~`~~``~`~`~~~`~~`~`~`~`~~~` 5
6 ``~~`````~~~~`~`~~~```~~~~`~~`~~`~~```~~`~~~`~~~``~`~~~``~~~ 6
7 `~`````````~```~``~``~~`~~~~`~~``~``~~~```~`~~`~``~``~~```~~ 7
8 `~````~```~`~~`~~~`~~``~~~``~`~``~~~``~`~`````~`~~```~`~~~~` 8
9 ~```~~`~`~``~``~~``~``~```~`~``~~~~`~`~`~~~`~`~`~`~~~``~~``` 9
10 ```~`~```~``~``~`~~`~``~````~``~~~`~~`~~``~~~~`~~~`~`~~````~ 10
177
11 ```~```~~~`~```~~`~~~`~`````~`~~`~`~~`~~`~`~~`~~~````~````~` 11
12 ~~~`~`~~~``~~~~~~`~~~``~`~`~~`~`~~`~```~~~```~~`~~`~``~``~`~ 12
13 `~~````~~``~```~~~`~```~`~~~~~~~~~`~~``~~~~~`````~`~`~``~~~~ 13
14 `~~`~`~````~```~`~`~```~~`~~~~`~```~``~``~``~~~````~~``````~ 14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
You have 16 sonar devices left. 3 treasure chests remaining.
Where do you want to drop the next sonar device? (0-59 0-14) (or type quit)
10 10
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 `~~~`~~~`~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~`~`~~~`~``~``~~````~`~```~`~~~~`` 0
1 ~`~~~```~~~~`~`~~`~``~`~~```~`~`~~`~`~~~~~~`~`````~`~~`~~~~` 1
2 `~``~``~~~`~``~`~`~``~`````~~~~~~~~~`~`~~`~``~~~~~```~~`~``` 2
3 ``~`~~``~`~``~`~`~`~~`~`~~`~`~``~~~`~``~````~``````~~~~``~`` 3
4 ``~~`~~~``~``~~````~`~`~`~``~~~``~~```~`~~`~~`~`~`~~`~~~~``` 4
5 ~~```~~~`~`~~``~`~``~```~`~~`~~~~~`~~``~`~`~~~`~~`~`~`~`~~~` 5
6 ``~~`````~~~~`~`~~~```~~~~`~~`~~`~~```~~`~~~`~~~``~`~~~``~~~ 6
7 `~`````````~```~``~``~~`~~~~`~~``~``~~~```~`~~`~``~``~~```~~ 7
8 `~````~```~`~~`~~~`~~``~~~``~`~``~~~``~`~`````~`~~```~`~~~~` 8
9 ~```~~`~`~``~``~~``~``~```~`~``~~~~`~`~`~~~`~`~`~`~~~``~~``` 9
10 ```~`~```~5`~``~`~~`~``~````~``~~~`~~`~~``~~~~`~~~`~`~~````~ 10
11 ```~```~~~`~```~~`~~~`~`````~`~~`~`~~`~~`~`~~`~~~````~````~` 11
12 ~~~`~`~~~``~~~~~~`~~~``~`~`~~`~`~~`~```~~~```~~`~~`~``~``~`~ 12
13 `~~````~~``~```~~~`~```~`~~~~~~~~~`~~``~~~~~`````~`~`~``~~~~ 13
14 `~~`~`~````~```~`~`~```~~`~~~~`~```~``~``~``~~~````~~``````~ 14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
Treasure detected at a distance of 5 from the sonar device.
15 6
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 `~~~`~~~`~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~`~`~~~`~``~``~~````~`~```~`~~~~`` 0
1 ~`~~~```~~~~`~`~~`~``~`~~```~`~`~~`~`~~~~~~`~`````~`~~`~~~~` 1
2 `~``~``~~~`~``~`~`~``~`````~~~~~~~~~`~`~~`~``~~~~~```~~`~``` 2
3 ``~`~~``~`~``~`~`~`~~`~`~~`~`~``~~~`~``~````~``````~~~~``~`` 3
4 ``~~`~~~``~``~~````~`~`~`~``~~~``~~```~`~~`~~`~`~`~~`~~~~``` 4
5 ~~```~~~`~`~~``~`~``~```~`~~`~~~~~`~~``~`~`~~~`~~`~`~`~`~~~` 5
6 ``~~`````~~~~`~4~~~```~~~~`~~`~~`~~```~~`~~~`~~~``~`~~~``~~~ 6
7 `~`````````~```~``~``~~`~~~~`~~``~``~~~```~`~~`~``~``~~```~~ 7
8 `~````~```~`~~`~~~`~~``~~~``~`~``~~~``~`~`````~`~~```~`~~~~` 8
9 ~```~~`~`~``~``~~``~``~```~`~``~~~~`~`~`~~~`~`~`~`~~~``~~``` 9
10 ```~`~```~5`~``~`~~`~``~````~``~~~`~~`~~``~~~~`~~~`~`~~````~ 10
11 ```~```~~~`~```~~`~~~`~`````~`~~`~`~~`~~`~`~~`~~~````~````~` 11
12 ~~~`~`~~~``~~~~~~`~~~``~`~`~~`~`~~`~```~~~```~~`~~`~``~``~`~ 12
13 `~~````~~``~```~~~`~```~`~~~~~~~~~`~~``~~~~~`````~`~`~``~~~~ 13
14 `~~`~`~````~```~`~`~```~~`~~~~`~```~``~``~``~~~````~~``````~ 14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
15 10
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 `~~~`~~~`~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~`~`~~~`~``~``~~````~`~```~`~~~~`` 0
1 ~`~~~```~~~~`~`~~`~``~`~~```~`~`~~`~`~~~~~~`~`````~`~~`~~~~` 1
2 `~``~``~~~`~``~`~`~``~`````~~~~~~~~~`~`~~`~``~~~~~```~~`~``` 2
3 ``~`~~``~`~``~`~`~`~~`~`~~`~`~``~~~`~``~````~``````~~~~``~`` 3
4 ``~~`~~~``~``~~````~`~`~`~``~~~``~~```~`~~`~~`~`~`~~`~~~~``` 4
5 ~~```~~~`~`~~``~`~``~```~`~~`~~~~~`~~``~`~`~~~`~~`~`~`~`~~~` 5
6 ``~~`````~~~~`~O~~~```~~~~`~~`~~`~~```~~`~~~`~~~``~`~~~``~~~ 6
178
7 `~`````````~```~``~``~~`~~~~`~~``~``~~~```~`~~`~``~``~~```~~ 7
8 `~````~```~`~~`~~~`~~``~~~``~`~``~~~``~`~`````~`~~```~`~~~~` 8
9 ~```~~`~`~``~``~~``~``~```~`~``~~~~`~`~`~~~`~`~`~`~~~``~~``` 9
10 ```~`~```~O`~`Ò`~~`~``~````~``~~~`~~`~~``~~~~`~~~`~`~~````~ 10
11 ```~```~~~`~```~~`~~~`~`````~`~~`~`~~`~~`~`~~`~~~````~````~` 11
12 ~~~`~`~~~``~~~~~~`~~~``~`~`~~`~`~~`~```~~~```~~`~~`~``~``~`~ 12
13 `~~````~~``~```~~~`~```~`~~~~~~~~~`~~``~~~~~`````~`~`~``~~~~ 13
14 `~~`~`~````~```~`~`~```~~`~~~~`~```~``~``~``~~~````~~``````~ 14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
You have found a sunken treasure chest!
...skipped over for brevity....
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 `~~~`~~~`~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~`~`~~~`~``~``~~````~`~```~`~~~~`` 0
1 ~`~~~```~~~~`~`~~`~``~`~~```~O~`~~`~`~~~~~~`~`````~`~~`~~~~` 1
2 `~``~``~~~`~``~`~`~``~`````~~O~~~O~~`~`~~`~``~~~~~```~~`~``` 2
3 ``~3~~``8`~``~`~`~`~~`~`~~`~`~``~~~`~Ò~````~``````~~~~``~`` 3
4 ``~~`~~~``~``~~````~`~`~`~O`~~O``~~```~`~~`~~`~`~`~~`~~~~``` 4
5 ~~```~~~`~`~~``~`~``~```~`~~`~~~~~`~~``~`~`~~~`~~`~`~`~`~~~` 5
6 ``~~`````~~~~`~O~~~```~~~~`~~`~~`~~```~~`~~~`~~~`Ò`~~~``~~~ 6
7 `~`````````~```~``~``~~`~~~~`~~``~``~~~```~`~~`~``~``~~```~~ 7
8 `~````~```~`~~`~~~`~~``~~~``~`~``~~~``~Ò```0`~`~~```~`~~~~` 8
9 ~```~~`~`~``~``~~``~``~```~O~``~~~~`~`~`~~~`~`~`~`~~~``~~``` 9
10 ```~`~```~O`~`Ò`~~`~``~````~``~~~`~~`~~``~~~~`~~~`~`~~````~ 10
11 ```~```~~~`~```~~`~~~`~`````~`~~`~`~~`~~`~`~~`~~~````~````~` 11
12 ~~~`~`~~~``~~~~~~`~~~``~`~`~~`~`~~`~```~~~```~~`~~`~``~``~`~ 12
13 `~~````~~``~```~~~`~```~`~~~~~~~~~`~~``~~~~~`````~`~`~``~~~~ 13
14 `~~`~`~````~```~`~`~```~~`~~~~`~```~``~``~``~~~````~~``````~ 14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
We've run out of sonar devices! Now we have to turn the ship around and head
for home with treasure chests still out there! Game over.
The remaining chests were here:
0, 4
no
Sonar's Source Code

Knowing about Cartesian coordinates, number lines, negative numbers, and absolute values will help us
out with our Sonar game. If you do not think you understand these concepts, go back to chapter 11 to brush
up. Below is the source code for the game. Type it into a new file, then save the file as sonar.py and run it by
pressing the F5 key. You do not need to understand the code to type it in or play the game, the source code
will be explained later.
Also, you can download the source code from the book's website at the URL
sonar.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/sonar.py
http://inventwithpython.com/diff or email the author 179
at al@inventwithpython.com
1. # Sonar
2.
3. import random
4. import sys
5.
7. # Draw the board data structure.
8.
9. hline = ' ' # initial space for the numbers down
the left side of the board
11. hline += (' ' * 9) + str(i)
12.
13. # print the numbers across the top
14. print(hline)
15. print(' ' + ('0123456789' * 6))
16. print()
17.
18. # print each of the 15 rows
19. for i in range(15):
20. # single-digit numbers need to be padded with an
extra space
21. if i < 10:
22. extraSpace = ' '
23. else:
24. extraSpace = ''
25. print('%s%s %s %s' % (extraSpace, i, getRow(board,
i), i))
26.
27. # print the numbers across the bottom
28. print()
29. print(' ' + ('0123456789' * 6))
30. print(hline)
31.
32.
33. def getRow(board, row):
34. # Return a string from the board data structure at a
certain row.
35. boardRow = ''
37. boardRow += board[i][row]
38. return boardRow
39.
40. def getNewBoard():
41. # Create a new 60x15 board data structure.
42. board = []
43. for x in range(60): # the main list is a list of 60
lists
44. board.append([])
45. for y in range(15): # each list in the main list
has 15 single-character strings
180
46. # use different characters for the ocean to
make it more readable.
48. board[x].append('~')
49. else:
50. board[x].append('`')
51. return board
52.
53. def getRandomChests(numChests):
54. # Create a list of chest data structures (two-item
lists of x, y int coordinates)
55. chests = []
56. for i in range(numChests):
57. chests.append([random.randint(0, 59),
random.randint(0, 14)])
58. return chests
59.
60. def isValidMove(x, y):
61. # Return True if the coordinates are on the board,
otherwise False.
62. return x >= 0 and x <= 59 and y >= 0 and y <= 14
63.
64. def makeMove(board, chests, x, y):
65. # Change the board data structure with a sonar device
character. Remove treasure chests
66. # from the chests list as they are found. Return False
if this is an invalid move.
67. # Otherwise, return the string of the result of this
move.
68. if not isValidMove(x, y):
69. return False
70.
71. smallestDistance = 100 # any chest will be closer than
100.
72. for cx, cy in chests:
73. if abs(cx - x) > abs(cy - y):
74. distance = abs(cx - x)
75. else:
76. distance = abs(cy - y)
77.
78. if distance < smallestDistance: # we want the
closest treasure chest.
79. smallestDistance = distance
80.
81. if smallestDistance == 0:
82. # xy is directly on a treasure chest!
83. chests.remove([x, y])
84. return 'You have found a sunken treasure chest!'
85. else:
86. if smallestDistance < 10:
87. board[x][y] = str(smallestDistance)
181
88. return 'Treasure detected at a distance of %s
from the sonar device.' % (smallestDistance)
89. else:
90. board[x][y] = 'O'
91. return 'Sonar did not detect anything. All
treasure chests out of range.'
92.
93.
94. def enterPlayerMove():
95. # Let the player type in her move. Return a two-item
list of int xy coordinates.
96. print('Where do you want to drop the next sonar
device? (0-59 0-14) (or type quit)')
97. while True:
98. move = input()
99. if move.lower() == 'quit':
100. print('Thanks for playing!')
101. sys.exit()
102.
103. move = move.split()
104. if len(move) == 2 and move[0].isdigit() and move
[1].isdigit() and isValidMove(int(move[0]), int(move[1])):
105. return [int(move[0]), int(move[1])]
106. print('Enter a number from 0 to 59, a space, then
a number from 0 to 14.')
107.
108.
113.
114.
115. def showInstructions():
116. print('''Instructions:
117. You are the captain of the Simon, a treasure-hunting ship.
Your current mission
118. is to find the three sunken treasure chests that are
lurking in the part of the
119. ocean you are in and collect them.
120.
121. To play, enter the coordinates of the point in the ocean
you wish to drop a
122. sonar device. The sonar can find out how far away the
closest chest is to it.
123. For example, the d below marks where the device was
dropped, and the 2's
124. represent distances of 2 away from the device. The 4's
represent
125. distances of 4 away from the device.
182
126.
127. 444444444
128. 4 4
129. 4 22222 4
130. 4 2 2 4
131. 4 2 d 2 4
132. 4 2 2 4
133. 4 22222 4
134. 4 4
135. 444444444
136. Press enter to continue...''')
137. input()
138.
139. print('''For example, here is a treasure chest (the c)
located a distance of 2 away
140. from the sonar device (the d):
141.
142. 22222
143. c 2
144. 2 d 2
145. 2 2
146. 22222
147.
148. The point where the device was dropped will be marked with
a 2.
149.
150. The treasure chests don't move around. Sonar devices can
detect treasure
151. chests up to a distance of 9. If all chests are out of
range, the point
152. will be marked with O
153.
154. If a device is directly dropped on a treasure chest, you
have discovered
155. the location of the chest, and it will be collected. The
sonar device will
156. remain there.
157.
158. When you collect a chest, all sonar devices will update to
locate the next
159. closest sunken treasure chest.
161. input()
162. print()
163.
164.
165. print('S O N A R !')
166. print()
167. print('Would you like to view the instructions? (yes/no)')
168. if input().lower().startswith('y'):
169. showInstructions()
183
170.
171. while True:
172. # game setup
173. sonarDevices = 16
174. theBoard = getNewBoard()
175. theChests = getRandomChests(3)
177. previousMoves = []
178.
179. while sonarDevices > 0:
180. # Start of a turn:
181.
182. # sonar device/chest status
183. if sonarDevices > 1: extraSsonar = 's'
184. else: extraSsonar = ''
185. if len(theChests) > 1: extraSchest = 's'
186. else: extraSchest = ''
187. print('You have %s sonar device%s left. %s
treasure chest%s remaining.' % (sonarDevices, extraSsonar,
len(theChests), extraSchest))
188.
189. x, y = enterPlayerMove()
190. previousMoves.append([x, y]) # we must track all
moves so that sonar devices can be updated.
191.
192. moveResult = makeMove(theBoard, theChests, x, y)
193. if moveResult == False:
194. continue
195. else:
196. if moveResult == 'You have found a sunken
treasure chest!':
197. # update all the sonar devices currently
on the map.
198. for x, y in previousMoves:
199. makeMove(theBoard, theChests, x, y)
201. print(moveResult)
202.
203. if len(theChests) == 0:
204. print('You have found all the sunken treasure
chests! Congratulations and good game!')
205. break
206.
207. sonarDevices -= 1
208.
209. if sonarDevices == 0:
210. print('We\'ve run out of sonar devices! Now we
have to turn the ship around and head')
211. print('for home with treasure chests still out
there! Game over.')
212. print(' The remaining chests were here:')
184
213. for x, y in theChests:
214. print(' %s, %s' % (x, y))
215.
217. sys.exit()

Sonar is kind of complicated, so it might be better to type in the game's code and play it a few times first to
understand what is going on. After you've played the game a few times, you can kind of get an idea of the
sequence of events in this game.
The Sonar game uses lists of lists and other complicated variables. These complicated variables are known
as data structures. Data structures will let us store nontrivial arrangements of values in a single variable.
We will use data structures for the Sonar board and the locations of the treasure chests. One example of a
data structure was the board variable in the Tic Tac Toe chapter.
It is also helpful to write out the things we need our program to do, and come up with some function names
that will handle these actions. Remember to name functions after what they specifically do. Otherwise we
might end up forgetting a function, or typing in two different functions that do the same thing.
Table 12-1: A list of each function the Sonar game needs.

The function that will do
What the code should do.
it.
Prints the game board on the screen based on the board data structure it is
drawBoard()
passed, including the coordinates along the top, bottom, and left and right sides.
Create a fresh board data structure. getNewBoard()
Create a fresh chests data structure that has a number of chests randomly
getRandomChests()
scattered across the game board.
Check that the XY coordinates that are passed to this function are located on the
isValidMove()
game board or not.
Let the player type in the XY coordinates of his next move, and keep asking
enterPlayerMove()
until they type in the coordinates correctly.
Place a sonar device on the game board, and update the board data structure
makeMove()
then return a string that describes what happened.
Ask the player if they want to play another game of Sonar. playAgain()
showInstructions
Print out instructions for the game.
()
These might not be all of the functions we need, but a list like this is a good idea to help you get started
with programming your own games. For example, when we are writing the drawBoard() function in the
Sonar game, we figure out that we also need a getRow() function. Writing out a function once and then
calling it twice is preferable to writing out the code twice. The whole point of functions is to reduce duplicate
code down to one place, so if we ever need to make changes to that code we only need to change one place in
our program.
185
1. # Sonar
2.
3. import random
4. import sys
Here we import two modules, random and sys. The sys module contains the exit() function, which
causes the program to immediately terminate. We will call this function later in our program.
Drawing the Game Board
The back tick (`) and tilde (~) characters are located next to the 1 key on your keyboard. They resemble the
waves of the ocean. Somewhere in this ocean are three treasure chests, but you don't know where. Figure it
out by planting sonar devices, and tell the game program where by typing in the X and Y coordinates (which
are printed on the four sides of the screen.)
The drawBoard() function is the first function we will define for our program. The sonar game's board
is an ASCII-art ocean with coordinates going along the X- and Y-axis, and looks like this:
1 2 3 4 5
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0
~~~`~``~~~``~~~~``~`~`~`~`~~`~~~`~~`~``````~~`~``~`~~```~`~` 0
1
`~`~````~~``~`~```~```~```~`~~~``~~`~~~``````~`~``~~``~~`~~` 1
2
```~~~~`~`~~```~~~``~````~~`~`~~`~`~`~```~~`~``~~`~`~~~~~~`~ 2
3
~~~~`~~~``~```~``~~`~`~~`~`~~``~````~`~````~```~`~`~`~`````~ 3
4
~```~~~~~`~~````~~~~```~~~`~`~`~````~`~~`~`~~``~~`~``~`~``~~ 4
5
`~```~`~`~~`~~~```~~``~``````~~``~`~`~~~~`~~``~~~~~~`~```~~` 5
6
``~~`~~`~``~`````~````~~``~`~~~~`~~```~~~``~`~`~~``~~~```~~~ 6
7
``~``~~~~~~```~`~```~~~``~`~``~`~~~~~~```````~~~`~~`~~`~~`~~ 7
8
~~`~`~~```~``~~``~~~``~~`~`~~`~`~```~```~~~```~~~~~~`~`~~~~` 8
9
```~``~`~~~`~~```~``~``~~~```~````~```~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~~``` 9
10
186
`~~~~```~`~````~`~`~~``~`~~~~`~``~``~```~~```````~`~``~`````
10
11
~~`~`~~`~``~`~~~````````````````~~`````~`~~``~`~~~~`~~~`~~`~
11
12
~~`~~~~```~~~`````~~``~`~`~~``````~`~~``~```````~~``~~~`~~`~
12
13
`~``````~~``~`~~~```~~~~```~~`~`~~~`~```````~~`~```~``~`~~~~
13
14
~~~``~```~`````~~`~`~``~~`~``~`~~`~`~``~`~``~~``~`~``~```~~~
14
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
1 2 3 4 5
We will split up the drawing in the drawBoard() function into four steps. First, we create a string
variable of the line with 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 spaced out with wide gaps. Second, we use that string to display the
X-axis coordinates along the top of the screen. Third, we print each row of the ocean along with the Y-axis
coordinates on both sides of the screen. And fourth, we print out the X-axis again at the bottom. Having the
coordinates on all sides makes it easier for the player to move their finger along the spaces to see where
exactly they want to plan a sonar device.
Drawing the X-coordinates Along the Top
7. # Draw the board data structure.

8.
9. hline = ' ' # initial space for the numbers down
the left side of the board
11. hline += (' ' * 9) + str(i)
Let's look again at the top part of the board, this time with plus signs instead of blank spaces so we can
count the spaces easier:
Figure 12-3: The spacing we use for printing the top of the game board.
The numbers on the first line which mark the tens position all have nine spaces in between them, and there
are thirteen spaces in front of the 1. We are going to create a string with this line and store it in a variable
named hline.
187
13. # print the numbers across the top
14. print(hline)
15. print(' ' + ('0123456789' * 6))
16. print()
To print the numbers across the top of the sonar board, we first print the contents of the hline variable.
Then on the next line, we print three spaces (so that this row lines up correctly), and then print the string
'012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789'. But this is
tedious to type into the source, so instead we type ('0123456789' * 6) which evaluates to the same
string.
Drawing the Rows of the Ocean
18. # print each of the 15 rows

20. # single-digit numbers need to be padded with an
extra space
21. if i < 10:
22. extraSpace = ' '
23. else:
24. extraSpace = ''
25. print('%s%s %s %s' % (extraSpace, i, getRow(board,
i), i))
Now we print the each row of the board, including the numbers down the side to label the Y-axis. We use
the for loop to print rows 0 through 14 on the board, along with the row numbers on either side of the board.
We have a small problem. Numbers with only one digit (like 0, 1, 2, and so on) only take up one space
when we print them out, but numbers with two digits (like 10, 11, and 12) take up two spaces. This means the
rows might not line up and would look like this:
8
~~`~`~~```~``~~``~~~``~~`~`~~`~`~```~```~~~```~~~~~~`~`~~~~` 8
9
```~``~`~~~`~~```~``~``~~~```~````~```~`~~`~~~~~`~``~~~~~``` 9
10
`~~~~```~`~````~`~`~~``~`~~~~`~``~``~```~~```````~`~``~`````
10
11
~~`~`~~`~``~`~~~````````````````~~`````~`~~``~`~~~~`~~~`~~`~
11
The solution is easy. We just add a space in front of all the single-digit numbers. The if-else statement that
starts on line 21 does this. We will print the variable extraSpace when we print the row, and if i is less
than 10 (which means it will have only one digit), we assign a single space string to extraSpace.
188
Otherwise, we set extraSpace to be a blank string. This way, all of our rows will line up when we print
them.
The getRow() function will return a string representing the row number we pass it. Its two parameters
are the board data structure stored in the board variable and a row number. We will look at this function
next.
Drawing the X-coordinates Along the Bottom
27. # print the numbers across the bottom

28. print()
29. print(' ' + ('0123456789' * 6))
30. print(hline)
This code is similar to lines 14 to 17. This will print the X-axis coordinates along the bottom of the screen.
Getting the State of a Row in the Ocean
33. def getRow(board, row):

34. # Return a string from the board data structure at a
certain row.
35. boardRow = ''
37. boardRow += board[i][row]
38. return boardRow
This function constructs a string called boardRow from the characters stored in board. First we set
boardRow to the blank string. The row number (which is the Y coordinate) is passed as a parameter. The
string we want is made by concatenating board[0][row], board[1][row], board[2][row], and so
on up to board[59][row]. (This is because the row is made up of 60 characters, from index 0 to index
59.)
The for loop iterates from integers 0 to 59. On each iteration the next character in the board data
structure is copied on to the end of boardRow. By the time the loop is done, extraSpace is fully formed,
so we return it.

Now that we have a function to print a given game board data structure to the string, let's turn to the other
functions that we will need. At the start of the game, we will need to create a new game board data structure
and also place treasure chests randomly around the board. We should also create a function that can tell if
the coordinates entered by the player are a valid move or not.
189
Creating a New Game Board

41. # Create a new 60x15 board data structure.
42. board = []
43. for x in range(60): # the main list is a list of 60
lists
44. board.append([])
At the start of each new game, we will need a fresh board data structure. The board data structure is a
list of lists of strings. The first list represents the X coordinate. Since our game's board is 60 characters
across, this first list needs to contain 60 lists. So we create a for loop that will append 60 blank lists to it.
45. for y in range(15): # each list in the main list

has 15 single-character strings
46. # use different characters for the ocean to
make it more readable.
48. board[x].append('~')
49. else:
50. board[x].append('`')
But board is more than just a list of 60 blank lists. Each of the 60 lists represents the Y coordinate of our
game board. There are 15 rows in the board, so each of these 60 lists must have 15 characters in them. We
have another for loop to add 15 single-character strings that represent the ocean. The "ocean" will just be a
bunch of '~' and '`' strings, so we will randomly choose between those two. We can do this by generating
a random number between 0 and 1 with a call to random.randint(). If the return value of
random.randint() is 0, we add the '~' string. Otherwise we will add the '`' string.
This is like deciding which character to use by tossing a coin. And since the return value from
random.randint() will be 0 about half the time, half of the ocean characters will be '~' and the other
half will be '`'. This will give our ocean a nice random, choppy look to it.
Remember that the board variable is a list of 60 lists that have 15 strings. That means to get the string at
coordinate 26, 12, we would access board[26][12], and not board[12][26]. The X coordinate is
first, then the Y coordinate.
Here is the picture from the Hangman chapter that demonstrates the indexes of a list of lists named x. The
red arrows point to indexes of the inner lists themselves. The image is also flipped on its side to make it
easier to read:
190
Figure 12-4: The indexes of a list of lists.
51. return board
Finally, we return the board variable. Remember that in this case, we are returning a reference to the list
that we made. Any changes we made to the list (or the lists inside the list) in our function will still be there
outside of the function.
Creating the Random Treasure Chests
53. def getRandomChests(numChests):

54. # Create a list of chest data structures (two-item
lists of x, y int coordinates)
55. chests = []
56. for i in range(numChests):
57. chests.append([random.randint(0, 59),
random.randint(0, 14)])
58. return chests
Another task we need to do at the start of the game is decide where the hidden treasure chests are. We will
represent the treasure chests in our game as a list of lists of two integers. These two integers will be the X and
Y coordinates. For example, if the chest data structure was [[2, 2], [2, 4], [10, 0]], then this
would mean there are three treasure chests, one at 2, 2, another at 2, 4, and a third one at 10, 0.
We will pass the numChests parameter to tell the function how many treasure chests we want it to
generate. We set up a for loop to iterate this number of times, and on each iteration we append a list of two
191
random integers. The X coordinate can be anywhere from 0 to 59, and the Y coordinate can be from
anywhere between 0 and 14. The expression [random.randint(0, 59), random.randint(0,
14)] that is passed to the append method will evaluate to something like [2, 2] or [2, 4] or [10,
0]. This data structure is then returned.
Determining if a Move is Valid
60. def isValidMove(x, y):

61. # Return True if the coordinates are on the board,
otherwise False.
62. return x >= 0 and x <= 59 and y >= 0 and y <= 14
The player will type in X and Y coordinates of where they want to drop a sonar device. But they may not
type in coordinates that do not exist on the game board. The X coordinates must be between 0 and 59, and the
Y coordinate must be between 0 and 14. This function uses a simple expression that uses and operators to
ensure that each condition is True. If just one is False, then the entire expression evaluates to False.
This Boolean value is returned by the function.

Placing a Move on the Board
64. def makeMove(board, chests, x, y):

65. # Change the board data structure with a sonar device
character. Remove treasure chests
66. # from the chests list as they are found. Return False
if this is an invalid move.
67. # Otherwise, return the string of the result of this
move.
68. if not isValidMove(x, y):
69. return False
In our Sonar game, the game board is updated to display a number for each sonar device dropped. The
number shows how far away the closest treasure chest is. So when the player makes a move by giving the
program an X and Y coordinate, we will change the board based on the positions of the treasure chests. This
is why our makeMove() function takes four parameters: the game board data structure, the treasure chests
data structures, and the X and Y coordinates.
This function will return the False Boolean value if the X and Y coordinates if was passed do not exist
on the game board. If isValidMove() returns False, then makeMove() will return False.
If the coordinates land directly on the treasure, makeMove() will return the string 'You have found
a sunken treasure chest!'. If the XY coordinates are within a distance of 9 or less of a treasure
chest, we return the string 'Treasure detected at a distance of %s from the sonar
device.' (where %s is the distance). Otherwise, makeMove() will return the string 'Sonar did not
detect anything. All treasure chests out of range.'.
192
100.
75. else:
77.
Given the XY coordinates of where the player wants to drop the sonar device, and a list of XY coordinates
for the treasure chests (in the chests list of lists), how do we find out which treasure chest is closest?
An Algorithm for Finding the Closest Treasure Chest

While the x and y variables are just integers (say, 5 and 0), together they represent the location on the
game board (which is a Cartesian coordinate system) where the player guessed. The chests variable may
have a value such as [[5, 0], [0, 2], [4, 2]], that value represents the locations of three treasure
chests. Even though these variables are a bunch of numbers, we can visualize it like this:
Figure 12-5: The places on the board that [[5, 0], [0, 2], [4, 2]] represents.
We figure out the distance from the sonar device located at 0, 2 with "rings" and the distances around it:
193
Figure 12-6: The board marked with distances from the 0, 2 position.
But how do we translate this into code for our game? We need a way to represent distance as an
expression. Notice that the distance from an XY coordinate is always the larger of two values: the absolute
value of the difference of the two X coordinates and the absolute value of the difference of the two Y
coordinates.
That means we should subtract the sonar device's X coordinate and a treasure chest's X coordinate, and
then take the absolute value of this number. We do the same for the sonar device's Y coordinate and a
treasure chest's Y coordinate. The larger of these two values is the distance. Let's look at our example board
with rings above to see if this algorithm is correct.
The sonar's X and Y coordinates are 3 and 2. The first treasure chest's X and Y coordinates (first in the list
[[5, 0], [0, 2], [4, 2]] that is) are 5 and 0.
For the X coordinates, 3 - 5 evaluates to -2, and the absolute value of -2 is 2.
For the Y coordinates, 2 - 1 evaluates to 1, and the absolute value of 1 is 1.
Comparing the two absolute values 2 and 1, 2 is the larger value and should be the distance from the sonar
device and the treasure chest at coordinates 5, 1. We can look at the board and see that this algorithm works,
because the treasure chest at 5,1 is in the sonar device's 2nd ring. Let's quickly compare the other two chests
to see if his distances work out correctly also.
Let's find the distance from the sonar device at 3,2 and the treasure chest at 0,2. abs(3 - 0) evaluates
to 3. The abs() function returns the absolute value of the number we pass to it. abs(2 - 2) evaluates to
0. 3 is larger than 0, so the distance from the sonar device at 3,2 and the treasure chest at 0,2 is 3. We look at
the board and see this is true.
Let's find the distance from the sonar device at 3,2 and the last treasure chest at 4,2. abs(3 - 4)
evaluates to 1. abs(2 - 2) evaluates to 0. 1 is larger than 0, so the distance from the sonar device at 3,2
and the treasure chest at 4,2 is 1. We look at the board and see this is true also.
Because all three distances worked out correctly, our algorithm works. The distances from the sonar device
to the three sunken treasure chests are 2, 3, and 1. On each guess, we want to know the distance from the
sonar device to the closest of the three treasure chest distances. To do this we use a variable called
smallestDistance. Let's look at the code again:
194
100.
75. else:
77.
You can also use multiple assignment in for loops. For example, the assignment statement a, b = [5,
10] will assign 5 to a and 10 to b. Also, the for loop for i in [0, 1, 2, 3, 4] will assign the i
variable the values 0 and 1 and so on for each iteration.
The for loop for cx, cy in chests: combines both of these principles. Because chests is a list
where each item in the list is itself a list of two integers, the first of these integers is assigned to cx and the
second integer is assigned to cy. So if chests has the value [[5, 0], [0, 2], [4, 2]], on the
first iteration through the loop, cx will have the value 5 and cy will have the value 0.
Line 73 determines which is larger: the absolute value of the difference of the X coordinates, or the
absolute value of the difference of the Y coordinates. (abs(cx - x) < abs(cy - y) seems like much
easier way to say that, doesn't it?). The if-else statement assigns the larger of the values to the distance
variable.
So on each iteration of the for loop, the distance variable holds the distance of a treasure chest's
distance from the sonar device. But we want the shortest (that is, smallest) distance of all the treasure chests.
This is where the smallestDistance variable comes in. Whenever the distance variable is smaller
than smallestDistance, then the value in distance becomes the new value of
smallestDistance.
We give smallestDistance the impossibly high value of chests at the beginning of the loop so that
at least one of the treasure chests we find will be put into smallestDistance. By the time the chests
loop has finished, we know that smallestDistance holds the shortest distance between the sonar device
and all of the treasure chests in the game.
81. if smallestDistance == 0:
82. # xy is directly on a treasure chest!
83. chests.remove([x, y])
84. return 'You have found a sunken treasure chest!'
The only time that smallestDistance is equal to 0 is when the sonar device's XY coordinates are the
same as a treasure chest's XY coordinates. This means the player has correctly guessed the location of a
treasure chest. We should remove this chest's two-integer list from the chests data structure with the
remove() list method.
195
The remove() List Method
The remove() list method will remove the first occurrence of the value passed as a parameter from the
list. For example, try typing the following into the interactive shell:
>>> x = [42, 5, 10, 42]

>>> x.remove(10)
>>> x
[42, 5, 42]
You can see that the 10 value has been removed from the x list.
The remove() method removes the first occurrence of the value you pass it, and only the first. For
example, type the following into the shell:
>>> x = [42, 5, 42]

>>> x.remove(42)
>>> x
[5, 42]
Notice that only the first 42 value was removed, but the second one is still there.
The remove() method will cause an error if you try to remove a value that is not in the list:
>>> x = [5, 42]

>>> x.remove(10)
ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list
>>>
After removing the found treasure chest from the chests list, we return the string 'You have found
a sunken treasure chest!' to tell the caller that the guess was correct. Remember that any changes
made to the list in a function will exist outside the function as well.
85. else:
86. if smallestDistance < 10:
87. board[x][y] = str(smallestDistance)
88. return 'Treasure detected at a distance of %s
from the sonar device.' % (smallestDistance)
89. else:
90. board[x][y] = 'O'
91. return 'Sonar did not detect anything. All
treasure chests out of range.'
196
The else block executes if smallestDistance was not 0, which means the player did not guess an
exact location of a treasure chest. We return two different strings, depending on if the sonar device was
placed within range of any of the treasure chests. If it was, we mark the board with the string version of
smallestDistance. If not, we mark the board with a '0'.

The last few functions we need are to let the player enter their move on the game board, ask the player if
he wants to play again (this will be called at the end of the game), and print the instructions for the game on
the screen (this will be called at the beginning of the game).
Getting the Player's Move
94. def enterPlayerMove():

95. # Let the player type in her move. Return a two-item
list of int xy coordinates.
96. print('Where do you want to drop the next sonar
device? (0-59 0-14) (or type quit)')
97. while True:
98. move = input()
99. if move.lower() == 'quit':
101. sys.exit()
This function collects the XY coordinates of the player's next move. It has a while loop so that it will
keep asking the player for her next move. The player can also type in chests in order to quit the game. In
that case, we call the sys.exit() function which immediately terminates the program.
103. move = move.split()

104. if len(move) == 2 and move[0].isdigit() and move
[1].isdigit() and isValidMove(int(move[0]), int(move[1])):
105. return [int(move[0]), int(move[1])]
106. print('Enter a number from 0 to 59, a space, then
a number from 0 to 14.')
Assuming the player has not typed in 'quit', we call the split() method on move and set the list it
returns as the new value of move. What we expect move to be is a list of two numbers. These numbers will
be strings, because the split() method returns a list of strings. But we can convert these to integers with
the int() function.
If the player typed in something like '1 2 3', then the list returned by split() would be ['1',
'2', '3']. In that case, the expression len(move) == 2 would be False and the entire expression
immediately evaluates to False (because of expression short-circuiting.)
197
If the list returned by split() does have a length of 2, then it will have a move[0] and move[1]. We
call the string method isdigit() on those strings. isdigit() will return True if the string consists
solely of numbers. Otherwise it returns False. Try typing the following into the interactive shell:
>>> '42'.isdigit()
True
>>> 'forty'.isdigit()
False
>>> ''.isdigit()
False
>>> 'hello'.isdigit()
False
>>> x = '10'
>>> x.isdigit()
True
>>>
As you can see, both move[0].isdigit() and move[1].isdigit() must be True. The final part
of this expression calls our move[1] function to check if the XY coordinates exist on the board. If all these
expressions are True, then this function returns a two-integer list of the XY coordinates. Otherwise, the
player will be asked to enter coordinates again.

The playAgain() function will ask the player if they want to play again, and will keep asking until the
player types in a string that begins with 'y'. This function returns a Boolean value.
Printing the Game Instructions for the Player
115. def showInstructions():

116. print('''Instructions:
117. You are the captain of the Simon, a treasure-hunting ship.
Your current mission
118. is to find the three sunken treasure chests that are
lurking in the part of the
119. ocean you are in and collect them.
120.
121. To play, enter the coordinates of the point in the ocean
you wish to drop a
198
122. sonar device. The sonar can find out how far away the
closest chest is to it.
123. For example, the d below marks where the device was
dropped, and the 2's
124. represent distances of 2 away from the device. The 4's
represent
125. distances of 4 away from the device.
126.
127. 444444444
128. 4 4
129. 4 22222 4
130. 4 2 2 4
131. 4 2 d 2 4
132. 4 2 2 4
133. 4 22222 4
134. 4 4
135. 444444444
137. input()
The showInstructions() is just a couple of print() calls that print multi-line strings. The input
() function just gives the player a chance to press Enter before printing the next string. This is because the
screen can only show 25 lines of text at a time.
139. print('''For example, here is a treasure chest (the c)

located a distance of 2 away
140. from the sonar device (the d):
141.
142. 22222
143. c 2
144. 2 d 2
145. 2 2
146. 22222
147.
148. The point where the device was dropped will be marked with
a 2.
149.
150. The treasure chests don't move around. Sonar devices can
detect treasure
151. chests up to a distance of 9. If all chests are out of
range, the point
152. will be marked with O
153.
154. If a device is directly dropped on a treasure chest, you
have discovered
155. the location of the chest, and it will be collected. The
sonar device will
156. remain there.
157.
199
158. When you collect a chest, all sonar devices will update to
locate the next
159. closest sunken treasure chest.
161. input()
162. print()
This is the rest of the instructions in one multi-line string. After the player presses Enter, the function
returns.
These are all of the functions we will define for our game. The rest of the program is the main part of our
game.

Now that we are done writing all of the functions that our game will need, let's start writing the main part
of the game.
165. print('S O N A R !')

166. print()
167. print('Would you like to view the instructions? (yes/no)')
168. if input().lower().startswith('y'):
169. showInstructions()
The expression input().lower().startswith('y') asks the player if they want to see the
instructions, and evaluates to True if the player typed in a string that began with 'y' or 'Y'. If so,
showInstructions() is called.
171. while True:

172. # game setup
173. sonarDevices = 16
174. theBoard = getNewBoard()
175. theChests = getRandomChests(3)
177. previousMoves = []
This while loop is the main game loop. Here are what the variables are for:
Table 12-2: Variables used in the main game loop.

Variable Description
sonarDevices The number of sonar devices (and turns) the player has left.
200
The board data structure we will use for this game. getNewBoard() will set us up with a
theBoard
fresh board.
The list of chest data structures. getRandomChests() will return a list of three treasure
theChests
chests at random places on the board.
previousMoves A list of all the XY moves that the player has made in the game.
Displaying the Game Status for the Player
179. while sonarDevices > 0:

180. # Start of a turn:
181.
182. # sonar device/chest status
183. if sonarDevices > 1: extraSsonar = 's'
184. else: extraSsonar = ''
185. if len(theChests) > 1: extraSchest = 's'
186. else: extraSchest = ''
187. print('You have %s sonar device%s left. %s
treasure chest%s remaining.' % (sonarDevices, extraSsonar,
len(theChests), extraSchest))
This while loop executes as long as the player has sonar devices remaining. We want to print a message
telling the user how many sonar devices and treasure chests are left. But there is a problem. If there are two
or more sonar devices left, we want to print '2 sonar devices'. But if there is only one sonar device
left, we want to print '1 sonar device' left. We only want the plural form of devices if there are
multiple sonar devices. The same goes for '2 treasure chests' and '1 treasure chest'.
So we have two string variables named x and y, which contain a while if there are multiple sonar devices
or treasures chests. Otherwise, they are blank. We use them in the while statement on line 187.
189. x, y = enterPlayerMove()
190. previousMoves.append([x, y]) # we must track all
moves so that sonar devices can be updated.
191.
192. moveResult = makeMove(theBoard, theChests, x, y)
193. if moveResult == False:
194. continue
Line 189 uses the multiple assignment trick. enterPlayerMove() returns a two-item list. The first
item will be stored in the x variable and the second will be stored in the y variable. We then put these two
variables into another two-item list, which we store in the previousMoves list with the append()
method. This means previousMoves is a list of XY coordinates of each move the player makes in this
game.
201
The x and y variables, along with theBoard and theChests (which represent the current state of the
game board) are all sent to the makeMove() function. As we have already seen, this function will make the
necessary modifications to the game board. If makeMove() returns the value False, then there was a
problem with the x and y values we passed it. The while statement will go back to the start of the while
loop that began on line 179 to ask the player for XY coordinates again.
Finding a Sunken Treasure Chest
195. else:
196. if moveResult == 'You have found a sunken
treasure chest!':
197. # update all the sonar devices currently
on the map.
198. for x, y in previousMoves:
199. makeMove(theBoard, theChests, x, y)
201. print(moveResult)
If makeMove() did not return the value False, it would have returned a string that tells us what were
the results of that move. If this string was while, then that means we should update all the sonar devices on
the board so they detect the second closest treasure chest on the board. We have the XY coordinates of all the
sonar devices currently on the board stored in previousMoves. So we can just pass all of these XY
coordinates to the makeMove() function again to have it redraw the values on the board.
We don't have to worry about this call to makeMove() having errors, because we already know all the
XY coordinates in previousMoves are valid. We also know that this call to makeMove() won't find any
new treasure chests, because they would have already been removed from the board when that move was first
made.
The for loop on line 198 also uses the same multiple assignment trick for x and y because the items in
previousMoves list are themselves two-item lists. Because we don't print anything here, the player doesn't
realize we are redoing all of the previous moves. It just appears that the board has been entirely updated.
Checking if the Player has Won
203. if len(theChests) == 0:
204. print('You have found all the sunken treasure
chests! Congratulations and good game!')
205. break
Remember that the makeMove() function modifies the theChests list we send it. Because
theChests is a list, any changes made to it inside the function will persist after execution returns from the
function. makeMove() removes items from theChests when treasure chests are found, so eventually (if
the player guesses correctly) all of the treasure chests will have been removed. (Remember, by "treasure
chest" we mean the two-item lists of the XY coordinates inside the theChests list.)
202
When all the treasure chests have been found on the board and removed from theChests, the
theChests list will have a length of 0. When that happens, we display a congratulations to the player, and
then execute a break statement to break out of this while loop. Execution will then move down to line 209
(the first line after the while-block.)
Checking if the Player has Lost
207. sonarDevices -= 1
This is the last line of the while loop that started on line 179. We decrement the sonarDevices
variable because the player has used one. If the player keeps missing the treasure chests, eventually
sonarDevices will be reduced to 0. After this line, execution jumps back up to line 179 so we can re-
evaluate the while statement's condition (which is sonarDevices > 0). If sonarDevices is 0, then
the condition will be False and execution will continue outside the while-block on line 209.
But until then, the condition will remain True and the player can keep making guesses.
209. if sonarDevices == 0:
210. print('We\'ve run out of sonar devices! Now we
have to turn the ship around and head')
211. print('for home with treasure chests still out
there! Game over.')
212. print(' The remaining chests were here:')
213. for x, y in theChests:
214. print(' %s, %s' % (x, y))
Line 209 is the first line outside the while loop. By this point the game is over. But how do we tell if the
player won or not? The only two places where the program execution would have left the while loop is on
line 179 if the condition failed. In that case, sonarDevices would be 0 and the player would have lost.
The second place is the break statement on line 205. That statement is executed if the player has found
all the treasure chests before running out of sonar devices. In that case, sonarDevices would be some
value greater than 0.
Lines 210 to 212 will tell the player they've lost. The for loop on line 213 will go through the treasure
chests remaining in theChests and show their location to the player so that they know where the treasure
chests had been lurking.
Asking the Player to Play Again, and the sys.exit() Function

217. sys.exit()
203
Win or lose, we call the playAgain() function to let the player type in whether they want to keep
playing or not. If not, then playAgain() returns False. The not operator changes this to True, making
the if statement's condition True and the sys.exit() function is executed. This will cause the program
to terminate.
Otherwise, execution jumps back to the beginning of the while loop on line 171.
Summary: Review of our Sonar Game

Remember how our Tic Tac Toe game numbered the spaces on the Tic Tac Toe board 1 through 9? This
sort of coordinate system might have been okay for a board with less than ten spaces. But the Sonar board has
nine hundred spaces! The Cartesian coordinate system we learned in the last chapter really makes all these
spaces manageable, especially when our game needed to find the distance between two points on the board.
Game boards in games that use a Cartesian coordinate system are often stored in a list of lists so that the
first index is the x-coordinate and the second index is the y-coordinate. This make accessing a coordinates
look like board[x][y].
These data structures (such as the ones used for the ocean and locations of the treasure chests) make it
possible to have complicated concepts represented as data in our program, and our game programs become
mostly about modifying these data structures.
In the next chapter, we will be representing letters as numbers using their ASCII numbers. (This is the
same ASCII term we used in "ASCII art" previously.) By representing text as numbers, we can perform
mathematically operations on them which will encrypt or decrypt secret messages.
204
• Cryptography and ciphers
• Encrypting and decrypting
• Ciphertext, plaintext, keys, and symbols
• The Caesar Cipher
• ASCII ordinal values
• The chr() and ord() functions
• The isalpha() string method
• The isupper() and islower() string methods
• Cryptanalysis
• The brute force technique
The program in this chapter is not really a game, but it is fun to play with nonetheless. Our program will
convert normal English into a secret code, and also convert the secret code back into regular English again.
Only someone who is knowledgeable about secret codes will be able to understand our hidden messages.
Because this program manipulates text in order to convert it into secret messages, we will learn several
new functions and methods that come with Python for manipulating strings. We will also learn how programs
can do math with text strings just as it can with numbers.
About Cryptography
The science of writing secret codes is called cryptography. Cryptography has been used for thousands of
years to send secret messages that only the recipient could understand, even if someone captured the
messenger and read the coded message. A secret code system is called a cipher. There are thousands of
different ciphers that have been used, each using different techniques to keep the messages a secret.
In cryptography, we call the message that we want to be secret the plaintext. The plaintext could look
something like this:
205
Hello there! The keys to the house are hidden under the reddish flower
pot.
When we convert the plaintext into the encoded message, we call this encrypting the plaintext. The
plaintext is encrypted into the ciphertext. The ciphertext looks like random letters (also called garbage
data), and we cannot understand what the original plaintext was by just looking at the ciphertext. Here is an
example of some ciphertext:
Ckkz fkx kj becqnejc kqp pdeo oaynap iaoowca!
But if we know about the cipher used to encrypt the message, we can decrypt the ciphertext back to the
plaintext. (Decryption is the opposite of encryption.)
Many ciphers also use keys. Keys are secret values that let you decrypt ciphertext that was encrypted
using a specific cipher. Think of the cipher as being like a door lock. Although all the door locks of the same
type are built the same, but a particular lock will only unlock if you have the key made for that lock.
The Caesar Cipher

When we encrypt a message using a
cipher, we will choose the key that is used to
encrypt and decrypt this message. The key
for our Caesar Cipher will be a number from
1 to 26. Unless you know the key (that is,
know the number), you will not be able to
decrypt the encrypted message.
The Caesar Cipher was one of the

earliest ciphers ever invented. In this cipher,
you encrypt a message by taking each letter
Figure 13-1: Shifting over letters by three spaces.
in the message (in cryptography, these letters
are called symbols because they can be
letters, numbers, or any other sign) and replacing it with a "shifted" letter. If you shift the letter A by one
space, you get the letter B. If you shift the letter A by two spaces, you get the letter C. Figure 13-1 is a picture
of some letters shifted over by 3 spaces.
To get each shifted letter, draw out a row of boxes with each letter of the alphabet. Then draw a second
row of boxes under it, but start a certain number of spaces over. When you get to the leftover letters at the
end, wrap around back to the start of the boxes. Here is an example with the letters shifted by three spaces:
Figure 13-2: The entire alphabet shifted by three spaces.
The number of spaces we shift is the key in the Caesar Cipher. The example above shows the key 3.
206
Using a key of 3, if we encrypt the plaintext "Howdy", then the "H" becomes "E". The letter "o" becomes
"l". The letter "w" becomes "t". The letter "d" becomes "a". And the letter "y" becomes "v". The ciphertext of
"Hello" with key 3 becomes "Eltav".
We will keep any non-letter characters the same. In order to decrypt "Eltav" with the key 3, we just go
from the bottom boxes back to the top. The letter "E" becomes "H", the letter "l" becomes "o", the letter "t"
becomes "w", the letter "a" becomes "d", and the letter "v" becomes "y" to form "Howdy".
ASCII, and Using Numbers for Letters

How do we implement this shifting of the letters in our program? We can do this by representing each
letter as a number (called an ordinal), and then adding or subtracting from this number to form a new
number (and a new letter). ASCII (pronounced "ask-ee" and stands for American Standard for Code
Information Interchange) is a code that connects each character to a number between 32 and 127. The
numbers less than 32 refer to "unprintable" characters, so we will not be using them.
For example, the letter "A" is represented by the number 65. The letter "m" is represented by the number
109. Here is a table of all the ASCII characters from 32 to 127:
Table 13-1: The ASCII Table

32 (space) 48 0 64 @ 80 P 96 ` 112 p
33 ! 49 1 65 A 81 Q 97 a 113 q
34 " 50 2 66 B 82 R 98 b 114 r
35 # 51 3 67 C 83 S 99 c 115 s
36 $ 52 4 68 D 84 T 100 d 116 t
37 % 53 5 69 E 85 U 101 e 117 u
38 & 54 6 70 F 86 V 102 f 118 v
39 ' 55 7 71 G 87 W 103 g 119 w
40 ( 56 8 72 H 88 X 104 h 120 x
41 ) 57 9 73 I 89 Y 105 i 121 y
42 * 58 : 74 J 90 Z 106 j 122 z
43 + 59 ; 75 K 91 [ 107 k 123 {
44 , 60 < 76 L 92 \ 108 l 124 |
45 - 61 = 77 M 93 ] 109 m 125 }
46 . 62 > 78 N 94 ^ 110 n 126 ~
47 / 63 ? 79 O 95 _ 111 o
The capital letters "A" through "Z" have the numbers 65 through 90. The lowercase letters "a" through "z"
have the numbers 97 through 122. The numeric digits "0" through "9" have the numbers 48 through 57.
So if we wanted to shift "A" by three spaces, we first convert it to a number (65). Then we add 3 to 65, to
get 68. Then we convert the number 68 back to a letter ("D"). We will use the chr() and ord() functions
to convert between letters and numbers.
207
The chr() and ord() Functions
The chr() function (pronounced "char", short for "character") takes a single-character string for the
parameter, and returns the integer ASCII number for that string. The ord() function (short for "ordinal")
takes an integer for the parameter, and returns the ASCII letter for that number. Try typing the following into
the interactive shell:
>>> chr(65)
'A'
>>> ord('A')
65
>>> chr(65+8)
'I'
>>> chr(52)
'4'
>>> chr(ord('F'))
'F'
>>> ord(chr(68))
68
>>>
On the third line, chr(65+8) evaluates to chr(73). If you look at the ASCII table, you can see that 73
is the ordinal for the capital letter "I". On the fifth line, chr(ord('F')) evaluates to chr(70) which
evaluates to 'F'. Feeding the result of ord() to chr() will give you back the original argument. The same
goes for feeding the result of chr() to ord(), as shown by the sixth line.
Using chr() and ord() will come in handy for our Caesar Cipher program. They are also helpful when
we need to convert strings to numbers and numbers to strings.
Sample Run of Caesar Cipher

Here is a sample run of the Caesar Cipher program, encrypting a message:
Do you wish to encrypt or decrypt a message?

encrypt
Enter your message:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
Enter the key number (1-26)
13
Your translated text is:
Gur fxl nobir gur cbeg jnf gur pbybe bs gryrivfvba, gharq gb n qrnq punaary.
Now we will run the program and decrypt the text that we just encrypted.
decrypt
Enter your message:
13
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
On this run we will try to decrypt the text that was encrypted, but we will
208
use the wrong key. Remember that if you do not know the correct key, the
decrypted text will just be garbage data.
decrypt
Enter your message:
15
Rfc qiw yzmtc rfc nmpr uyq rfc amjmp md rcjctgqgml, rslcb rm y bcyb afyllcj.
Caesar Cipher's Source Code

Here is the source code for the Caesar Cipher program. If you don't want to type all of this code in, you can
visit this book's website at the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter13 and follow the instructions to
download the source code. After you type this code in, save the file as cipher.py
cipher.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/cipher.py
1. # Caesar Cipher
2.
3. MAX_KEY_SIZE = 26
4.
5. def getMode():
6. while True:
7. print('Do you wish to encrypt or decrypt a
message?')
8. mode = input().lower()
9. if mode in 'encrypt e decrypt d'.split():
10. return mode
11. else:
12. print('Enter either "encrypt" or "e" or
"decrypt" or "d".')
13.
14. def getMessage():
15. print('Enter your message:')
16. return input()
17.
18. def getKey():
19. key = 0
20. while True:
21. print('Enter the key number (1-%s)' %
(MAX_KEY_SIZE))
22. key = int(input())
23. if (key >= 1 and key <= MAX_KEY_SIZE):
24. return key
25.
26. def getTranslatedMessage(mode, message, key):
209
27. if mode[0] == 'd':
28. key = -key
29. translated = ''
30.
31. for symbol in message:
32. if symbol.isalpha():
33. num = ord(symbol)
34. num += key
35.
36. if symbol.isupper():
37. if num > ord('Z'):
38. num -= 26
39. elif num < ord('A'):
40. num += 26
41. elif symbol.islower():
42. if num > ord('z'):
43. num -= 26
44. elif num < ord('a'):
45. num += 26
46.
47. translated += chr(num)
48. else:
49. translated += symbol
50. return translated
51.
52. mode = getMode()
53. message = getMessage()
54. key = getKey()
55.
56. print('Your translated text is:')
57. print(getTranslatedMessage(mode, message, key))

This code is much shorter compared to our other games. The encryption and decryption processes are the
just the reverse of the other, and even then they still share much of the same code. Let's look at how each line
works.
1. # Caesar Cipher
2.
3. MAX_KEY_SIZE = 26
The first line is simply a comment. The Caesar Cipher is one cipher of a type of ciphers called simple
substitution ciphers. Simple substitution ciphers are ciphers that replace one symbol in the plaintext
with one (and only one) symbol in the ciphertext. So if a "G" was substituted with "Z" in the cipher, every
single "G" in the plaintext would be replaced with (and only with) a "Z".
210
MAX_KEY_SIZE is a variable that stores the integer 26 in it. MAX_KEY_SIZE reminds us that in this
program, the key used in our cipher should be between 1 and 26.
Deciding to Encrypt or Decrypt
5. def getMode():
6. while True:
7. print('Do you wish to encrypt or decrypt a
message?')
9. if mode in 'encrypt e decrypt d'.split():
10. return mode
11. else:
"decrypt" or "d".')
The getMode() function will let the user type in if they want to encrypt or decrypt the message. The
return value of input() (which then has the lower() method called on it, which returns the lowercase
version of the string) is stored in mode. The if statement's condition checks if the string stored in mode
exists in the list returned by 'encrypt e decrypt d'.split(). This list is ['encrypt', 'e',
'decrypt', 'd'], but it is easier for the programmer to just type in 'encrypt e decrypt
d'.split() and not type in all those quotes and commas. But you can use whatever is easiest for you;
they both evaluate to the same list value.
This function will return the first character in mode as long as mode is equal to 'encrypt', 'e',
'decrypt', or 'd'. This means that getMode() will return the string 'e' or the string 'd'.
Getting the Message from the Player
14. def getMessage():

15. print('Enter your message:')
16. return input()
The getMessage() function simply gets the message to encrypt or decrypt from the user and uses this
string as its return value.
Getting the Key from the Player
18. def getKey():

19. key = 0
20. while True:
21. print('Enter the key number (1-%s)' %
(MAX_KEY_SIZE))
22. key = int(input())
23. if (key >= 1 and key <= MAX_KEY_SIZE):
211
24. return key
The getKey() function lets the player type in key they will use to encrypt or decrypt the message. The
while loop ensures that the function only returns a valid key. A valid key here is one that is between the
integer values 1 and 26 (remember that MAX_KEY_SIZE will only have the value 26 because it is
constant). It then returns this key. Remember that on line 22 that key was set to the integer version of what
the user typed in, and so getKey() returns an integer.
Encrypt or Decrypt the Message with the Given Key
26. def getTranslatedMessage(mode, message, key):

27. if mode[0] == 'd':
28. key = -key
29. translated = ''
getTranslatedMessage() is the function that does the encrypting and decrypting in our program. It
has three parameters. mode sets the function to encryption mode or decryption mode. message is the
plaintext (or ciphertext) to be encrypted (or decrypted). key is the key that is used in this cipher.
The first line in the getTranslatedMessage() function determines if we are in encryption mode or
decryption mode. If the first letter in the MAX_KEY_SIZE variable is the string MAX_KEY_SIZE, then we
are in decryption mode. The only difference between the two modes is that in decryption mode, the key is set
to the negative version of itself. If key was the integer 22, then in decryption mode we set it to -22. The
reason for this will be explained later.
translated is the string that will hold the end result: either the ciphertext (if we are encrypting) or the
plaintext (if we are decrypting). We will only be concatenating strings to this variable, so we first store the
blank string in translated. (A variable must be defined with some string value first before a string can be
concatenated to it.)
The isalpha() String Method

The isalpha() string method will return True if the string is an uppercase or lowercase letter from A
to Z. If the string contains any non-letter characters, then MAX_KEY_SIZE will return MAX_KEY_SIZE.
>>> 'Hello'.isalpha()
True
>>> 'Forty two'.isalpha()
False
>>> 'Fortytwo'.isalpha()
True
>>> '42'.isalpha()
False
>>> ''.isalpha()
212
False
>>>
As you can see, 'Forty two'.isalpha() will return False because 'Forty two' has a space in it,
which is a non-letter character. 'Fortytwo'.isalpha() returns True because it does not have this
space. '42'.isalpha() returns False because both '4' and '2' are non-letter characters. And
''.isalpha() is False because isalpha() only returns True if the string has only letter characters
and is not blank.
We will use the isalpha() method in our program next.
31. for symbol in message:

32. if symbol.isalpha():
33. num = ord(symbol)
34. num += key
We will run a for loop over each letter (remember in cryptography they are called symbols) in the
message string. Strings are treated just like lists of single-character strings. If message had the string
'Hello', then for symbol in 'Hello' would be the same as for symbol in ['H', 'e',
'l', 'l', 'o']. On each iteration through this loop, symbol will have the value of a letter in
message.
The reason we have the if statement on line 32 is because we will only encrypt/decrypt letters in the
message. Numbers, signs, punctuation marks, and everything else will stay in their untranslated form. The
num variable will hold the integer ordinal value of the letter stored in symbol. Line 34 then "shifts" the
value in num by the value in key.
The isupper() and islower() String Methods

The isupper() and islower() string methods (which are on line 36 and 41) work in a way that is
very similar to the isdigit() and isalpha() methods. isupper() will return True if the string it is
called on contains at least one uppercase letter and no lowercase letters. islower() returns True if the
string it is called on contains at least one lowercase letter and no uppercase letters. Otherwise these methods
return False. The existence of non-letter characters like numbers and spaces does not affect the outcome.
Although strings that do not have any letters, including blank strings, will also return False. Try typing the
following into the interactive shell:
>>> 'HELLO'.isupper()
True
>>> 'hello'.isupper()
False
>>> 'hello'.islower()
True
>>> 'Hello'.islower()
False
>>> 'LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!'.isupper()
True
213
>>> '42'.isupper()
False
>>> '42'.islower()
False
>>> ''.isupper()
False
>>> ''.islower()
False
>>>

The process of encrypting (or decrypting) each letter is fairly simple. We want to apply the same code to
every letter character in the string, which is what the next several lines do.
Encrypting or Decrypting Each Letter
36. if symbol.isupper():
37. if num > ord('Z'):
38. num -= 26
39. elif num < ord('A'):
40. num += 26
This code checks if the symbol is an uppercase letter. If so, there are two special cases we need to worry
about. What if symbol was 'Z' and key was 4? If that were the case, the value of num here would be the
character '^' (The ordinal or '^' is 94). But ^ isn't a letter at all. We wanted the ciphertext to "wrap
around" to the beginning of the alphabet.
The way we can do this is to check if key has a value larger than the largest possible letter's ASCII value
(which is a capital "Z"). If so, then we want to subtract 26 (because there are 26 letters in total) from num.
After doing this, the value of num is 68, which is the ASCII value for 'D'.
41. elif symbol.islower():

42. if num > ord('z'):
43. num -= 26
44. elif num < ord('a'):
45. num += 26
If the symbol is a lowercase letter, the program runs code that is very similar to lines 36 through 40. The
only difference is that we use ord('z') and ord('a') instead of ord('Z') and ord('A').
If we were in decrypting mode, then key would be negative. Then we would have the special case where
num -= 26 might be less than the smallest possible value (which is ord('A'), that is, 65). If this is the
case, we want to add 26 to num to have it "wrap around".
214
47. translated += chr(num)
48. else:
49. translated += symbol
The translated string will be appended with the encrypted/decrypted character. If the symbol was not
an uppercase or lowercase letter, then the else-block on line 48 would have executed instead. All the code in
the else-block does is append the original symbol to the translated string. This means that spaces,
numbers, punctuation marks, and other characters will not be encrypted (or decrypted).
50. return translated
The last line in the getTranslatedMessage() function returns the translated string.
The Start of the Program

54. key = getKey()
55.
This is the main part of our program. We call each of the three functions we have defined above in turn to
get the mode, message, and key that the user wants to use. We then pass these three values as arguments to
getTranslatedMessage(), whose return value (the translated string) is printed to the user.
Brute Force
That's the entire Caesar Cipher. However, while this cipher may fool some people who don't understand
cryptography, it won't keep a message secret from someone who knows cryptanalysis. While cryptography is
the science of making codes, cryptanalysis is the science of breaking codes.

encrypt
Enter your message:
The door key will be hidden under the mat until the fourth of July.
8
Bpm lwwz smg eqtt jm pqllmv cvlmz bpm uib cvbqt bpm nwczbp wn Rctg.
The whole point of cryptography is that so if someone else gets their hands on the encrypted message, they
cannot figure out the original unencrypted message from it. Let's pretend we are the code breaker and all we
have is the encrypted text:
215
Bpm lwwz smg eqtt jm pqllmv cvlmz bpm uib cvbqt bpm nwczbp wn Rctg.
One method of cryptanalysis is called brute force. Brute force is the technique of trying every single
possible key. If the cryptanalyst knows the cipher that the message uses (or at least guesses it), they can just
go through every possible key. Because there are only 26 possible keys, it would be easy for a cryptanalyst to
write a program than prints the decrypted ciphertext of every possible key and see if any of the outputs make
sense. Let's add a brute force feature to our program.
Adding the Brute Force Mode to Our Program

First, change lines 7, 9, and 12 (which are in the getMode() function) to look like the following (the
changes are in bold):
5. def getMode():
6. while True:
7. print('Do you wish to encrypt or decrypt or brute
force a message?')
9. if mode in 'encrypt e decrypt d brute b'.split():
10. return mode[0]
11. else:
"decrypt" or "d" or "brute" or "b".')
This will let us select "brute force" as a mode for our program. Then modify and add the following changes
to the main part of the program:

54. if mode[0] != 'b':
55. key = getKey()
56.
58. if mode[0] != 'b':
60. else:
61. for key in range(1, MAX_KEY_SIZE + 1):
62. print(key, getTranslatedMessage('decrypt',
message, key))
These changes make our program ask the user for a key if they are not in "brute force" mode. If they are
not in "brute force" mode, then the original getTranslatedMessage() call is made and the translated
string is printed.
However, otherwise we are in "brute force" mode, and we run a getTranslatedMessage() loop that
iterates from 1 all the way up to MAX_KEY_SIZE (which is 26). Remember that when the range()
function returns a list of integers up to but not including the second parameter, which is why we have + 1.
216
This program will print out every possible translation of the message (including the key number used in the
translation). Here is a sample run of this modified program:
Do you wish to encrypt or decrypt or brute force a message?

brute
Enter your message:
Bpm lwwz smg eqtt jm pqllmv cvlmz bpm uib cvbqt bpm nwczbp wn
Rctg.
1 Aol kvvy rlf dpss il opkklu bukly aol tha buaps aol mvbyao
vm Qbsf.
2 Znk juux qke corr hk nojjkt atjkx znk sgz atzor znk luaxzn
ul Pare.
3 Ymj ittw pjd bnqq gj mniijs zsijw ymj rfy zsynq ymj ktzwym
tk Ozqd.
4 Xli hssv oic ampp fi lmhhir yrhiv xli qex yrxmp xli jsyvxl
sj Nypc.
5 Wkh grru nhb zloo eh klgghq xqghu wkh pdw xqwlo wkh irxuwk
ri Mxob.
6 Vjg fqqt mga yknn dg jkffgp wpfgt vjg ocv wpvkn vjg hqwtvj
qh Lwna.
7 Uif epps lfz xjmm cf ijeefo voefs uif nbu voujm uif gpvsui
pg Kvmz.
8 The door key will be hidden under the mat until the fourth
of July.
9 Sgd cnnq jdx vhkk ad ghccdm tmcdq sgd lzs tmshk sgd entqsg
ne Itkx.
10 Rfc bmmp icw ugjj zc fgbbcl slbcp rfc kyr slrgj rfc dmsprf
md Hsjw.
11 Qeb allo hbv tfii yb efaabk rkabo qeb jxq rkqfi qeb clroqe
lc Griv.
12 Pda zkkn gau sehh xa dezzaj qjzan pda iwp qjpeh pda bkqnpd
kb Fqhu.
13 Ocz yjjm fzt rdgg wz cdyyzi piyzm ocz hvo piodg ocz ajpmoc
ja Epgt.
14 Nby xiil eys qcff vy bcxxyh ohxyl nby gun ohncf nby ziolnb
iz Dofs.
15 Max whhk dxr pbee ux abwwxg ngwxk max ftm ngmbe max yhnkma
hy Cner.
16 Lzw vggj cwq oadd tw zavvwf mfvwj lzw esl mflad lzw xgmjlz
gx Bmdq.
17 Kyv uffi bvp nzcc sv yzuuve leuvi kyv drk lekzc kyv wfliky
fw Alcp.
18 Jxu teeh auo mybb ru xyttud kdtuh jxu cqj kdjyb jxu vekhjx
ev Zkbo.
19 Iwt sddg ztn lxaa qt wxsstc jcstg iwt bpi jcixa iwt udjgiw
du Yjan.
20 Hvs rccf ysm kwzz ps vwrrsb ibrsf hvs aoh ibhwz hvs tcifhv
ct Xizm.
21 Gur qbbe xrl jvyy or uvqqra haqre gur zng hagvy gur sbhegu
bs Whyl.
22 Ftq paad wqk iuxx nq tuppqz gzpqd ftq ymf gzfux ftq ragdft
217
ar Vgxk.
23 Esp ozzc vpj htww mp stoopy fyopc esp xle fyetw esp qzfces
zq Ufwj.
24 Dro nyyb uoi gsvv lo rsnnox exnob dro wkd exdsv dro pyebdr
yp Tevi.
25 Cqn mxxa tnh fruu kn qrmmnw dwmna cqn vjc dwcru cqn oxdacq
xo Sduh.
26 Bpm lwwz smg eqtt jm pqllmv cvlmz bpm uib cvbqt bpm nwczbp
wn Rctg.
After looking over each row, you can see that the 8th message is not garbage, but plain English! The
cryptanalyst can deduce that the original key for this encrypted text must have been 8. This brute force would
have been difficult to do back in the days of Caesars and the Roman Empire, but today we have computers
that can quickly go through millions or even billions of keys in a short time. You can even write a program
that can recognize when it has found a message in English, so you don't have read through all the garbage
text.
Summary: Reviewing Our Caesar Cipher Program

Computers are very good at doing mathematics. When we create a system to translate some piece of
information into numbers (such as we do with text and ASCII or with space and coordinate systems),
computer programs can process these numbers very quickly and efficiently.
But while our Caesar cipher program here can encrypt messages that will keep them secret from people
who have to figure it out with pencil and paper, it won't keep it secret from people who know how to get
computers to process information for them. (Our brute force mode that we added proves this.) And there are
other cryptographic ciphers that are so advanced that nobody knows how to decrypt the secret messages they
make. (Except for the people with the key of course!)
A large part of figuring out how to write a program is figuring out how to represent the information you
want to manipulate as numbers. I hope this chapter has especially shown you how this can be done. The next
chapter will present our final game, Reversi (also known as Othello). The AI that plays this game will be
much more advanced than the AI that played Tic Tac Toe in chapter 9. In fact, the AI is so good, that you'll
find that most of the time you will be unable to beat it!
218
• The bool() Function
• Evaluating Non-Boolean Values as Booleans
How to Play Reversi

In this chapter we will make a game called Reversi. Reversi (also called Othello) is a board game that is
played on a grid (so we will use a Cartesian coordinate system with XY coordinates, like we did with Sonar.)
It is a game played with two players. Our version of the game will have a computer AI that is more advanced
than the AI we made for Tic Tac Toe. In fact, this AI is so good that it will probably beat you almost every
time you play. (I know I lose whenever I play against it!)
If you would like to see a video of Reversi being played, there is a demonstration on this book's website.
Go to the URL http://inventwithpython.com/videos and find the "Reversi Demo Video" video.
Reversi has an 8 x 8 board with tiles that are black on one side and white on the other (our game will use
O's and X's though). The starting board looks like Figure 14-1. Each player takes turn placing down a new
tile of their color. Any of the opponent's tiles that are between the new tile and the other tiles of that color is
flipped. For example, Figure 14-2 is what it looks like if the white player places a new white tile on space 5,
6.
219
Figure 14-1: The starting Reversi board has two white tiles
Figure 14-2: White places a new tile.
and two black tiles.
The black tile at 5, 5 is in between the new white tile and the existing white tile at 5, 4. That black tile is
flipped over and becomes a new white tile, making the board look like Figure 14-3. Black makes a similar
move next, placing a black tile on 4, 6 which flips the white tile at 4, 5. This results in a board that looks like
Figure 14-4.
Figure 14-4: Black places a new tile, which flips over one of
Figure 14-3: White's move will flip over one of black's tiles.
white's tiles.
Tiles in all directions are flipped as long as they are in between the player's new tile and existing tile.
Below in Figure 14-5, the white player places a tile at 3, 6 and flips black tiles in both directions (marked by
the lines.) The result is in Figure 14-6.
220
Figure 14-5: White's second move at 3, 6 will flip two of
Figure 14-6: The board after white's second move.
black's tiles.
As you can see, each player can quickly grab a majority of the tiles on the board in just one or two moves.
Players must always make a move that captures at least one tile. The game ends when a player either cannot
make a move, or the board is completely full. The player with the most tiles of their color wins.
The basic strategy of Reversi is to look at which move would turn over the most tiles. But you should also
consider taking a move that will not let your opponent recapture many tiles after your move. Placing a tile on
the sides or, even better, the corners is good because there is less chance that those tiles will end up between
your opponent's tiles. The AI we make for this game will simply look for any corner moves they can take. If
there are no corner moves available, then the computer will select the move that claims the most tiles.
Sample Run
Notice that our version of Reversi doesn't use black and white tiles because the text that our program
creates will always be the same color. Instead, we will use X's and O's to represent the human and computer
players.
Welcome to Reversi!
Do you want to be X or O?
x
The player will go first.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
1 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
2 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
3 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 221
| | | | | | | | |
4 | | | | X | O | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
5 | | | | O | X | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
6 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
7 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
8 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
You have 2 points. The computer has 2 points.
Enter your move, or type quit to end the game, or hints to turn off/on hints.
53
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
1 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
2 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
3 | | | | | X | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
4 | | | | X | X | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
5 | | | | O | X | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
6 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
7 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
8 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Press Enter to see the computer's move.
...skipped for brevity...
222
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
1 | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
2 | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
3 | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
4 | O | O | X | O | O | O | O | O |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
5 | O | O | O | X | O | X | O | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
6 | O | X | O | X | X | O | O | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
7 | O | X | X | O | O | O | O | O |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
8 | O | X | X | O | | | X | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Enter your move, or type quit to end the game, or hints to turn off/on hints.
86
X scored 15 points. O scored 46 points.
You lost. The computer beat you by 31 points.
no
As you can see, the AI was pretty good at beating me. To help the player out, we'll program our game to
provide hints. If the player types 'hints' as their move, they can toggle the hints mode on and off. When
hints mode is on, all the possible moves the player can make will show up on the board as '.' characters,
like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
1 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
2 | | | | . | | . | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
223
3 | | | | O | O | O | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
4 | | | . | O | O | X | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
5 | | | . | O | O | O | X | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
6 | | | | . | | . | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
7 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
8 | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Reversi's Source Code

Reversi is a mammoth program compared to our previous games. It comes in over 300 lines long! (But
don't worry, many of these lines are just comments or blank lines to space out the code and make it more
readable.) As always, you don't have to type in the program before reading this chapter. And you can also
download the program by going to this book's website at the URL, http://inventwithpython.com/chapter14
and following the instructions online.
As with our other programs, we will first create several functions to carry out Reversi-related tasks that the
main section of our program will call. Roughly the first 250 lines of code are for these helper functions, and
the last 50 lines of code implement the Reversi game itself.
reversi.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/reversi.py
1. # Reversi
2.
3. import random
4. import sys
5.
6.def drawBoard(board):
passed. Returns None.
8. HLINE = ' +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+'
9. VLINE = ' | | | | | | | | |'
10.
11. print(' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8')
12. print(HLINE)
224
13. for y in range(8):
14. print(VLINE)
15. print(y+1, end=' ')
16. for x in range(8):
17. print('| %s' % (board[x][y]), end=' ')
18. print('|')
19. print(VLINE)
20. print(HLINE)
21.
22.
23. def resetBoard(board):
24. # Blanks out the board it is passed, except for the
original starting position.
27. board[x][y] = ' '
28.
29. # Starting pieces:
30. board[3][3] = 'X'
31. board[3][4] = 'O'
32. board[4][3] = 'O'
33. board[4][4] = 'X'
34.
35.
37. # Creates a brand new, blank board data structure.
38. board = []
40. board.append([' '] * 8)
41.
42. return board
43.
44.
45. def isValidMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart):
46. # Returns False if the player's move on space xstart,
ystart is invalid.
47. # If it is a valid move, returns a list of spaces that
would become the player's if they made a move here.
48. if board[xstart][ystart] != ' ' or not isOnBoard
(xstart, ystart):
49. return False
50.
51. board[xstart][ystart] = tile # temporarily set the
tile on the board.
52.
53. if tile == 'X':
54. otherTile = 'O'
55. else:
56. otherTile = 'X'
57.
58. tilesToFlip = []
225
59. for xdirection, ydirection in [[0, 1], [1, 1], [1, 0],
[1, -1], [0, -1], [-1, -1], [-1, 0], [-1, 1]]:
60. x, y = xstart, ystart
61. x += xdirection # first step in the direction
62. y += ydirection # first step in the direction
63. if isOnBoard(x, y) and board[x][y] == otherTile:
64. # There is a piece belonging to the other
player next to our piece.
65. x += xdirection
66. y += ydirection
67. if not isOnBoard(x, y):
68. continue
69. while board[x][y] == otherTile:
70. x += xdirection
71. y += ydirection
72. if not isOnBoard(x, y): # break out of
while loop, then continue in for loop
73. break
75. continue
76. if board[x][y] == tile:
77. # There are pieces to flip over. Go in the
reverse direction until we reach the original space,
noting all the tiles along the way.
78. while True:
79. x -= xdirection
80. y -= ydirection
81. if x == xstart and y == ystart:
82. break
83. tilesToFlip.append([x, y])
84.
85. board[xstart][ystart] = ' ' # restore the empty space
86. if len(tilesToFlip) == 0: # If no tiles were flipped,
this is not a valid move.
87. return False
88. return tilesToFlip
89.
90.
91. def isOnBoard(x, y):
92. # Returns True if the coordinates are located on the
board.
93. return x >= 0 and x <= 7 and y >= 0 and y <=7
94.
95.
96. def getBoardWithValidMoves(board, tile):
97. # Returns a new board with . marking the valid moves
the given player can make.
98. dupeBoard = getBoardCopy(board)
99.
100. for x, y in getValidMoves(dupeBoard, tile):
101. dupeBoard[x][y] = '.'
226
103.
104.
105. def getValidMoves(board, tile):
106. # Returns a list of [x,y] lists of valid moves for the
given player on the given board.
107. validMoves = []
108.
111. if isValidMove(board, tile, x, y) != False:
112. validMoves.append([x, y])
113. return validMoves
114.
115.
116. def getScoreOfBoard(board):
117. # Determine the score by counting the tiles. Returns a
dictionary with keys 'X' and 'O'.
118. xscore = 0
119. oscore = 0
122. if board[x][y] == 'X':
123. xscore += 1
124. if board[x][y] == 'O':
125. oscore += 1
126. return {'X':xscore, 'O':oscore}
127.
128.
129. def enterPlayerTile():
130. # Let's the player type which tile they want to be.
131. # Returns a list with the player's tile as the first
item, and the computer's tile as the second.
132. tile = ''
133. while not (tile == 'X' or tile == 'O'):
135. tile = input().upper()
136.
137. # the first element in the tuple is the player's tile,
the second is the computer's tile.
138. if tile == 'X':
139. return ['X', 'O']
140. else:
141. return ['O', 'X']
142.
143.
148. else:
227
149. return 'player'
150.
151.
156.
157.
158. def makeMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart):
159. # Place the tile on the board at xstart, ystart, and
flip any of the opponent's pieces.
160. # Returns False if this is an invalid move, True if it
is valid.
161. tilesToFlip = isValidMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart)
162.
163. if tilesToFlip == False:
164. return False
165.
166. board[xstart][ystart] = tile
167. for x, y in tilesToFlip:
168. board[x][y] = tile
169. return True
170.
171.
173. # Make a duplicate of the board list and return the
duplicate.
174. dupeBoard = getNewBoard()
175.
178. dupeBoard[x][y] = board[x][y]
179.
181.
182.
183. def isOnCorner(x, y):
184. # Returns True if the position is in one of the four
corners.
185. return (x == 0 and y == 0) or (x == 7 and y == 0) or
(x == 0 and y == 7) or (x == 7 and y == 7)
186.
187.
188. def getPlayerMove(board, playerTile):
189. # Let the player type in their move.
190. # Returns the move as [x, y] (or returns the strings
'hints' or 'quit')
191. DIGITS1TO8 = '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8'.split()
192. while True:
228
193. print('Enter your move, or type quit to end the
game, or hints to turn off/on hints.')
194. move = input().lower()
195. if move == 'quit':
196. return 'quit'
197. if move == 'hints':
198. return 'hints'
199.
200. if len(move) == 2 and move[0] in DIGITS1TO8 and
move[1] in DIGITS1TO8:
201. x = int(move[0]) - 1
202. y = int(move[1]) - 1
203. if isValidMove(board, playerTile, x, y) ==
False:
204. continue
205. else:
206. break
207. else:
208. print('That is not a valid move. Type the x
digit (1-8), then the y digit (1-8).')
209. print('For example, 81 will be the top-right
corner.')
210.
211. return [x, y]
212.
213.
214. def getComputerMove(board, computerTile):
215. # Given a board and the computer's tile, determine
where to
216. # move and return that move as a [x, y] list.
217. possibleMoves = getValidMoves(board, computerTile)
218.
219. # randomize the order of the possible moves
220. random.shuffle(possibleMoves)
221.
222. # always go for a corner if available.
223. for x, y in possibleMoves:
224. if isOnCorner(x, y):
225. return [x, y]
226.
227. # Go through all the possible moves and remember the
best scoring move
228. bestScore = -1
231. makeMove(dupeBoard, computerTile, x, y)
232. score = getScoreOfBoard(dupeBoard)[computerTile]
233. if score > bestScore:
234. bestMove = [x, y]
235. bestScore = score
236. return bestMove
229
237.
238.
239. def showPoints(playerTile, computerTile):
240. # Prints out the current score.
241. scores = getScoreOfBoard(mainBoard)
242. print('You have %s points. The computer has %s
points.' % (scores[playerTile], scores[computerTile]))
243.
244.
245.
246. print('Welcome to Reversi!')
247.
248. while True:
249. # Reset the board and game.
250. mainBoard = getNewBoard()
251. resetBoard(mainBoard)
252. playerTile, computerTile = enterPlayerTile()
253. showHints = False
256.
257. while True:
260. if showHints:
261. validMovesBoard = getBoardWithValidMoves
(mainBoard, playerTile)
262. drawBoard(validMovesBoard)
263. else:
264. drawBoard(mainBoard)
265. showPoints(playerTile, computerTile)
266. move = getPlayerMove(mainBoard, playerTile)
269. sys.exit() # terminate the program
270. elif move == 'hints':
271. showHints = not showHints
272. continue
273. else:
274. makeMove(mainBoard, playerTile, move[0],
move[1])
275.
276. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, computerTile) ==
[]:
277. break
278. else:
280.
281. else:
230
285. input('Press Enter to see the computer\'s
move.')
286. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard,
computerTile)
287. makeMove(mainBoard, computerTile, x, y)
288.
289. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, playerTile) == []:
290. break
291. else:
293.
294. # Display the final score.
297. print('X scored %s points. O scored %s points.' %
(scores['X'], scores['O']))
298. if scores[playerTile] > scores[computerTile]:
299. print('You beat the computer by %s points!
Congratulations!' % (scores[playerTile] - scores
[computerTile]))
300. elif scores[playerTile] < scores[computerTile]:
301. print('You lost. The computer beat you by %s
points.' % (scores[computerTile] - scores[playerTile]))
302. else:
303. print('The game was a tie!')
304.
306. break
How the Code Works

The Game Board Data Structure
Before we get into the code, we should talk about the board data structure. This data structure is a list of
lists, just like the one in our previous Sonar game. The list is created so that board[x][y] will represent
the character on space located at position x on the X-axis (going left/right) and position y on the Y-axis
(going up/down). This character can either be a ' ' space character (to represent a blank space), a '.'
period character (to represent a possible move in hint mode), or an 'X' or 'O' (to represent a player's tile).
Whenever you see a parameter named board, that parameter variable is meant to be this list of lists board
data structure.
Importing Other Modules
1. # Reversi
2.
3. import random
231
4. import sys
We import the random module for its randint() and choice() functions and the sys module for its
exit() function.
Drawing the Board Data Structure on the Screen
passed. Returns None.
8. HLINE = ' +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+'
9. VLINE = ' | | | | | | | | |'
10.
11. print(' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8')
12. print(HLINE)
The drawBoard() function will print out the current game board based on the data structure in board.
Notice that each square of the board looks like this:
+---+
| |
| X |
| |
+---+
Since we are going to print the string with the horizontal line (and plus signs at the intersections) over and
over again, we will store that in a constant variable named HLINE. There are also lines above and below the
very center of X or O tile that are nothing but '|' characters (called "pipes") with three spaces in between. We
will store this string in a constant named VLINE.
Line 11 is the first print() function call executed, and it prints out the labels for the X-axis along the top
of the board. Line 12 prints the top horizontal line of the board.

14. print(VLINE)
15. print(y+1, end=' ')
17. print('| %s' % (board[x][y]), end=' ')
18. print('|')
19. print(VLINE)
20. print(HLINE)
Printing each row of spaces on the board is fairly repetitive, so we can use a loop here. We will loop eight
times, once for each row. Line 15 prints the label for the Y-axis on the left side of the board, and has a
232
comma at the end of it to prevent a new line. This is so we can have another loop (which again loops eight
times, once for each space) print out each space (along with the 'X', 'O', or ' ' character for that space
depending on what is stored in board.
The print() function call inside the inner loop also has a comma at the end of it, meaning a space
character is printed instead of a newline character. This produces the second space in the pipe-space-tile-
space string that we print out, over and over for eight times. That will produce a single line on the screen that
looks like '| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X '. After the inner loop is done, the print()
function call on line 18 prints out the final '|' character along with a newline (since it does not end with a
comma).
(The print()call forces us to always print a newline character or a space at the end of everything we
print. If we do not want this last character, then we can always use the sys.stdout.write() function,
which has a single string parameter that it prints out. Be sure to import sys first before calling this
function.)
The code inside the outer for loop that begins on line 13 prints out an entire row of the board like this:
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
When printed out eight times, it forms the entire board (of course, some of the spaces on the board will
have 'O' or ' ' instead of 'X'.:
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
233
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Resetting the Game Board

An important thing to remember is that the coordinates that we print out to the player are from 1 to 8, but
the indexes in the board data structure are from 0 to 7.
23. def resetBoard(board):

24. # Blanks out the board it is passed, except for the
original starting position.
27. board[x][y] = ' '
Here we use a loop inside a loop to set the board data structure to be all blanks. We will call the
resetBoard() function whenever we start a new game and want to remove the tiles from a previous
game.
Setting Up the Starting Pieces
29. # Starting pieces:

30. board[3][3] = 'X'
31. board[3][4] = 'O'
32. board[4][3] = 'O'
33. board[4][4] = 'X'
When we start a new game of Reversi, it isn't enough to have a completely blank board. At the very
beginning, each player has two tiles already laid down in the very center, so we will also have to set those.
We do not have to return the board variable, because board is a reference to a list. Even when we make
changes inside the local function's scope, these changes happen in the global scope to the list that was passed
as an argument. (Remember, this is one way list variables are different from non-list variables.)
Creating a New Game Board Data Structure

37. # Creates a brand new, blank board data structure.
38. board = []
40. board.append([' '] * 8)
41.
42. return board
234
The getNewBoard() function creates a new board data structure and returns it. Line 38 creates the outer
list and assigns a reference to this list to board. Line 40 create the inner lists using list replication. ([' ']
* 8 is the same as [' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '] but with less typing.) The
for loop here runs line 40 eight times to create the eight inner lists. The spaces represent a completely empty
game board.
Checking if a Move is Valid
45. def isValidMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart):

46. # Returns False if the player's move on space xstart,
ystart is invalid.
47. # If it is a valid move, returns a list of spaces that
would become the player's if they made a move here.
48. if board[xstart][ystart] != ' ' or not isOnBoard
(xstart, ystart):
49. return False
50.
51. board[xstart][ystart] = tile # temporarily set the
tile on the board.
52.
53. if tile == 'X':
54. otherTile = 'O'
55. else:
56. otherTile = 'X'
57.
58. tilesToFlip = []
isValidMove() is one of the more complicated functions. Given a board data structure, the player's
tile, and the XY coordinates for player's move, this function should return True if the Reversi game rules
allow that move and False if they don't.
The easiest check we can do to disqualify a move is to see if the XY coordinates are on the game board or
if the space at XY is not empty. This is what the if statement on line 48 checks for. isOnBoard() is a
function we will write that makes sure both the X and Y coordinates are between 0 and 7.
For the purposes of this function, we will go ahead and mark the XY coordinate pointed to by xstart
and ystart with the player's tile. We set this place on the board back to a space before we leave this
function.
The player's tile has been passed to us, but we will need to be able to identify the other player's tile. If the
player's tile is 'X' then obviously the other player's tile is 'O'. And it is the same the other way.
Finally, if the given XY coordinate ends up as a valid position, we will return a list of all the opponent's
tiles that would be flipped by this move.
[1, -1], [0, -1], [-1, -1], [-1, 0], [-1, 1]]:
235
The for loop iterates through a list of lists which represent directions you can move on the game board.
The game board is a Cartesian coordinate system with an X and Y direction. There are eight directions you
can move: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonal directions. We will move around the board in a
direction by adding the first value in the two-item list to our X coordinate, and the second value to our Y
coordinate.
Because the X coordinates increase as you go to the right, you can "move" to the right by adding 1 to the X
coordinate. Moving to the left is the opposite: you would subtract 1 (or add -1) from the X coordinate. We
can move up, down, left, and right by adding or subtracting to only one coordinate at a time. But to move
diagonally, we need to add or subtract to both coordinates. For example, adding 1 to the X coordinate to
move right and adding -1 to the Y coordinate to move up would result in moving to the up-right diagonal
direction.
Checking Each of the Eight Directions

Here is a diagram to make it easier to remember which two-item list represents which direction:
Figure 14-7: Each two-item list represents one of the eight directions.
[1, -1], [0, -1], [-1, -1], [-1, 0], [-1, 1]]:
60. x, y = xstart, ystart
61. x += xdirection # first step in the direction
62. y += ydirection # first step in the direction
Line 60 sets an x and y variable to be the same value as xstart and ystart, respectively. We will
change x and y to "move" in the direction that xdirection and ydirection dictate. xstart and
ystart will stay the same so we can remember which space we originally intended to check. (Remember,
we need to set this place back to a space character, so we shouldn't overwrite the values in them.)
We make the first step in the direction as the first part of our algorithm.
236
63. if isOnBoard(x, y) and board[x][y] == otherTile:
64. # There is a piece belonging to the other
player next to our piece.
65. x += xdirection
66. y += ydirection
68. continue
Remember, in order for this to be a valid move, the first step in this direction must be 1) on the board and
2) must be occupied by the other player's tile. Otherwise there is no chance to flip over any of the opponent's
tiles. In that case, the if statement on line 63 is not True and execution goes back to the for statement for
the next direction.
But if the first space does have the other player's tile, then we should keep proceeding in that direction until
we reach on of our own tiles. If we move off of the board, then we should continue back to the for statement
to try the next direction.
69. while board[x][y] == otherTile:

70. x += xdirection
71. y += ydirection
72. if not isOnBoard(x, y): # break out of
while loop, then continue in for loop
73. break
75. continue
The while loop on line 69 ensures that x and y keep going in the current direction as long as we keep
seeing a trail of the other player's tiles. If x and y move off of the board, we break out of the for loop and
the flow of execution moves to line 74. What we really want to do is break out of the while loop but
continue in the for loop. But if we put a continue statement on line 73, that would only continue to the
while loop on line 69.
Instead, we recheck not isOnBoard(x, y) on line 74 and then continue from there, which goes to
the next direction in the for statement. It is important to know that break and continue will only break
or continue in the loop they are called from, and not an outer loop that contain the loop they are called from.
Finding Out if There are Pieces to Flip Over
76. if board[x][y] == tile:

77. # There are pieces to flip over. Go in the
reverse direction until we reach the original space,
noting all the tiles along the way.
78. while True:
79. x -= xdirection
80. y -= ydirection
81. if x == xstart and y == ystart:
237
82. break
83. tilesToFlip.append([x, y])
If the while loop on line 69 stopped looping because the condition was False, then we have found a
space on the board that holds our own tile or a blank space. Line 76 checks if this space on the board holds
one of our tiles. If it does, then we have found a valid move. We start a new while loop, this time
subtracting x and y to move them in the opposite direction they were originally going. We note each space
between our tiles on the board by appending the space to the tilesToFlip list.
We break out of the while loop once x and y have returned to the original position (which was still
stored in xstart and ystart).
85. board[xstart][ystart] = ' ' # restore the empty space

86. if len(tilesToFlip) == 0: # If no tiles were flipped,
this is not a valid move.
87. return False
88. return tilesToFlip
We perform this check in all eight directions, and afterwards the tilesToFlip list will contain the XY
coordinates all of our opponent's tiles that would be flipped if the player moved on xstart, ystart.
Remember, the isValidMove() function is only checking to see if the original move was valid, it does not
actually change the data structure of the game board.
If none of the eight directions ended up flipping at least one of the opponent's tiles, then tilesToFlip
would be an empty list and this move would not be valid. In that case, isValidMove() should return
False. Otherwise, we should return tilesToFlip.
Checking for Valid Coordinates
91. def isOnBoard(x, y):

92. # Returns True if the coordinates are located on the
board.
93. return x >= 0 and x <= 7 and y >= 0 and y <=7
isOnBoard() is a function called from isValidMove(), and is just shorthand for the rather
complicated Boolean expression that returns True if both x and y are in between 0 and 7. This function lets
us make sure that the coordinates are actually on the game board.
Getting a List with All Valid Moves
96. def getBoardWithValidMoves(board, tile):

97. # Returns a new board with . marking the valid moves
the given player can make.
238
99.
100. for x, y in getValidMoves(dupeBoard, tile):
101. dupeBoard[x][y] = '.'
getBoardWithValidMoves() is used to return a game board data structure that has '.' characters
for all valid moves on the board. This is used by the hints mode to display to the player a board with all
possible moves marked on it.
Notice that this function creates a duplicate game board data structure instead of modifying the one passed
to it by the board parameter. Line 100 calls getValidMoves(), which returns a list of xy coordinates
with all the legal moves the player could make. The board copy is then marked with a period in those spaces.
How getValidMoves() works is described next.
105. def getValidMoves(board, tile):

106. # Returns a list of [x,y] lists of valid moves for the
given player on the given board.
107. validMoves = []
108.
111. if isValidMove(board, tile, x, y) != False:
112. validMoves.append([x, y])
113. return validMoves
The getValidMoves() function returns a list of two-item lists that hold the XY coordinates for all
valid moves for tile's player, given a particular game board board.
This function uses two loops to check every single XY coordinate (all sixty four of them) by calling
isValidMove() on that space and checking if it returns False or a list of possible moves (in which case
it is a valid move). Each valid XY coordinate is appended to the list, validMoves.
The bool() Function

Remember how you could use the int() and str() functions to get the integer and string value of other
data types? For example, str(42) would return the string '42', and int('100') would return the
integer 100.
There is a similar function for the Boolean data type, bool(). Most other data types have one value that
is considered the False value for that data type, and every other value is consider True. The integer 0, the
floating point number 0.0, the empty string, the empty list, and the empty dictionary are all considered to be
False when used as the condition for an if or loop statement. All other values are True. Try entering the
>>> bool(0)
False
>>> bool(0.0)
239
False
>>> bool('')
False
>>> bool([])
False
>>> bool({})
False
>>> bool(1)
True
>>> bool('Hello')
True
>>> bool([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
True
>>> bool({'spam':'cheese', 'fizz':'buzz'})
True
>>>
Whenever you have a condition, imagine that the entire condition is placed inside a call to bool() as the
parameter. Conditions are automatically interpreted as Boolean values. This is similar to how print() can
be passed non-string values and will automatically interpret them as strings when they print.
This is why the condition on line 111 works correctly. The call to the isValidMove() function either
returns the Boolean value False or a non-empty list. If you imagine that the entire condition is placed inside
a call to bool(), then False becomes bool(False) (which, of course, evalutes to False). And a non-
empty list placed as the parameter to bool() will return True. This is why the return value of
isValidMove() can be used as a condition.
Getting the Score of the Game Board
116. def getScoreOfBoard(board):

117. # Determine the score by counting the tiles. Returns a
dictionary with keys 'X' and 'O'.
118. xscore = 0
119. oscore = 0
122. if board[x][y] == 'X':
123. xscore += 1
124. if board[x][y] == 'O':
125. oscore += 1
126. return {'X':xscore, 'O':oscore}
The getScoreOfBoard() function uses nested for loops to check all 64 spaces on the board (8 rows
times 8 columns per row is 64 spaces) and see which tile (if any) is on them. For each 'X' tile, the code
increments xscore. For each 'O' tile, the code increments oscore.
Notice that this function does not return a two-item list of the scores. A two-item list might be a bit
confusing, because you may forget which item is for X and which item is for O. Instead the function returns a
dictionary with keys 'X' and 'O' whose values are 240 the scores.
Getting the Player's Tile Choice
129. def enterPlayerTile():

130. # Let's the player type which tile they want to be.
131. # Returns a list with the player's tile as the first
item, and the computer's tile as the second.
132. tile = ''
133. while not (tile == 'X' or tile == 'O'):
135. tile = input().upper()
This function asks the player which tile they want to be, either 'X' or 'O'. The for loop will keep
looping until the player types in 'X' or 'O'.
137. # the first element in the tuple is the player's tile,

the second is the computer's tile.
138. if tile == 'X':
139. return ['X', 'O']
140. else:
141. return ['O', 'X']
The enterPlayerTile() function then returns a two-item list, where the player's tile choice is the first
item and the computer's tile is the second. We use a list here instead of a dictionary so that the assignment
statement calling this function can use the multiple assignment trick. (See line 252.)
Determining Who Goes First

148. else:
149. return 'player'
The whoGoesFirst() function randomly selects who goes first, and returns either the string
'computer' or the string 'player'.

154. print('Do you want to 241
play again? (yes or no)')
We have used the playAgain() in our previous games. If the player types in something that begins with
'y', then the function returns True. Otherwise the function returns False.
Placing Down a Tile on the Game Board
158. def makeMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart):

159. # Place the tile on the board at xstart, ystart, and
flip any of the opponent's pieces.
160. # Returns False if this is an invalid move, True if it
is valid.
161. tilesToFlip = isValidMove(board, tile, xstart, ystart)
makeMove() is the function we call when we want to place a tile on the board and flip the other tiles
according to the rules of Reversi. This function modifies the board data structure that is passed as a
parameter directly. Changes made to the board variable (because it is a list) will be made to the global
scope as well. Most of the work is done by isValidMove(), which returns a list of XY coordinates (in a
two-item list) of tiles that need to be flipped. (Remember, if the the xstart and ystart arguments point
to an invalid move, then isValidMove() will return the Boolean value False.)
163. if tilesToFlip == False:

164. return False
165.
166. board[xstart][ystart] = tile
167. for x, y in tilesToFlip:
168. board[x][y] = tile
169. return True
If the return value of isValidMove() was False, then makeMove() will also return False.
Otherwise, isValidMove() would have returned a list of spaces on the board to put down our tiles (the
'X' or 'O' string in tile). Line 166 sets the space that the player has moved on, and the for loop after that
sets all the tiles that are in tilesToFlip.
Copying the Board Data Structure

173. # Make a duplicate of the board list and return the
duplicate.
174. dupeBoard = getNewBoard()
175.
242
178. dupeBoard[x][y] = board[x][y]
179.
getBoardCopy() is different from getNewBoard(). getNewBoad() will create a new game board
data structure which has only empty spaces. getBoardCopy() will create a new game board data
structure, but then copy all of the pieces in the board parameter. This function is used by our AI to have a
game board that it can change around without changing the real game board. This is like how you may
imagine making moves on a copy of the board in your mind, but not actually put pieces down on the real
board.
A call to getNewBoard() handles getting a fresh game board data structure. Then the nested for loops
copies each of the 64 tiles from board to our duplicate board, dupeBoard.
Determining if a Space is on a Corner
183. def isOnCorner(x, y):

184. # Returns True if the position is in one of the four
corners.
185. return (x == 0 and y == 0) or (x == 7 and y == 0) or
(x == 0 and y == 7) or (x == 7 and y == 7)
This function is much like isOnBoard(). Because all Reversi boards are 8 x 8 in size, we only need the
XY coordinates to be passed to this function, not a game board data structure itself. This function returns
True if the coordinates are on either (0,0), (7,0), (0,7) or (7,7). Otherwise isOnCorner() returns False.
188. def getPlayerMove(board, playerTile):

189. # Let the player type in their move.
190. # Returns the move as [x, y] (or returns the strings
'hints' or 'quit')
191. DIGITS1TO8 = '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8'.split()
The getPlayerMove() function is called to let the player type in the coordinates of their next move
(and check if the move is valid). The player can also type in 'hints' to turn hints mode on (if it is off) or
off (if it is on). The player can also type in 'quit' to quit the game.
The DIGITS1TO8 constant variable is the list ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8']. We create this constant because
it is easier type DIGITS1TO8 than the entire list.
192. while True:

193. print('Enter your move, or type quit to end the
game, or hints to turn off/on hints.')
243
194. move = input().lower()
196. return 'quit'
197. if move == 'hints':
198. return 'hints'
The while loop will keep looping until the player has typed in a valid move. First we check if the player
wants to quit or toggle hints mode, and return the string 'quit' or 'hints'. We use the lower()
method on the string returned by input() so the player can type 'HINTS' or 'Quit' but still have the
command understood by our game.
The code that calls getPlayerMove() will handle what to do if the player wants to quit or toggle hints
mode.
200. if len(move) == 2 and move[0] in DIGITS1TO8 and

move[1] in DIGITS1TO8:
201. x = int(move[0]) - 1
202. y = int(move[1]) - 1
203. if isValidMove(board, playerTile, x, y) ==
False:
204. continue
205. else:
206. break
Our game is expecting that the player would have typed in the XY coordinates of their move as two
numbers without anything in between them. The if statement first checks that the size of the string the
player typed in is 2. After that, the if statement also checks that both move[0] (the first character in the
string) and move[1] (the second character in the string) are strings that exist in DIGITS1TO8, which we
defined at the beginning of the function.
Remember that our game board data structures have indexes from 0 to 7, not 1 to 8. We show 1 to 8 when
we print the board using drawBoard() because people are used to numbers beginning at 1 instead of 0. So
when we convert the strings in move[0] and move[1] to integers, we also subtract 1.
Even if the player typed in a correct move, we still need to check that the move is allowed by the rules of
Reversi. We do this by calling isValidMove(), passing the game board data structure, the player's tile,
and the XY coordinates of the move. If isValidMove() returns False, then we execute the continue
statement so that the flow of execution goes back to the beginning of the while loop and asks the player for
the move again.
If isValidMove() does not return False, then we know the player typed in a valid move and we
should break out of the while loop.
207. else:
208. print('That is not a valid move. Type the x
digit (1-8), then the y digit (1-8).')
244
209. print('For example, 81 will be the top-right
corner.')
If the if statement's condition on line 200 was False, then the player did not type in a valid move. We
should display a message instructing them how to type in moves that our Reversi program can understand.
Afterwards, the execution moves back to the while statement on line 192 because line 209 is not only the
last line in the else-block, but also the last line in the while-block.
211. return [x, y]
Finally, getPlayerMove() returns a two-item list with the XY coordinates of the player's valid move.
Getting the Computer's Move
214. def getComputerMove(board, computerTile):

215. # Given a board and the computer's tile, determine
where to
216. # move and return that move as a [x, y] list.
217. possibleMoves = getValidMoves(board, computerTile)
getComputerMove() and is where our Reversi AI is implemented. The getValidMoves() function

is very helpful for our AI. Normally we use the results from getValidMoves() for hints move. Hints
mode will print '.' period characters on the board to show the player all the potential moves they can make.
But if we call getValidMoves() with the computer AI's tile (in computerTile), we can get all the possible
moves that the computer can make. We will select the best move from this list.

First, we are going to use the random.shuffle() function to randomize the order of moves in the
possibleMoves list. Remember that the random.shuffle() function will reorder the items in the list
that you pass to it. The function also modifies the list directly, much like our resetBoard() function does
with the game board data structure.
We will explain why we want to shuffle the possibleMoves list, but first let's look at our algorithm.
Corner Moves are the Best Moves

245
225. return [x, y]
First, we loop through every move in possibleMoves and if any of them are on the corner, we return
that as our move. Corner moves are a good idea because once a tile has been placed on the corner, it can
never be flipped over. Since possibleMoves is a list of two-item lists, we use the multiple assignment
trick in our for loop to set x and y.
Because we immediately return on finding the first corner move in possibleMoves, if

possibleMoves contains multiple corner moves we always go with the first one. But since
possibleMoves was shuffled on line 220, it is completely random which corner move is first in the list.
Get a List of the Best Scoring Moves

best scoring move
228. bestScore = -1
231. makeMove(dupeBoard, computerTile, x, y)
232. score = getScoreOfBoard(dupeBoard)[computerTile]
233. if score > bestScore:
234. bestMove = [x, y]
235. bestScore = score
236. return bestMove
If there are no corner moves, we will go through the entire list and find out which move gives us the
highest score. The for loop will set x and y to every move in possibleMoves. bestMove will be set to
the highest scoring move we've found so far, and bestScore will be set to its score. When the code in the
loop finds a move that scores higher than bestScore, we will store that move and score as the new values
of bestMove and bestScore.
Simulate All Possible Moves on Duplicate Board Data Structures

In order to figure out the score of the possible move we are currently iterating on, we first make a duplicate
game board data structure by calling getBoardCopy(). We want a copy so we can modify without
changing the real game board data structure stored in the board variable.
Then we call makeMove(), passing the duplicate board instead of the real board. makeMove() will
handle placing the computer's tile and the flipping the player's tiles on the duplicate board.
We call getScoreOfBoard() with the duplicate board, which returns a dictionary where the keys are
'X' and 'O', and the values are the scores. getScoreOfBoard() does not know if the computer is 'X'
or 'O', which is why it returns a dictionary.
By making a duplicate board, we can simulate a future move and test the results of that move without
changing the actual game board data structure. This is very helpful in deciding which move is the best
possible move to make.
246
Pretend that getScoreOfBoard() returns the dictionary {'X':22, 'O':8} and computerTile
is 'X'. Then getScoreOfBoard(dupeBoard)[computerTile] would evaluate to {'X':22,
'O':8}['X'], which would then evaluate to 22. If 22 is larger than bestScore, bestScore is set to
22 and bestMove is set to the current x and y values we are looking at. By the time this for loop is
finished, we can be sure that bestScore is the highest possible score a move can make, and that move is
stored in bestMove.
You may have noticed that on line 228 we first set bestScore to -1. This is so that the first move we
look at in our for loop over possibleMoves will be set to the first bestMove. This will guarantee that
bestMove is set to one of the moves when we return it.
Say that the highest scoring move in possibleMoves would give the computer a score of 42. What if
there was more than one move in possibleMoves that would give this score? The for loop we use would
always go with the first move that scored 42 points, because bestMove and bestScore only change if
the move is greater than the highest score. A tie will not change bestMove and bestScore.
We do not always want to go with the first move in the possibleMoves list, because that would make
our AI predictable by the player. But it is random, because on line 220 we shuffled the possibleMoves
list. Even though our code always chooses the first of these tied moves, is random which of the moves will be
first in the list because the order is random. This ensures that the AI will not be predictable when there is
more than one best move.
Printing the Scores to the Screen
239. def showPoints(playerTile, computerTile):

240. # Prints out the current score.
242. print('You have %s points. The computer has %s
points.' % (scores[playerTile], scores[computerTile]))
showPoints() simply calls the getScoreOfBoard() function and then prints out the player's score
and the computer's score. Remember that getScoreOfBoard() returns a dictionary with the keys 'X'
and 'O' and values of the scores for the X and O players.
That's all the functions we define for our Reversi game. The code starting on line 246 will implement the
actual game and make calls to these functions when they are needed.

247.
248. while True:
252. playerTile, computerTile = enterPlayerTile()
253. showHints = False
254. turn = whoGoesFirst() 247
The while loop on line 248 is the main game loop. The program will loop back to line 248 each time we
want to start a new game. First we get a new game board data structure by calling getNewBoard() and set
the starting tiles by calling resetBoard(). mainBoard is the main game board data structure we will use
for this program. The call to enterPlayerTile() will let the player type in whether they want to be 'X'
or 'O', which is then stored in playerTile and computerTile.
showHints is a Boolean value that determines if hints mode is on or off. We originally set it to off by
setting showHints to False.
The turn variable is a string will either have the string value 'player' or 'computer', and will keep
track of whose turn it is. We set turn to the return value of whoGoesFirst(), which randomly chooses
who will go first. We then print out who goes first to the player on line 255.
Running the Player's Turn
257. while True:

260. if showHints:
261. validMovesBoard = getBoardWithValidMoves
(mainBoard, playerTile)
262. drawBoard(validMovesBoard)
263. else:
The while loop that starts on line 257 will keep looping each time the player or computer takes a turn.
We will break out of this loop when the current game is over.
Line 258 has an if statement whose body has the code that runs if it is the player's turn. (The else-block
that starts on line 282 has the code for the computer's turn.) The first thing we want to do is display the board
to the player. If hints mode is on (which it is if showHints is True), then we want to get a board data
structure that has '.' period characters on every space the player could go.
Our getBoardWithValidMoves() function does that, all we have to do is pass the game board data
structure and it will return a copy that also contains '.' period characters. We then pass this board to the
drawBoard() function.
If hints mode is off, then we just pass mainBoard to drawBoard().
After printing out the game board to the player, we also want to print out the current score by calling
showPoints().
248
Next we let the player type in their move. getPlayerMove() handles this, and its return value is a two-
item list of the X and Y coordinate of the player's move. getPlayerMove() makes sure that the move the
player typed in is a valid move, so we don't have to worry about it here.
Handling the Quit or Hints Commands

269. sys.exit() # terminate the program
270. elif move == 'hints':
271. showHints = not showHints
272. continue
273. else:
274. makeMove(mainBoard, playerTile, move[0],
move[1])
If the player typed in the string 'quit' for their move, then getPlayerMove() would have returned
the string 'quit'. In that case, we should call the sys.exit() to terminate the program.
If the player typed in the string 'hints' for their move, then getPlayerMove() would have returned
the string 'hints'. In that case, we want to turn hints mode on (if it was off) or off (if it was on). The
showHints = not showHints assignment statement handles both of these cases, because not
False evaluates to True and not True evaluates to False. Then we run the continue statement to
loop back (turn has not changed, so it will still be the player's turn after we loop).
Make the Player's Move

Otherwise, if the player did not quit or toggle hints mode, then we will call makeMove() to make the
player's move on the board.
276. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, computerTile) ==

[]:
277. break
278. else:
After making the player's move, we call False to see if the computer could possibly make any moves. If
False returns a blank list, then there are no more moves left that the computer could make (most likely
because the board is full). In that case, we break out of the while loop and end the current game.
Otherwise, we set turn to 'computer'. The flow of execution skips the else-block and reaches the end
of the while-block, so execution jumps back to the while statement on line 257. This time, however, it will
be the computer's turn.
249
Running the Computer's Turn
281. else:
285. input('Press Enter to see the computer\'s
move.')
286. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard,
computerTile)
287. makeMove(mainBoard, computerTile, x, y)
The first thing we do when it is the computer's turn is call drawBoard() to print out the board to the
player. Why do we do this now? Because either the computer was selected to make the first move of the
game, in which case we should display the original starting picture of the board to the player before the
computer makes its move. Or the player has gone first, and we want to show what the board looks like after
the player has moved but before the computer has gone.
After printing out the board with drawBoard(), we also want to print out the current score with a call to
showPoints().
Next we have a call to input() to pause the script while the player can look at the board. This is much
like how we use input() to pause the program in our Jokes chapter. Instead of using a print() call to
print a string before a call to input(), you can pass the string as a parameter to input(). input() has
an optional string parameter. The string we pass in this call is 'Press Enter to see the
computer\'s move.'.
After the player has looked at the board and pressed Enter (any text the player typed is ignored since we do
not assign the return value of input() to anything), we call getComputerMove() to get the X and Y
coordinates of the computer's next move. We store these coordinates in variables x and y, respectively.
Finally, we pass x and y, along with the game board data structure and the computer's tile to the
makeMove() function to change the game board to reflect the computer's move. Our call to
getComputerMove() got the computer's move, and the call to makeMove() makes the move on the
board.
289. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, playerTile) == []:

290. break
291. else:
Lines 289 to 292 are very similar to lines 276 to 279. After the computer has made its move, we check if
there exist any possible moves the human player can make. If getValidMoves() returns an empty list,
then there are no possible moves. That means the game is over, and we should break out of the while loop
that we are in.
250
Otherwise, there is at least one possible move the player should make, so we should set turn to
'player'. There is no more code in the while-block after line 292, so execution loops back to the while
statement on line 257.
Drawing Everything on the Screen

298. if scores[playerTile] > scores[computerTile]:
299. print('You beat the computer by %s points!
Congratulations!' % (scores[playerTile] - scores
[computerTile]))
300. elif scores[playerTile] < scores[computerTile]:
301. print('You lost. The computer beat you by %s
points.' % (scores[computerTile] - scores[playerTile]))
302. else:
303. print('The game was a tie!')
Line 294 is the first line beyond the while-block that started on line 257. This code is executed when we
have broken out of that while loop, either on line 290 or 277. (The while statement's condition on line 257
is simply the value True, so we can only exit the loop through break statements.)
At this point, the game is over. We should print out the board and scores, and determine who won the
game. getScoreOfBoard() will return a dictionary with keys 'X' and 'O' and values of both players'
scores. By checking if the player's score is greater than, less than, or equal to the computer's score, we can
know if the player won, if the player lost, or if the player and computer tied.
Subtracting one score from the other is an easy way to see by how much one player won over the other.
Our print() calls on lines 29 and 301 use string interpolation to put the result of this subtraction into the
string that is printed.
Ask the Player to Play Again

306. break
The game is now over and the winner has been declared. We should call our playAgain() function,
which returns True if the player typed in that they want to play another game. If playAgain() returns
False (which makes the if statement's condition True), we break out of the while loop (the one that
started on line 248), and since there are no more lines of code after this while-block, the program terminates.
Otherwise, playAgain() has returned True (which makes the if statement's condition False), and so
execution loops back to the while statement on line 248 and a new game board is created.
251
Summary: Reviewing the Reversi Game
The AI may seem almost unbeatable, but this isn't because the computer is very smart. The strategy it
follows is very simple: move on the corner if you can, otherwise make the move that will flip over the most
tiles. We could do that, but it would take us a long time to figure out how many tiles would be flipped for
every possible valid move we could make. But calculating this for the computer is very simple. The computer
isn't smarter than us, it's just much faster!
This game is very similar to Sonar because it makes use of a grid for a board. It is also like the Tic Tac Toe
game because there is an AI that plans out the best move for it to take. This chapter only introduced one new
concept: using the bool() function and the fact that empty lists, blank strings, and the integer all evaluate to
False in the context of a condition.
Other than that, this game used programming concepts that you already knew! You don't have to know
very much about programming in order to create interesting games. However, this game is stretching how far
you can get with ASCII art. The board took up almost the entire screen to draw, and the game didn't have any
color.
Later in this book, we will learn how to create games with graphics and animation, not just text. We will
do this using a module called Pygame, which adds new functions and features to Python so that we can break
away from using just text and keyboard input.
252
• Simulations
• Percentages
• Pie Charts
• Integer Division
• The round() Function
"Computer vs. Computer" Games

The Reversi AI algorithm was very simple, but it beats me almost every time I play it. This is because the
computer can process instructions very fast, so checking each possible position on the board and selecting the
highest scoring move is easy for the computer. If I took the time to look at every space on the board and write
down the score of each possible move, it would take a long time for me to find the best move.
Did you notice that our Reversi program in Chapter 14 had two functions, getPlayerMove() and
getComputerMove(), which both returned the move selected as a two-item list like [x, y]? The both
also had the same parameters, the game board data structure and which tile they were. getPlayerMove()
decided which [x, y] move to return by letting the player type in the coordinates. getComputerMove
() decided which [x, y] move to return by running the Reversi AI algorithm.
What happens when we replace the call to getPlayerMove() with a call to getComputerMove()?
Then the player never types in a move, it is decided for them! The computer is playing against itself!
We are going to make three new programs, each based on the Reversi program in the last chapter. We will
make changes to reversi.py to create AISim1.py. Next we will make changes to AISim1.py to create
AISim2.py. And finally, we will make changes to AISim2.py to for AISim3.py. You can either type these
changes in yourself, or download them from the book's website at the URL
253
Making the Computer Play Against Itself
Save the old reversi.py file as AISim1.py by clicking on File and then Save As, and then entering
AISim1.py for the file name and clicking Ok. This will create a copy of our Reversi source code as a new file
that we can make changes to, while leaving the original Reversi game the same (we may want to play it
again). Change the following code in AISim1.py:
To this (the change is in bold):
266. move = getComputerMove(mainBoard, playerTile)
And run the program. Notice that the game still asks you if you want to be X or O, but it will not ask you
to enter in any moves. When we replaced getPlayerMove(), we no longer call any code that takes this
input from the player. We still press Enter after the original computer's moves (because of the input
('Press Enter to see the computer\'s move.') on line 285), but the game plays itself!
Let's make some other changes to AISim1.py. All of the functions we defined for Reversi can stay the
same. But replace the entire main section of the program (line 246 and on) to look like the following code.
Some of the code has remained, but most of it has been altered. But all of the lines before line 246 are the
same as in Reversi in the last chapter. You can also avoid typing in the code by downloading the source from
the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter15.
AISim1.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/AISim1.py

247.
248. while True:
252. if whoGoesFirst() == 'player':
253. turn = 'X'
254. else:
255. turn = 'O'
257.
258. while True:
261. print('X has %s points. O has %s points' %
262. input('Press Enter to continue.')
254
263.
264. if turn == 'X':
265. # X's turn.
266. otherTile = 'O'
267. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard, 'X')
268. makeMove(mainBoard, 'X', x, y)
269. else:
270. # O's turn.
271. otherTile = 'X'
272. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard, 'O')
273. makeMove(mainBoard, 'O', x, y)
274.
275. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, otherTile) == []:
276. break
277. else:
278. turn = otherTile
279.
284.
286. sys.exit()
How the AISim1.py Code Works

The AISim1.py program is the same as the original Reversi program, except that the call to
getPlayerMove() has been replaced with a call to getComputerMove(). There have been some
other changes to the text that is printed to the screen to make the game easier to follow.
When you run the AISim1.py program, all you can do is press Enter for each turn until the game ends. Run
through a few games and watch the computer play itself. Since both the X and O players are using the same
algorithm, it really is just a matter of luck to see who wins. The X player will win half the time, and the O
player will win half the time.
Making the Computer Play Itself Several Times

But what if we created a new algorithm? Then we could set this new AI against the one implemented in
getComputerMove(), and see which one is better. Let's make some changes to our program. Click on
File and then Save As, and save this file as AISim2.py so that we can make changes without affecting
AISim1.py. At this point, AISim1.py and AISim2.py have the same code. We will make changes to AISim2.py
and save that file so that AISim2.py has the new changes and AISim1.py has the original code.
Add the following code. The additions are in bold, and some lines have been removed. When you are done
changing the file, save it as AISim2.py.
If this is confusing, you can always download the AISim2.py source code from the book's website at
255
AISim2.py

247.
248. xwins = 0
249. owins = 0
250. ties = 0
251. numGames = int(input('Enter number of games to run: '))
252.
253. for game in range(numGames):
254. print('Game #%s:' % (game), end=' ')
258. if whoGoesFirst() == 'player':
259. turn = 'X'
260. else:
261. turn = 'O'
262.
263. while True:
264. if turn == 'X':
265. # X's turn.
266. otherTile = 'O'
267. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard, 'X')
268. makeMove(mainBoard, 'X', x, y)
269. else:
270. # O's turn.
271. otherTile = 'X'
272. x, y = getComputerMove(mainBoard, 'O')
273. makeMove(mainBoard, 'O', x, y)
274.
275. if getValidMoves(mainBoard, otherTile) == []:
276. break
277. else:
278. turn = otherTile
279.
283.
284. if scores['X'] > scores['O']:
285. xwins += 1
286. elif scores['X'] < scores['O']:
287. owins += 1
288. else:
289. ties += 1
290. 256
291. numGames = float(numGames)
292. xpercent = round(((xwins / numGames) * 100), 2)
293. opercent = round(((owins / numGames) * 100), 2)
294. tiepercent = round(((ties / numGames) * 100), 2)
295. print('X wins %s games (%s%%), O wins %s games (%s%%),
ties for %s games (%s%%) of %s games total.' % (xwins,
xpercent, owins, opercent, ties, tiepercent, numGames))

We have added the variables xwins, owins, and ties to keep track of how many times X wins, O wins,
and when they tie. Lines 284 to 289 increment these variables at the end of each game, before it loops back to
start a brand new game.
We have removed most of the print() function calls from the program, and the calls to drawBoard
(). When you run AISim2.py, it asks you how many games you wish to run. Now that we've taken out the
call to drawBoard() and replace the while True: loop with a for game in range
(numGames): loop, we can run a number of games without stopping for the user to type anything. Here is a
sample run where we run ten games of computer vs. computer Reversi:
Welcome to Reversi!
Enter number of games to run: 10
Game #0: X scored 40 points. O scored 23 points.
X wins 5 games (50.0%), O wins 4 games (40.0%), ties for 1
games (10.0%) of 10.0 games total.
Because the algorithm does have a random part, your run might not have the exact same numbers as above.
Printing things out to the screen slows the computer down, but now that we have removed that code, the
computer can run an entire game of Reversi in about a second or two. Think about it. Each time our program
printed out one of those lines, it ran through an entire game (which is about fifty or sixty moves, each move
carefully checked to be the one that gets the most points).
Percentages
Percentages are a portion of a total amount, and range from 0% to 100%. If you had 100% of a pie, you
would have the entire pie. If you had 0% of a pie, you wouldn't have any pie at all. 50% of the pie would be
half of the pie. A pie is a common image to use for percentages. In fact, there is a kind of chart called a pie
257
chart which shows how much of the full total a certain portion is.
Here is a pie chart with 10%, 15%, 25%, and 50% portions below.
Notice that 10% + 15% + 25% + 50% adds up to 100%.
We can calculate the percentage with division. To get a

percentage, divide the part you have by the total, and then multiply
by one hundred. For example, if X won 50 out of 100 games, you
would calculate the expression 50 / 100, which would evaluate
to 0.5. We multiply this by 100 to get a percentage (in this case,
50%). Notice that if X won 100 out of 200 games, we could
calculate the percentage with 100 / 200, which would also
evaluate to 0.5. When we multiply 0.5 by 100 to get the
percentage, we get 50%. Winning 100 out of 200 games is the same
Figure 15-1: A pie chart with 10%,
percentage (that is, the same portion) as winning 50 out of 100 15%, 25%, and 50% portions.
games.
Division Evaluates to Floating Point

It is important to note that when you use the / division operator, the expression will always evaluate to a
floating point number. For example, the expression 10 / 2 will evaluate to the floating point value 5.0
and not to the integer value 5.
This is important to remember, because adding an integer to a floating point value with the + addition
operator will also always evaluate to a floating point value. For example, 3 + 4.0 will evaluate to the
floating point value 7.0 and not to the integer 7.
Try entering the following code into the interactive shell:
>>> spam = 100 / 4

>>> spam
25.0
>>> spam = spam + 20
>>> spam
45.0
>>>
Notice that in the above example, the data type of the value stored in spam is always a floating point
value. You can pass the floating point value to the int() function, which will return an integer form of the
floating point value. But this will always round the floating point value down. For example, the expressions
int(4.0), int(4.2), and int(4.9) will all evaluate to 4, and never 5.
The round() Function

The round() function will round a float number to the nearest whole float number. Try entering the
>>> round(10.0)
10.0
>>> round(10.2)
258
10.0
>>> round(8.7)
9.0
>>> round(4.5)
5.0
>>> round(3.5)
4.0
>>> round(3.4999)
3.0
>>> round(2.5422, 2)
2.54
>>>
As you can see, whenever the fraction part of a number is .5 or greater, the number is rounded up.
Otherwise, the number is rounded down. The round() function also has an optional parameter, where you
can specify to what place you wish to round the number to. For example, the expression round(2.5422,
2) evaluates to 2.54.
Displaying the Statistics
291. numGames = float(numGames)

292. xpercent = round(((xwins / numGames) * 100), 2)
293. opercent = round(((owins / numGames) * 100), 2)
294. tiepercent = round(((ties / numGames) * 100), 2)
295. print('X wins %s games (%s%%), O wins %s games (%s%%),
ties for %s games (%s%%) of %s games total.' % (xwins,
xpercent, owins, opercent, ties, tiepercent, numGames))
The code at the bottom of our program will show the user how many wins X and O had, how many ties
there were, and how what percentages these make up. Statistically, the more games you run, the more
accurate your percentages will be. If you only ran ten games, and X won three of them, then it would seem
that X's algorithm only wins 30% of the time. However, if you run a hundred, or even a thousand games, then
you may find that X's algorithm wins closer to 50% (that is, half) of the games.
To find the percentages, we divide the number of wins or ties by the total number of games. We convert
numGames to a float to ensure we do not use integer division in our calculation. Then we multiply the result
by 100. However, we may end up with a number like 66.66666666666667. So we pass this number to
the round() function with the second parameter of 2 to limit the precision to two decimal places, so it will
return a float like 66.67 instead (which is much more readable).
Let's try another experiment. Run AISim2.py again, but this time have it run a hundred games:
Sample Run of AISim2.py
Welcome to Reversi!
259

Depending on how fast your computer is, this run might have taken a about a couple minutes. We can see
that the results of all one hundred games still evens out to about fifty-fifty, because both X and O are using
the same algorithm to win.
Comparing Different AI Algorithms

Let's add some new functions with new algorithms. But first click on File, then Save As, and save this file
as AISim3.py. Before the print('Welcome to Reversi!') line, add these functions:
AISim3.py
245. def getRandomMove(board, tile):

246. # Return a random move.
247. return random.choice( getValidMoves(board, tile) )
248.
249.
250. def isOnSide(x, y):
251. return x == 0 or x == 7 or y == 0 or y ==7
252.
253.
254. def getCornerSideBestMove(board, tile):
255. # Return a corner move, or a side move, or the best
move.
256. possibleMoves = getValidMoves(board, tile)
257.
260.
264. return [x, y]
265.
266. # if there is no corner, return a side move.
260
268. if isOnSide(x, y):
269. return [x, y]
270.
271. return getComputerMove(board, tile)
272.
273.
274. def getSideBestMove(board, tile):
275. # Return a corner move, or a side move, or the best
move.
277.
280.
281. # return a side move, if available
283. if isOnSide(x, y):
284. return [x, y]
285.
286. return getComputerMove(board, tile)
287.
288.
289. def getWorstMove(board, tile):
290. # Return the move that flips the least number of
tiles.
292.
295.
best scoring move
297. worstScore = 64
300. makeMove(dupeBoard, tile, x, y)
301. score = getScoreOfBoard(dupeBoard)[tile]
302. if score < worstScore:
303. worstMove = [x, y]
304. worstScore = score
305.
306. return worstMove
307.
308.
309. def getCornerWorstMove(board, tile):
310. # Return a corner, a space, or the move that flips the
least number of tiles.
312.
261
315.
319. return [x, y]
320.
321. return getWorstMove(board, tile)
322.
323.
324.

A lot of these functions are very similar to one another, and some of them use the new isOnSide()
function. Here's a review of the new algorithms we've made:
Table 17-1: Functions used for our Reversi AI.

Function Description
getRandomMove() Randomly choose a valid move to make.
Take a corner move if available. If there is no corner, take a space on the
getCornerSideBestMove
side. If no sides are available, use the regular getComputerMove()
()
algorithm.
Take a side space if there is one available. If not, then use the regular
getSideBestMove() getComputerMove() algorithm (side spaces are chosen before corner
spaces).
getWorstMove() Take the space that will result in the fewest tiles being flipped.
Take a corner space, if available. If not, use the getWorstMove()
getCornerWorstMove()
algorithm.
Comparing the Random Algorithm Against the Regular Algorithm

Now the only thing to do is replace one of the getComputerMove() calls in the main part of the
program with one of the new functions. Then we can run several games and see how often one algorithm
wins over the other. First, let's replace O's algorithm with the one in getComputerMove() with
getRandomMove() on line 351:
351. x, y = getRandomMove(mainBoard, 'O')
When we run the program with a hundred games now, it may look something like this:
Welcome to Reversi!
262

Wow! X win far more often than O did. That means that the algorithm in getComputerMove() (take
any available corners, otherwise take the space that flips the most tiles) wins more games than the algorithm
in getRandomMove() (which just makes moves randomly). This makes sense, because making intelligent
choices is usually going to be better than just choosing things at random.
Comparing the Random Algorithm Against Itself

What if we changed O's algorithm to also use the algorithm in getRandomMove()? Let's find out by
changing O's function call on line 351 from getComputerMove() to getRandomMove() and running
the program again.
Welcome to Reversi!

As you can see, when both players are making random moves, they each win about 50% of the time. (In
the above case, O just happen to get lucky and won a little bit more than half of the time.)
Just like moving on the corner spaces is a good idea because they cannot be flipped, moving on the side
pieces may also be a good idea. On the side, the tile has the edge of the board and is not as out in the open as
the other pieces. The corners are still preferable to the side spaces, but moving on the sides (even when there
is a move that can flip more pieces) may be a good strategy.
Comparing the Regular Algorithm Against the CornersSideBest Algorithm

Change X's algorithm on line 346 to use getComputerMove() (our original algorithm) and O's
algorithm on line 351 to use getCornerSideBestMove(), and let's run a hundred games to see which is
better. Try changing the function calls and running the program again.
263
Welcome to Reversi!

Wow! That's unexpected. It seems that choosing the side spaces over a space that flips more tiles is a bad
strategy to use. The benefit of the side space is not greater than the cost of choosing a space that flips fewer
of the opponent's tiles. Can we be sure of these results? Let's run the program again, but this time let's have
the program play one thousand games. This may take a few minutes for your computer to run (but it would
take days for you to do this by hand!) Try changing the function calls and running the program again.
Welcome to Reversi!

X wins 611 games (61.1%), O wins 363 games (36.3%), ties for
26 games (2.6%) of 1000.0 games total.
The more accurate statistics from the thousand-games run are about the same as the statistics from the
hundred-games run. It seems that choosing the move that flips the most tiles is a better idea than choosing a
side move.
Comparing the Regular Algorithm Against the Worst Algorithm

Now set the X player's algorithm on line 346 to use getComputerMove() and the O player's algorithm
on line 351 to getWorstMove(), and run a hundred games. Try changing the function calls and running
the program again.
Welcome to Reversi!

264
Whoa! The algorithm in getWorstMove(), which always choose the move that flips the fewest tiles,
will almost always lose to our regular algorithm. This isn't really surprising at all.
Comparing the Regular Algorithm Against the WorstCorner Algorithm

How about when we replace getWorstMove() on line 351 with getCornerWorstMove(), which is
the same algorithm except it takes any available corner pieces. Try changing the function calls and running
the program again.
Welcome to Reversi!

The getCornerWorstMove() still loses most of the games, but it seems to win a few more games than
getWorstMove() (6% compared to 2%). Does taking the corner spaces when they are available really
make a difference?
Comparing the Worst Algorithm Against the WorstCorner Algorithm

We can check by setting X's algorithm to getWorstMove() and O's algorithm to
getCornerWorstMove(), and then running the program. Try changing the function calls and running the
program again.
Welcome to Reversi!

265
Yes, it does seem like taking the algorithm that takes the corners when it can does translate into more wins.
While we have found out that going for the sides makes you lose more often, going for the corners is always
a good idea.
Learning New Things by Running Simulation Experiments

This chapter didn't really cover a game, but it modeled various strategies for Reversi. If we thought that
taking side moves in Reversi was a good idea, we would have to spend days, even weeks, carefully playing
games of Reversi by hand and writing down the results. But if we know how to program a computer to play
Reversi, then we can have the computer play Reversi using these strategies for us. If you think about it, you
will realize that the computer is executing millions of lines of our Python program in seconds! Your
experiments with the simulation of Reversi can help you learn more about playing Reversi in real life.
In fact, this chapter would make a good science fair project. Your problem can be which set of moves leads
to the most wins against other sets of moves, and make a hypothesis about which is the best strategy. After
running several simulations, you can determine which strategy works best. You can make a science fair
project out of a simulation of any board game! And it is all because you know exactly how to instruct the
computer to do it, step by step, line by line. You can speak the computer's language, and get it to do large
amounts of data processing and number crunching for you.
That's all for the text-based games in this book. Games that only use text can be fun, even though there
simple. But most modern games use graphics, sound, and animation to make much more exciting looking
games. For the rest of the chapters in this book, we will learn how to create games with graphics by using a
Python module called Pygame.
266
• Software Libraries
• Installing Pygame
• Graphical user interfaces (GUI)
• Drawing primitives
• Creating a GUI window with Pygame
• Color in Pygame
• Fonts in Pygame
• Aliased and Anti-Aliased Graphics
• Attributes
• The pygame.font.Font Data Type
• The pygame.Surface Data Type
• The pygame.Rect Data Type
• The pygame.PixelArray Data Type
• Constructor Functions
• The type() Function
• Pygame's Drawing Functions
• The blit() Method for Surface Objects
• Events
• The Game Loop
• Animation
So far, all of our games have only used text. Text is displayed on the screen as output, and the player types
in text from the keyboard as input. This is simple, and an easy way to learn programming. But in this chapter,
we will make some more exciting games with advanced graphics and sound using the Pygame library.
Chapters 16, 17, and 18 will teach you how to use the Pygame library to make games with graphics,
animation, and sound. In these chapters we'll find source code for simple programs that are not games but
demonstrate the Pygame concepts we've learned. Chapter 19 will present the source code for a complete
Pygame game using all the concepts you've learned.
267
A software library is code that is not meant to be run by itself, but included in other programs to add new
features. By using a library a programmer doesn't have to write the entire program, but can make use of the
work that another programmer has done before them. Pygame is a software library for graphics, sound, and
other features that games commonly use.
Installing Pygame
Pygame does not come with Python. Like Python, Pygame is available for free. You will have to download
and install Pygame, which is as easy as downloading and installing the Python interpreter. In a web browser,
go to the URL http://pygame.org and click on the "Downloads" link on the left side of the web site. This book
assumes you have the Windows operating system, but Pygame works the same for every operating system.
You need to download the Pygame installer for your operating system and the version of Python you have
installed (3.1).
You do not want to download the "source" for Pygame, but rather the Pygame for your operating system.
For Windows, download the pygame-1.9.1.win32-py3.1.msi file. (This is Pygame for Python 3.1 on Windows.
If you installed a different version of Python (such as 2.5 or 2.4) download the .msi file for your version of
Python.) The current version of Pygame at the time this book was written is 1.9.1. If you see a newer version
on the website, download and install the newer Pygame. For Mac OS X and Linux, follow the directions on
the download page for installation instructions.
Figure 16-1: The pygame.org website.
On Windows, double click on the downloaded file to install Pygame. To check that Pygame is install
correctly, type the following into the interactive shell:
>>> import pygame
If nothing appears after you hit the ENTER key, then you know Pygame has successfully been installed. If
the error ImportError: No module named pygame appears, then try to install Pygame again (and
make sure you typed import pygame correctly).
This chapter has five small programs that demonstrate how to use the different features that Pygame
provides. In the last chapter, you will use these features for a complete game written in Python with Pygame.
268
Hello World in Pygame
We are going to create a new "Hello World!" program, just like you created at the beginning of the book.
This time, we will use Pygame to make "Hello world!" appear in a graphical user interface (GUI, which is
pronounced "gooey") window. A graphical user interface gives you a window that color, shapes, and images
can be drawn on by your program, as well as accepting mouse input (and not just keyboard input). The basic
shapes that we draw on the screen are called drawing primitives. GUI windows are used instead of the text
window (also called a console window or a terminal window) that we used for all our previous games.
Pygame does not work well with the interactive shell because it relies on a game loop (we will describe
game loops later). Because of this, you can only write Pygame programs and cannot send commands to
Pygame one at a time through the interactive shell.
Pygame programs also do not use the input() function. There is no text input and output. Instead, the
program displays output in a window by drawing graphics and text to the window. Pygame program's input
comes from the keyboard and the mouse through things called events, which we will go over in the next
chapter. However, if our program has bugs that cause Python to display an error message, the error message
will show up in the console window.
You can also use print statements to display text in the console window, however in Pygame the print
statement is only used for temporarily printing messages to help you find bugs in your program. It can be
useful to print out the values of variables while your program is running so that you can make sure it is
working correctly.
You can also look up information about how to use the Pygame library by visiting the web site
http://pygame.org/docs/ref/.
Hello World's Source Code

Type in the following code into the file editor, and save it as pygameHelloWorld.py. Or you can download
this source code by going to this book's website at http://inventwithpython.com/chapter16
pygameHelloWorld.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/pygameHelloWorld.py
1. import pygame, sys

2. from pygame.locals import *
3.
4. # set up pygame
5. pygame.init()
6.
7. # set up the window
8. windowSurface = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 400), 0, 32)
9. pygame.display.set_caption('Hello world!')
10.
11. # set up the colors
12. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
13. WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
14. RED = (255, 0, 0)
15. GREEN = (0, 255, 0) 269
16. BLUE = (0, 0, 255)
17.
18. # set up fonts
19. basicFont = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 48)
20.
21. # set up the text
22. text = basicFont.render('Hello world!', True, WHITE, BLUE)
23. textRect = text.get_rect()
24. textRect.centerx = windowSurface.get_rect().centerx
25. textRect.centery = windowSurface.get_rect().centery
26.
27. # draw the white background onto the surface
28. windowSurface.fill(WHITE)
29.
30. # draw a green polygon onto the surface
31. pygame.draw.polygon(windowSurface, GREEN, ((146, 0), (291,
106), (236, 277), (56, 277), (0, 106)))
32.
33. # draw some blue lines onto the surface
34. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (60, 60), (120, 60),
4)
35. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (120, 60), (60, 120))
36. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (60, 120), (120,
120), 4)
37.
38. # draw a blue circle onto the surface
39. pygame.draw.circle(windowSurface, BLUE, (300, 50), 20, 0)
40.
41. # draw a red ellipse onto the surface
42. pygame.draw.ellipse(windowSurface, RED, (300, 250, 40, 80),
1)
43.
44. # draw the text's background rectangle onto the surface
45. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, RED, (textRect.left - 20,
textRect.top - 20, textRect.width + 40, textRect.height +
40))
46.
47. # get a pixel array of the surface
48. pixArray = pygame.PixelArray(windowSurface)
49. pixArray[480][380] = BLACK
50. del pixArray
51.
52. # draw the text onto the surface
53. windowSurface.blit(text, textRect)
54.
55. # draw the window onto the screen
56. pygame.display.update()
57.
58. # run the game loop
59. while True:
60. for event in pygame.event.get():
270
61. if event.type == QUIT:
62. pygame.quit()
63. sys.exit()
Running the Hello World Program

When you run this program, you should see a new GUI window appear which looks like this:
Figure 16-2: The "Hello World" program.
What is nice about using a GUI instead of a console is that the text can appear anywhere in the window, not
just after the previous text we have printed. The text can be any color or size.
One thing you may notice is that Pygame uses a lot of tuples instead of lists. Remember that tuples are
almost the same as lists (they can contain other values) except they are typed with parentheses ( and ), instead
of square brackets [ and ]. The main difference is that once you create a tuple, you cannot change, add, or
remove any values in the tuple. For technical reasons, knowing that the contents of the tuple never change
allows Python to handle this data more efficiently, which is why Pygame uses tuples instead of lists.
Importing the Pygame Module

Let's go over each of these lines of code and find out what they do.
1. import pygame, sys

271
First we need to import the pygame module so we can call the functions in the Pygame software library.
You can import several modules on the same line by delimiting the module names with commas. Line 1
imports both the pygame and sys modules.
The second line imports the pygame.locals module. This module contains many constant variables that
we will use with Pygame such as QUIT or K_ESCAPE (which we will explain later). However, using the form
from moduleName import * we can import the pygame.locals module but not have to type
pygame.locals in front of each time we use the module's functions and variables in our program. The *
symbol means we should import everything inside the module.
The pygame.locals module contains some constant variables we will use in this program . If you have
from sys import * instead of import sys in your program, you could call exit() instead of
sys.exit() in your code. (But most of the time it is better to use the full function name so that you know
which module the exit() is in.)
The pygame.init() Function
4. # set up pygame
5. pygame.init()
The Pygame software library has some initial code that needs to be run before we can use it. All Pygame
programs must run this code by calling the pygame.init() after importing the pygame module but before
calling any other Pygame functions.
The pygame.display.set_mode() and

pygame.display.set_caption() Functions

8. windowSurface = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 400), 0, 32)
9. pygame.display.set_caption('Hello world!')
Line 8 creates a GUI window for our program by calling the set_mode() method in the
pygame.display module. (The display module is a module inside the pygame module. Pygame is so
advanced that even the pygame module has its own modules!)
Just to avoid confusion, you should know the difference between the window that is created is different and
the Windows operating system. The graphical user interface is printed as "window" (lower case and singular)
and the Microsoft operating system is "Windows" (upper case and plural).
There are three parameters to the set_mode() method. The first parameter is a tuple of two integers for
the width and height of the window, in pixels. A pixel is the tiniest dot on your computer screen. A single
pixel on your screen can turn into any color. All the pixels on your screen work together to display all the
pictures you see. To see how tiny a pixel is, look at the bottom right corner of the "Hello World!" window.
This program sets just one pixel as white.
272
We want the window to be 500 pixels wide and 400 pixels high, so we use the tuple (500, 400) for the
first parameter. To get the total number of pixels in our window, multiply the width and the height. Our
window is made up of 20,000 pixels, and it doesn't even take up the entire computer screen!
The second parameter is for advanced GUI window options. You won't really need this for your games, so
you can always just pass 0 for this parameter. The third parameter is another advanced option called the color
depth. You can just pass the value 32.
The set_caption() call returns a pygame.Surface object (which we will call Surface objects for
short). Objects are values of a data type that have methods as well as data. For example, strings are objects in
Python because they have data (the string itself) and methods (such as lower() and split()). You can
store objects in variables just like any other value. The Surface object represents the window and we will
include the windowSurface variable in all of our calls to drawing functions.
Variables Store References to Objects

You should know that variables never hold objects (including lists and dictionaries), they only hold
references to objects. This is exactly the same way that variables never hold lists but only hold references to
lists. The difference between holding the object and holding a reference to the object is that if you copy the
variable to a second variable, any changes made to object in one of the variables will also change the object in
the other variable. This is because both variables hold references to the same object because only a copy of the
reference was made, not a copy of the object.
Here is an example with lists (just like in the Hangman chapter). Type the following into the interactive
shell:
>>> x = ['a', 'b', 'c']

>>> y = x
>>> x[2] = 'Hello!'
>>> print y
['a', 'b', 'Hello!']
Notice that changing the x list has also changed the y list, because they both contain references to the same
list. y made a copy of the reference in x, not a copy of the list.
Also notice that in Python version 2, print is a statement and so there are no parentheses.
The same applies to objects. Consider the following code:
>>> import pygame

>>> pygame.init()
>>> windowSurface = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 500), 0, 32)
>>> secondSurface = windowSurface
windowSurface and secondSurface contain references to the same Surface object. Any changes
made to windowSurface will change the same object that secondSurface references. The same is true
that any changes to windowSurface will change windowSurface.
273
Colors in Pygame

12. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
13. WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
14. RED = (255, 0, 0)
15. GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
16. BLUE = (0, 0, 255)
Table 16-1: Colors and their

There are three primary colors of light: red, green and blue. By combining RGB values.
different amounts of these three colors you can form any other color. In
Python, we represent colors with tuples of three integers. The first value in Color RGB Values
the tuple is how much red is in the color. A value of 0 means there is no red in Aqua (0, 255, 255)
this color, and a value of 255 means there is a maximum amount of red in the Black (0, 0, 0)
color. The second value is for green and the third value is for blue. Blue (0, 0, 255)
Cornflower (100, 149,
For example, we will create the tuple (0, 0, 0) and store it in a Blue 237)
variable named BLACK. With no amount of red, green, or blue, the resulting Fuchsia (255, 0, 255)
color is completely black. The color black is the absence of any color. (128, 128,
Gray
128)
On line 13, we use the tuple (255, 255, 255) for a maximum amount
Green (0, 128, 0)
of red, green, and blue to result in white. The color white is the full
Lime (0, 255, 0)
combination of red, green, and blue. We store this tuple in the WHITE
variable. (255, 0, 0) represents the maximum amount of red but no Maroon (128, 0, 0)
amount of green and blue, so the resulting color is red. Similarly, (0, 255, Navy Blue (0, 0, 128)
0) is green and (0, 0, 255) is blue. Olive (128, 128, 0)
Purple (128, 0, 128)
These variable names are in all capitals because they are constant variables. Red (255, 0, 0)
It's just easier to type BLACK in our code than (0, 0, 0) every time we (192, 192,
Silver
want to specify the color black, so we set up these color variables at the start 192)
of our program. Teal (0, 128, 128)
(255, 255,
If you want to make a color lighter, try adding an equal amount from all White
255)
three values. For example, the RGB value for gray is (128, 128, 128). Yellow (255, 255, 0)
You can get the RGB value for a lighter gray by adding 20 to each value to
get (148, 148, 148). You can get the RGB value for a darker gray by subtracting 20 from each value to
get (108, 108, 108). And you can get the RGB value for a slightly redder gray by adding 20 to only the
red value to get (148, 128, 128). Here are some common colors and their RGB values:
Fonts, and the pygame.font.SysFont() Function
18. # set up fonts

19. basicFont = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 48)
274
A font is a complete set of letters, numbers, symbols,
and characters of a single style. Here is an example of the
same sentence printed in different fonts:
In our earlier games, we only told Python to print out

text. The color, size, and font that was used to display
this text was completely determined by whatever font
your operating system uses for console windows. Our
programs could not change the font at all. However, since
we will be drawing out letters to a GUI window we need
to tell Pygame exactly what font to use when drawing the Figure 16-3: Examples of different fonts.
text.
On line 19 we create a pygame.font.Font object (which we will just call Font objects for short) by
calling the pygame.font.SysFont() function. The first parameter is the name of the font, but we will
pass the None value to use the default system font. The second parameter will be the size of the font. In our
call on line 19, we want the font size to be 48 points.
The render() Method for Font Objects
21. # set up the text

22. text = basicFont.render('Hello world!', True, WHITE, BLUE)
23. textRect = text.get_rect()
The Font object that we have stored in the basicFont variable

has a method called render(). This method will create a
Surface object with the text drawn on it. The first parameter to
render() is the string of the text to draw. The second parameter is
a boolean for whether or not we want anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a
technique for making a drawing look less blocky. On line 22, we
pass True to say we want to use anti-aliasing. Figure 16-4 is an
example of what a line (when we enlarge the individual pixels)
looks like with and without anti-aliasing:
Anti-aliasing can make your text and lines look blurry but Figure 16-4: An aliased line and an anti-aliased line.
smoother. It takes a little more computation time to do anti-aliasing,
so although the graphics may look better, your program may run slower (but only just a little).
Attributes
24. textRect.centerx = windowSurface.get_rect().centerx

25. textRect.centery = windowSurface.get_rect().centery
275
The pygame.Rect data type (which we will just call Rect for short) makes working with rectangle-shaped
things easy. To create a new Rect object call the function pygame.Rect(). The parameters are integers for
the x and y coordinates of the top left corner, followed by the width and height. These integers are for the
number of pixels.
The function name with the parameters looks like this: pygame.Rect(left, top, width,
height)
Just like methods are functions that are associated with an object, attributes are variables that are
associated with an object. The Rect data type (that is, the data type of all Rect objects) has many attributes
that describe the rectangle they represent. Here is a list of attributes of a Rect object named myRect:
pygame.Rect Attribute Description

myRect.left The int value of the x-coordinate of the left side of the rectangle.
myRect.right The int value of the x-coordinate of the right side of the rectangle.
myRect.top The int value of the y-coordinate of the top side of the rectangle.
myRect.bottom The int value of the y-coordinate of the bottom side of the rectangle.
myRect.centerx The int value of the x-coordinate of the center of the rectangle.
myRect.centery The int value of the y-coordinate of the center of the rectangle.
myRect.width The int value of the width of the rectangle.
myRect.height The int value of the height of the rectangle.
myRect.size A tuple of two ints: (width, height)
myRect.topleft A tuple of two ints: (left, top)
myRect.topright A tuple of two ints: (right, top)
myRect.bottomleft A tuple of two ints: (left, bottom)
myRect.bottomright A tuple of two ints: (right, bottom)
myRect.midleft A tuple of two ints: (left, centery)
myRect.midright A tuple of two ints: (right, centery)
myRect.midtop A tuple of two ints: (centerx, top)
myRect.midbottom A tuple of two ints: (centerx, bottom)
The great thing about Rect objects is that if you modify any of these variables, all the other variables will
automatically modify themselves as well. For example, if you create a Rect object that is 20 pixels wide and
20 pixels high, and has the top left corner at the coordinates (30, 40), then the x coordinate of the right side
will automatically be set to 50 (because 20 + 30 = 50). However, if you change the left attribute with the
line myRect.left = 100, then Pygame will automatically change the right attribute to 120 (because 20
+ 100 = 120). Every other attribute for that Rect object will also be updated as well.
The get_rect() Methods for pygame.font.Font and

pygame.Surface Objects
Notice that both the Font object (stored in the text variable) and the Surface object (stored in
windowSurface variable) both have a method called get_rect(). Technically, these are two different
methods. But the programmers of Pygame gave them the same name because they both do the same thing and
return Rect objects that represent the size and position of the Font or Surface object.
Also, remember that pygame is a module that we import, and inside the pygame module are the font and
276and Surface data types. The Pygame programmers
surface modules. Inside those modules are the Font
made the modules begin with a lowercase letter, and the data types begin with an uppercase letter. This makes
it easier to distinguish the data types and the modules that the data types can be found in.
Constructor Functions and the type() function.

We create a pygame.Rect object by calling a function named pygame.Rect(). The pygame.Rect
() function has the same name as the pygame.Rect data type. Functions that have the same name as their
data type and create objects or values of this data type are called constructor functions.
The int() and str() functions are also constructor functions. The int() function returns an int version
of whatever you pass it, whether it is int(5) or int('5'). (The proper name for strings in Python is str.)
You can always find out what the proper name of a value's data type with the type() function. For
example, try typing the following into the interactive shell:
>>> type('This is a string')

<type 'str'>
>>> type(5)
<type 'int'>
>>> spam = 'Another string'
>>> type(spam)
<type 'str'>
>>> import pygame
>>> pygame.init()
>>> myRect = pygame.Rect(10, 10, 40, 50)
>>> type(myRect)
<type 'pygame.Rect'>
>>> pygame.quit()
(You need to call the pygame.quit() function when you are done with typing Pygame functions into the
interactive shell. Otherwise you may cause Python to crash.) Notice that the return value from the type()
function is not a string, but a value of a data type called "type"! Try typing this into the interactive shell:
>>> type(type('This is a string'))

<type 'type'>
For the most part, you don't need to know about data types and the type() function when programming
games. But it can be very useful if you need to find out the data type of the value stored in a variable in your
program.
The fill() Method for Surface Objects
27. # draw the white background onto the surface

28. windowSurface.fill(WHITE)
277
This is the first drawing function call in our program. We want to fill the entire surface stored in
windowSurface with the color white. The fill() function will completely cover the entire surface with
the color we pass as the parameter. (In this case, we pass BLACK to make the background black.)
An important thing to know about Pygame is that the window on the screen will not change when we call
the fill() method or any of the other drawing functions. These will draw on the Surface object, but the
Surface object will not be drawn on the user's screen until the pygame.display.update() function is
called. This is because drawing on the Surface object (which is stored in the computer's memory) is much
faster than drawing to the computer screen. It is much more efficient to draw onto the screen once and only
after all of our drawing functions to draw to the surface.
The pygame.draw.polygon() Function
30. # draw a green polygon onto the surface

31. pygame.draw.polygon(windowSurface, GREEN, ((146, 0), (291,
106), (236, 277), (56, 277), (0, 106)))
A polygon is any multisided shape with sides that

are only straight lines. The
pygame.draw.polygon() function can draw any
shape that you give it and fill the inside space of the
polygon. The tuple of tuples you pass it represents the
xy coordinates of the points to draw in order. The last
tuple will automatically connect to the first tuple to
complete the shape.
Polygons only have straight lines for sides (circles

and ellipses are not polygons). Figure 16-5 has some
examples of polygons:
Figure 16-5: Examples of Polygons.
The pygame.draw.line() Function
33. # draw some blue lines onto the surface

34. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (60, 60), (120, 60),
4)
35. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (120, 60), (60, 120))
36. pygame.draw.line(windowSurface, BLUE, (60, 120), (120,
120), 4)
The pygame.draw.line() function will draw a line on the Surface object that you provide. Notice
that the last parameter (the width of the line) is optional. If you pass 4 for the width, the line will be four pixels
thick. If you do not specify the width parameter, it will
278 take on the default value of 1.
The pygame.draw.circle() Function
38. # draw a blue circle onto the surface

39. pygame.draw.circle(windowSurface, BLUE, (300, 50), 20, 0)
The pygame.draw.circle() function will draw a circle on the Surface object you provide. The
third parameter is for the x and y coordinates of the center of the circle as a tuple of two ints. The fourth
parameter is an int for the radius (that is, size) of the circle in pixels. A width of 0 means that the circle
will be filled in.
The pygame.draw.ellipse() Function
41. # draw a red ellipse onto the surface

42. pygame.draw.ellipse(windowSurface, RED, (300, 250, 40, 80),
1)
The pygame.draw.ellipse() function will draw an ellipse. It is similar to the

pygame.draw.circle() function, except that instead of specifying the center of the circle, a tuple of four
ints is passed for the left, top, width, and height of the ellipse.
The pygame.draw.rect() Function
44. # draw the text's background rectangle onto the surface

45. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, RED, (textRect.left - 20,
textRect.top - 20, textRect.width + 40, textRect.height +
40))
The pygame.draw.rect() function will draw a rectangle. The third parameter is a tuple of four ints for the
left, top, width, and height of the rectangle. Instead of a tuple of four ints for the third parameter, you can also
pass a Rect object. In line 45, we want the rectangle we draw to be 20 pixels around all the sides of the text.
This is why we want the drawn rectangle's left and top to be the left and top of textRect minus 20.
(Remember, we subtract because coordinates decrease as you go left and up.) And the width and height will be
equal to the width and height of the textRect plus 40 (because the left and top were moved back 20 pixels,
so we need to make up for that space).
The pygame.PixelArray Data Type
47. # get a pixel array of the surface

48. pixArray = pygame.PixelArray(windowSurface)
49. pixArray[480][380] = BLACK
279
On line 48 we create a pygame.PixelArray object (which we will just call a PixelArray object for
short). The PixelArray object is a list of lists of color tuples that represents the Surface object you
passed it. We passed windowSurface object when we called the PixelArray() constructor function on
line 48, so assigning BLACK to pixArray[480][380] will change the pixel at the coordinates (480, 380)
to be a black pixel. Pygame will automatically modify the windowSurface object with this change.
The first index in the PixelArray object is for the x-coordinate. The second index is for the y-coordinate.
PixelArray objects make it easy to set individual pixels on a PixelArray object to a specific color.
50. del pixArray
Creating a PixelArray object from a Surface object will lock that Surface object. Locked means
that no blit() function calls (described next) can be made on that Surface object. To unlock the
Surface object, you must delete the PixelArray object with the del operator. If you forget to delete the
Surface object, you will get an error message that says pygame.error: Surfaces must not be
locked during blit.
The blit() Method for Surface Objects
52. # draw the text onto the surface

53. windowSurface.blit(text, textRect)
The blit() method will draw the contents of one Surface object onto another Surface object. Line
54 will draw the "Hello world!" text (which was drawn on the Surface object stored in the text variable)
and draws it to the Surface object stored in the windowSurface variable.
Remember that the text object had the "Hello world!" text drawn on it on line 22 by the render()
method. Surface objects are just stored in the computer's memory (like any other variable) and not drawn on
the screen. The Surface object in windowSurface is drawn on the screen (when we call the
pygame.display.update() function on line 56 below) because this was the Surface object created
by the pygame.display.set_mode() function.
The second parameter to blit() specifies where on the windowSurface surface the text surface
should be drawn. We will just pass the Rect object we got from calling text.get_rect() (which was stored in
textRect on line 23).
The pygame.display.update() Function

In Pygame, nothing is drawn to the screen until the pygame.display.update() function is called.
This is done because drawing to the screen is a slow operation for the computer compared to drawing on the
280
Surface objects while they are in memory. You do not want to draw to the screen after each drawing
function is called, but only draw the screen once after all the drawing functions have been called.
You will need to call pygame.display.update() each time you want to update the screen to display
the contents of the Surface object returned by pygame.display.set_mode(). (In this program, that
object is the one stored in windowSurface.) This will become more important in our next program which
covers animation.
Events and the Game Loop

In our previous games, all of the programs print out everything immediately until they reach a input()
function call. At that point, the program stops and waits for the user to type something in and press ENTER.
Pygame programs do not work this way. Instead, Pygame programs are constantly running through a loop
called the game loop. (In this program, we execute all the lines of code in the game loop about one hundred
times a second.)
The game loop is a loop that constantly checks for new events, updates the state of the window, and draws
the window on the screen. Events are values of the pygame.event.Event data type that are generated
by Pygame whenever the user presses a key, clicks or moves the mouse, or makes some other event occur.
Calling pygame.event.get() retrieves any new pygame.event.Event objects that have been
generated since the last call to pygame.event.get().

59. while True:
This is the start of our game loop. The condition for the while statement is set to True so that we loop
forever. The only time we exit the loop is if an event causes the program to terminate.
The pygame.event.get() Function

The pygame.event.get() function returns a list of pygame.event.Event objects. This list has
every single event that has occurred since the last time pygame.event.get() was called. All
pygame.event.Event objects have an attribute called type which tell us what type of event it is. (A list
of event types is given in the next chapter. In this chapter we only deal with the QUIT event.)
Pygame comes supplied with its own constant variables in the pygame.locals module. Remember that
we have imported the pygame.locals module with the line from pygame.locals import *, which means we
do not have to type pygame.locals in front of the variables and functions in that module.
On line 60 we set up a for loop to check each pygame.event.Event object in the list returned by
pygame.event.get(). If the type attribute of the event is equal to the value of the constant variable
QUIT (which is provided by the pygame.locals module), then we know the user has closed the window
and wants to terminate the program.
281
Pygame generates the QUIT event when the user clicks on the X button at the top right of the program's
window. It is also generated if the computer is shutting down and tries to terminate all the programs running.
For whatever reason the QUIT event was generated, we know that we should run any code that we want to
happen to stop the program. You could choose to ignore the QUIT event entirely, but that may cause the
program to be confusing to the user.
The pygame.quit() Function
62. pygame.quit()
63. sys.exit()
If the QUIT event has been generated, then we can know that the user has tried to close the window. In that
case, we should call the exit functions for both Pygame (pygame.quit()) and Python (sys.exit()).
This has been the simple "Hello world!" program from Pygame. We've covered many new topics that we
didn't have to deal with in our previous games. Even though they are more complicated, the Pygame programs
can also be much more fun and engaging than our previous text games. Let's learn how to create games with
animated graphics that move.
Animation
In this program we have several different blocks bouncing off of the edges of the window. The blocks are
different colors and sizes and move only in diagonal directions. In order to animate the blocks (that is, make
them look like they are moving) we will move the blocks a few pixels over on each iteration through the game
loop. By drawing new blocks that are located a little bit differently then the blocks before, we can make it look
like the blocks are moving around the screen.
The Animation Program's Source Code

Type the following program into the file editor and save it as animation.py. You can also download this
source code from http://inventwithpython.com/chapter16.
animation.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/animation.py
1. import pygame, sys, time

3.
4. # set up pygame
5. pygame.init()
6.
8. WINDOWWIDTH = 400
9. WINDOWHEIGHT = 400
10. windowSurface = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOWWIDTH,
WINDOWHEIGHT), 0, 32) 282
11. pygame.display.set_caption('Animation')
12.
13. # set up direction variables
14. DOWNLEFT = 1
15. DOWNRIGHT = 3
16. UPLEFT = 7
17. UPRIGHT = 9
18.
19. MOVESPEED = 4
20.
22. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
23. RED = (255, 0, 0)
24. GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
25. BLUE = (0, 0, 255)
26.
27. # set up the block data structure
28. b1 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(300, 80, 50, 100), 'color':RED,
'dir':UPRIGHT}
29. b2 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(200, 200, 20, 20), 'color':GREEN,
'dir':UPLEFT}
30. b3 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(100, 150, 60, 60), 'color':BLUE,
'dir':DOWNLEFT}
31. blocks = [b1, b2, b3]
32.
34. while True:
35. # check for the QUIT event
38. pygame.quit()
39. sys.exit()
40.
41. # draw the black background onto the surface
42. windowSurface.fill(BLACK)
43.
44. for b in blocks:
45. # move the block data structure
46. if b['dir'] == DOWNLEFT:
47. b['rect'].left -= MOVESPEED
48. b['rect'].top += MOVESPEED
49. if b['dir'] == DOWNRIGHT:
50. b['rect'].left += MOVESPEED
52. if b['dir'] == UPLEFT:
54. b['rect'].top -= MOVESPEED
55. if b['dir'] == UPRIGHT:
58.
283
59. # check if the block has move out of the window
60. if b['rect'].top < 0:
61. # block has moved past the top
63. b['dir'] = DOWNLEFT
65. b['dir'] = DOWNRIGHT
66. if b['rect'].bottom > WINDOWHEIGHT:
67. # block has moved past the bottom
69. b['dir'] = UPLEFT
71. b['dir'] = UPRIGHT
72. if b['rect'].left < 0:
73. # block has moved past the left side
78. if b['rect'].right > WINDOWWIDTH:
79. # block has moved past the right side
84.
85. # draw the block onto the surface
86. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, b['color'], b
['rect'])
87.
90. time.sleep(0.02)
284
Figure 16-6: The Animation program.
How the Animation Program Works

In this program, we will have three different colored blocks moving around and bouncing off the walls. In
order to do this, we need to first consider exactly how we want the blocks to move.
285
Moving and Bouncing the Blocks
Figure 16-7: The diagram of how blocks will bounce.
Each block will move in one of four diagonal directions: down and left, down and right, up and left, or up
and right. When the block hits the side of the window, we want it to "bounce" off the wall and move in a new
diagonal direction. The blocks will bounce as shown in this picture:
The new direction that a block moves after it bounces depends on two things: which direction it was
moving before the bounce and which wall it bounced off of. There are a total of eight possible ways a block
can bounce: two different ways for each of the four walls. For example, if a block is moving down and right,
and then bounces off of the bottom edge of the window, we want the block's new direction to be up and right.
We can represent the blocks with a Rect object to represent the position and size of the block, a tuple of
three ints to represent the color of the block, and an integer to represent which of the four diagonal directions
the block is currently moving. On each iteration in the game loop, we will adjust the x and y position of the
block in the Rect object. Also in each iteration we will draw all the blocks on the screen at their current
position. As the program execution loops through the game loop, the blocks will gradually move across the
screen so that it looks like they are smoothly moving and bouncing around on their own.
Creating and Setting Up Pygame and the Main Window
1. import pygame, sys, time
286
In this program, we also want to import the time module.

WINDOWHEIGHT), 0, 32)
In this program the size of the window's width and height is used for more than just the call to set_mode
(). We will use a constant variables to make the program more readable. Remember, readability is for the
benefit of the programmer, not the computer. If we ever want to change the size of the window, we only have
to change lines 8 and 9.
If we did not use the constant variable, we would have to change ever occurance of the int value 400. If any
unrelated values in the program were also 400, we might think it was for the width or height and also
accidentally change it too. This would put a bug in our program. Since the window width and height never
change during the program's execution, a constant variable is a good idea.
11. pygame.display.set_caption('Animation')
For this program, we will set the caption at the top of the window to 'Animation' with a call to
pygame.display.set_caption().
13. Setting Up Constant Variables for Direction

15. DOWNLEFT = 1
16. DOWNRIGHT = 3
17. UPLEFT = 7
18. UPRIGHT = 9
We will use the keys on the number pad of the keyboard to remind us which belongs to which direction.
This will be similar to our Tic Tac Toe game. 1 is down and left, 3 is down and right, 7 is up and left, and
'Animation'9 is up and right. However, it may be hard to remember this, so instead we will use constant
variables instead of these integer values.
We could use any values we wanted to for these directions, as long as we had different values for each
direction. For example, we could use the string 'downleft' to represent the down and left diagonal
direction. However, if we ever mistype the 'downleft' string (for example, as 'fownleft'), the
computer would not recognize that we meant to type 'downleft' instead of 'downleft'. This bug
would cause our program to behave strangely.
But if we use constant variables, and accidentally type the variable name FOWNLEFT instead of the name
DOWNLEFT, Python would notice that there is no such variable named FOWNLEFT and crash the program with
an error. This would still be a pretty bad bug, but at least we would know immediately about it and could fix it.
Otherwise it may be hard to notice that there is a bug at all.
287
19. MOVESPEED = 4
We will use a constant variable to determine how fast the blocks should move. A value of 4 here means that
each block will move 4 pixels on each iteration through the game loop.
Setting Up Constant Variables for Color

22. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
23. RED = (255, 0, 0)
24. GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
25. BLUE = (0, 0, 255)
We set up constant variables for the colors we will use. Remember, Pygame uses a tuple of three int values
for the amounts of red, green, and blue called an RGB value. The integers are from 0 to 255. Unlike our
"Hello World" program, this program doesn't use the white color, so we left it out.
Again, the use of constant variables is for readability. The computer doesn't care if we use a variable named
GREEN for the color green. But if we later look at this program, it is easier to know that GREEN stands for the
color green rather than a bunch of int values in a tuple.
Setting Up The Block Data Structures

28. b1 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(300, 80, 50, 100), 'color':RED,
'dir':UPRIGHT}
We will set up a dictionary to be the data structure that represents each block. (Dictionaries were introduced
at the end of the Hangman chapter, chapter 8.) The dictionary will have the keys of 'rect' (with a Rect
object for a value), 'color' (with a tuple of three ints for a value), and 'dir' (with one of our direction
constant variables for a value).
We will store one of these data structures in a variable named r1. This block will have its top left corner
located at an x-coordinate of 300 and y-coordinate of 80. It will have a width of 50 pixels and a height of 100
pixels. Its color will be red (so we'll use our RED constant variable, which has the tuple (255, 0, 0) stored
in it). And its direction will be set to UPRIGHT.
29. b2 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(200, 200, 20, 20), 'color':GREEN,

'dir':UPLEFT}
30. b3 = {'rect':pygame.Rect(100, 150, 60, 60), 'color':BLUE,
'dir':DOWNLEFT}
Here we create two more similar data structures for blocks that will be different sizes, positions, colors, and
directions. 288
31. blocks = [b1, b2, b3]
On line 31 we put all of these data structures in a list, and store the list in a variable named rectangles.
rectangles is a list. rectangles[0] would be the dictionary data structure in r1. rectangles
[0]['color'] would be the 'color' key in r1 (which we stored the value in RED in), so the expression
rectangles[0]['color'] would evaluate to (255, 0, 0). In this way we can refer to any of the
values in any of the block data structures by starting with rectangles.
Running the Game Loop

34. while True:
Inside the game loop, we want to move all of the blocks around the screen in the direction that they are
going, then bounce the block if they have hit a wall, then draw all of the blocks to the windowSurface
surface, and finally call pygame.display.update() to draw the surface to the screen. Also, we will call
pygame.event.get() to check if the QUIT event has been generated by the user closing the window.
The for loop to check all of the events in the list returned by pygame.event.get() is the same as in
our "Hello World!" program, so we will skip its explanation and go on to line 44.

Before we draw any of the blocks on the windowSurface surface, we want to fill the entire surface with
black so that anything we previously drew on the surface is covered. Once we have blacked out the entire
surface, we can redraw the blocks with the code below.
Moving Each Block
44. for b in blocks:
We want to update the position of each block, so we must loop through the rectangles list and perform
the same code on each block's data structure. Inside the loop, we will refer to the current block as simply r so it
will be easy to type.
45. # move the block data structure

289
The new value that we want to set the left and top attributes to depends on the direction the block is
moving. Remember that the x-coordinates start at 0 on the very left edge of the window, and increase as you
go right. The y-coordinates start at 0 on the very top of the window, and increase as you go down. So if the
direction of the block (which, remember, is stored in the 'dir' key) is either DOWNLEFT or DOWNRIGHT,
we want to increase the top attribute. If the direction is UPLEFT or UPRIGHT, we want to decrease the top
attribute.
If the direction of the block is DOWNRIGHT or UPRIGHT, we want to increase the left attribute. If the
direction is DOWNLEFT or UPLEFT, we want to decrease the left attribute.
We could have also modified right instead of the left attribute, or the bottom attribute instead of the
top attribute, because Pygame will update the Rect object either way. Either way, we want to change the
value of these attributes by the integer stored in MOVESPEED, which stores how many pixels over we will
move the block.
Checking if the Block has Bounced
59. # check if the block has move out of the window

60. if b['rect'].top < 0:
61. # block has moved past the top
After we have moved the block, we want to check if the block has gone past the edge of the window. If it
has, we want to "bounce" the block, which in the code means set a new value for the block's 'dir' key.
When the direction is set, the block will move in the new direction on the next iteration of the game loop.
We need to check if the block has moved passed each of the four edges of the window. In the above if
statement, we decide the block has moved past the top edge of the window if the block's Rect object's top
attribute is less than 0. If it is, then we need to change the direction based on what direction the block was
moving.
Changing the Direction of the Bouncing Block

Look at the bouncing diagram earlier in this chapter. In order to move past the top edge of the window, the
block had to either be moving in the UPLEFT or UPRIGHT directions. If the block was moving in the
290
UPLEFT direction, the new direction (according to our bounce diagram) will be DOWNLEFT. If the block was
moving in the UPRIGHT direction, the new direction will be DOWNRIGHT.
66. if b['rect'].bottom > WINDOWHEIGHT:

67. # block has moved past the bottom
Here we see if the block has moved past the bottom edge of the window by checking if the bottom
attribute (not the top attribute) is greater than the value in WINDOWHEIGHT. Remember that the y-
coordinates start at 0 at the top of the window and increase to WINDOWHEIGHT because we passed
WINDOWHEIGHT as the height in our call to pygame.display.set_mode().
The rest of the code changes the direction based on what our bounce diagram says.
72. if b['rect'].left < 0:

73. # block has moved past the left side
This is similar to the above code, but checks if the left side of the block has moved to the left of the left
edge of the window. Remember, the x-coordinates start at 0 on the left edge of the window and increase to
WINDOWWIDTH on the right edge of the window.
78. if b['rect'].right > WINDOWWIDTH:

79. # block has moved past the right side
This code is similar to the previous pieces of code, but it checks if the block has moved past the rightmost
edge of the window.
Drawing the Blocks on the Window in Their New Positions

86. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, b['color'], b
['rect'])
291
Now that we have moved the block (and set a new direction if the block has bounced off the window's
edges), we want to draw it on the windowSurface surface. We can draw this using the pygame.draw.rect()
function. We pass windowSurface, because that is the Surface object we want to draw on. We pass the
b['color'] value, because this is the color we want to use. Then we pass b['rect'], because that Rect
object has the information about the position and size of the rectangle we want to draw.
This is the last line of the for loop. We want to run the moving, bouncing, and drawing code on each of the
blocks stored in the blocks list, which is why we loop through each of them. Also, if we wanted to add new
blocks or remove blocks from our program, we only have to modify the blocks list and the rest of the code still
works.
Drawing the Window on the Screen

90. time.sleep(0.02)
After we have run this code on each of the blocks in the blocks list, we want to finally call
pygame.display.update() so that the windowSurface surface is draw on the screen. After this line,
we loop back to the start of the game loop and begin the process all over again. This way, the blocks are
constantly moving a little, bouncing off the walls, and being drawn on the screen in their new positions.
Meanwhile, we also check if the QUIT event has been generated by the Pygame library, and in that case we
terminate the program.
The call to the time.sleep() function is there because the computer can move, bounce, and draw the
blocks so fast that if the program ran at full speed, all the blocks would just look like a blur. (Try commenting
out the time.sleep(0.02) line and running the program to see this.) This call to time.sleep() will
stop the program for 20 milliseconds. There are 1000 milliseconds in a second, so 0.001 seconds equals 1
millisecond and 0.02 equals 20 milliseconds.
Some Small Modifications

Drawing as Fast as Possible
Just for fun, let's make some small modifications to our program so we can see what it does. Try adding a #
in front of line 90 (the time.sleep(0.2) line) of our animation program. This will cause Python to ignore
this line because it is now a comment. Now try running the program.
Without the time.sleep() function call to intentionally slow down the program, your computer will run
through the game loop as fast as possible. This will make the rectangles bounce around the screen so fast,
they'll only look like a blur. Now you can see why it is important for us to slow down the program with this
line.
Drawing Trails of Blocks

Remove the # from the front of line 90 so that the line is no longer a comment and becomes part of the
program again. This time, comment out line 42 (the windowSurface.fill(BLACK) line) by adding a #
to the front of the line. Now run the program.
292
Without the call to windowSurface.fill(BLACK), we do not black out the entire window before
drawing the rectangles in their new position. This will cause trails of rectangles to appear on the screen instead
of individual rectangles. The trails appear because all the old rectangles that are drawn in previous iterations
through the game loop don't disappear.
Remember that the blocks are not really moving. We are just redrawing the entire window over and over
again. On each iteration through the game loop, we redraw the entire window with new blocks that are located
a few pixels over each time. When the program runs very fast, we make it is just one block each time. In order
to see that we are just redrawing the blocks over and over again, change line 90 to time.sleep(1.0). This
will make the program (and the drawing) fifty times slower than normal. You will see each drawing being
replaced by the next drawing every second.
Summary: Pygame Programming

This chapter has presented a whole new way of creating computer programs. Our programs before would
stop and wait for the player to enter text. However, in our animation program, we are constantly updating the
data structures of things without waiting for input from the player. Remember in our Hangman and Tic Tac
Toe games we had data structures that would represent the state of the board, and these data structures would
be passed to a drawBoard() function to be displayed on the screen. Our animation program is very similar.
The blocks variable held a list of data structures representing things to be drawn to the screen, and these are
drawn to the screen inside the game loop.
But without calls to input(), how do we get input from the player? In our next chapter, we will cover
how our program can know when the player presses any key on the keyboard. We will also learn of a concept
called collision detection, which is used in many graphical computer games.
293
• Collision Detection
• Don't Modify a List While Iterating Over It
• Keyboard Input in Pygame
• Mouse Input in Pygame
A very common behavior in most graphical games is collision detection. Collision detection is figuring
when two things on the screen have touched (that is, collided with) each other. This is used very often in
computer games. For example, if the player touches an enemy they may lose health or a game life. Or we
may want to know when the player has touched a coin so that they automatically pick it up. Collision
detection can help determine if the game character is standing on solid ground, or if there is nothing but
empty air underneath them. In our games, collision detection is determining if two rectangles are overlapping
each other or not. Our next example program will cover this basic technique.
Later in this chapter, we will look at how our Pygame programs can accept input from the user through the
keyboard and the mouse. It's a bit more complicated than calling the input() function like we did for our
text programs. But using the keyboard is much more interactive in GUI programs, and using the mouse isn't
even possible in our text games. Knowing these two concepts will make our games more advanced and
exciting!
The Collision Detection Program's Source Code

Much of this code is similar to the animation program, so we will skip over explaining how to make the
bouncer move and bounce off of the walls. (See the animation program in the previous chapter for an
explanation of that code.) We will use a list of pygame.Rect objects to represent the food squares. Each
pygame.Rect object in the list represents a single food square. On each iteration through the game loop,
our program will read each pygame.Rect object in the list and draw a green square on the window. Every
forty iterations through the game loop we will add a new pygame.Rect to the list so that the screen
constantly has new food squares in it.
294
The bouncer is represented by a dictionary. The dictionary has a key named 'rect' (whose value is a
pygame.Rect object) and a key named 'dir' (whose value is one of the constant direction variables just
like we had in last chapter's Animation program). As the bouncer bounces around the window, we check if it
collides with any of the food squares. If it does, we delete that food square so that it will no longer be drawn
on the screen.
Type the following into a new file and save it as collisionDetection.py. If you don't want to type all of this
code, you can download the source from the book's website at http://inventwithpython.com/chapter17.
collisionDetection.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/collisionDetection.py
1. import pygame, sys, random

3.
4. def doRectsOverlap(rect1, rect2):
5. for a, b in [(rect1, rect2), (rect2, rect1)]:
6. # Check if a's corners are inside b
7. if ((isPointInsideRect(a.left, a.top, b)) or
8. (isPointInsideRect(a.left, a.bottom, b)) or
9. (isPointInsideRect(a.right, a.top, b)) or
10. (isPointInsideRect(a.right, a.bottom, b))):
11. return True
12.
13. return False
14.
15. def isPointInsideRect(x, y, rect):
16. if (x > rect.left) and (x < rect.right) and (y >
rect.top) and (y < rect.bottom):
17. return True
18. else:
19. return False
20.
21.
22. # set up pygame
23. pygame.init()
24. mainClock = pygame.time.Clock()
25.
30. pygame.display.set_caption('Collision Detection')
31.
33. DOWNLEFT = 1
34. DOWNRIGHT = 3
35. UPLEFT = 7
295
36. UPRIGHT = 9
37.
38. MOVESPEED = 4
39.
41. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
42. GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
43. WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
44.
45. # set up the bouncer and food data structures
46. foodCounter = 0
47. NEWFOOD = 40
48. FOODSIZE = 20
49. bouncer = {'rect':pygame.Rect(300, 100, 50, 50),
'dir':UPLEFT}
50. foods = []
52. foods.append(pygame.Rect(random.randint(0, WINDOWWIDTH
- FOODSIZE), random.randint(0, WINDOWHEIGHT - FOODSIZE),
FOODSIZE, FOODSIZE))
53.
55. while True:
59. pygame.quit()
60. sys.exit()
61.
62. foodCounter += 1
63. if foodCounter >= NEWFOOD:
64. # add new food
65. foodCounter = 0
66. foods.append(pygame.Rect(random.randint(0,
WINDOWWIDTH - FOODSIZE), random.randint(0, WINDOWHEIGHT -
FOODSIZE), FOODSIZE, FOODSIZE))
67.
70.
71. # move the bouncer data structure
72. if bouncer['dir'] == DOWNLEFT:
73. bouncer['rect'].left -= MOVESPEED
74. bouncer['rect'].top += MOVESPEED
75. if bouncer['dir'] == DOWNRIGHT:
76. bouncer['rect'].left += MOVESPEED
77. bouncer['rect'].top += MOVESPEED
78. if bouncer['dir'] == UPLEFT:
79. bouncer['rect'].left -= MOVESPEED
80. bouncer['rect'].top -= MOVESPEED
81. if bouncer['dir'] == UPRIGHT:
296
82. bouncer['rect'].left += MOVESPEED
83. bouncer['rect'].top -= MOVESPEED
84.
85. # check if the bouncer has move out of the window
86. if bouncer['rect'].top < 0:
87. # bouncer has moved past the top
89. bouncer['dir'] = DOWNLEFT
91. bouncer['dir'] = DOWNRIGHT
92. if bouncer['rect'].bottom > WINDOWHEIGHT:
93. # bouncer has moved past the bottom
95. bouncer['dir'] = UPLEFT
97. bouncer['dir'] = UPRIGHT
98. if bouncer['rect'].left < 0:
99. # bouncer has moved past the left side
101. bouncer['dir'] = DOWNRIGHT
103. bouncer['dir'] = UPRIGHT
104. if bouncer['rect'].right > WINDOWWIDTH:
105. # bouncer has moved past the right side
107. bouncer['dir'] = DOWNLEFT
109. bouncer['dir'] = UPLEFT
110.
111. # draw the bouncer onto the surface
112. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, WHITE, bouncer
['rect'])
113.
114. # check if the bouncer has intersected with any food
squares.
115. for food in foods[:]:
116. if doRectsOverlap(bouncer['rect'], food):
117. foods.remove(food)
118.
119. # draw the food
120. for i in range(len(foods)):
121. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, GREEN, foods[i])
122.
125. mainClock.tick(40)
When you run this code, this is what the program looks like. The white square (the bouncer) will bounce
around the window, and when it collides with the green squares (the food) will disappear from the screen.
297
Figure 17-1: The Collision Detection program.
Importing the Modules

The collision detection program imports the same things as the animation program in the last chapter. It
also makes use of the random module, so we import it along with everything else.
The Collision Detection Function
4. def doRectsOverlap(rect1, rect2):
In order to do collision detection, we will need a function that can determine if two rectangles intersect
each other or not. Here is a picture of two intersecting rectangles (on the left) and rectangles that do not
intersect (on the right):
298
Figure 17-2: Examples of intersecting rectangles (on the left) and rectangles that do not intersect (on the right).
We will make a single function that is passed two pygame.Rect objects. The function,
doRectsOverlap(), will return True if they do and False if they don't.
There is a very simple rule we can follow to determine if rectangles intersect (that is, collide). Look at each
of the four corners on both rectangles. If at least one of these eight corners is inside the other rectangle, then
we know that the two rectangles have collided. We will use this fact to determine if doRectsOverlap()
returns True or False.
5. for a, b in [(rect1, rect2), (rect2, rect1)]:

6. # Check if a's corners are inside b
7. if ((isPointInsideRect(a.left, a.top, b)) or
8. (isPointInsideRect(a.left, a.bottom, b)) or
9. (isPointInsideRect(a.right, a.top, b)) or
10. (isPointInsideRect(a.right, a.bottom, b))):
11. return True
Above is the code that checks if one rectangle's corners are inside another. Later we will create a function
called isPointInsideRect() that returns True if the x- and y-coordinates of the point are inside the
rectangle. We call this function for each of the eight corners, and if any of these calls return True, the or
operators will make the entire condition True.
The parameters for doRectsOverlap() are rect1 and rect2. We first want to check if rect1's
corners are inside rect2 and then check if rect2's corners are in rect1.
We don't want to repeat the code that checks all four corners for both rect1 and rect2, so instead we
use a and b on lines 7 to 10. The for loop on line 5 uses the multiple assignment trick so that on the first
iteration, a is set to rect1 and b is set to rect2. On the second iteration through the loop, it is the
opposite. a is set to rect2 and b is set to rect1.
299
We do this because then we only have to type the code for the if statement on line 7 once. This is good,
because this is a very long if statement. The less code we have to type for our program, the better.
13. return False
If we never return True from the previous if statements, then none of the eight corners we checked are in
the other rectangle. In that case, the rectangles did not collide and we return False.
Determining if a Point is Inside a Rectangle
15. def isPointInsideRect(x, y, rect):

16. if (x > rect.left) and (x < rect.right) and (y >
rect.top) and (y < rect.bottom):
17. return True
The isPointInsideRect() function is used by the doRectsOverlap() function.

isPointInsideRect() will return True if the x- and y-coordinates passed to it as the first and second
parameters are located "inside" the pygame.Rect object that is passed as the third parameter. Otherwise,
this function returns False.
Figure 17-3 is an example picture of a

rectangle and several dots. The dots and
the corners of the rectangle are labeled
with coordinates.
The pattern that you need to notice is

that the points that are inside the
rectangles have an x-coordinate that is
greater than the x-coordinate of the left
side and less than the x-coordinate of the
right side, and have a y-coordinate that
is greater than the y-coordinate of the
top side and less than the y-coordinate
of the bottom side. If any of those
conditions are false, then the point is
outside the rectangle.
Figure 17-3: Example of coordinates inside and outside
We combine all four of these of a rectangle. The (50, 30), (85, 30) and (50, 50) points
are inside the rectangle, and all the others are outside.
conditions into the if statement's
condition with and operators because
all four of the conditions must be True.
18. else:
300
19. return False
If just one of the four expressions in the condition on line 16 is False, then we should have
isPointInsideRect return the value False.
This function will be called from the doRectsOverlap() function to see if any of the corners in the
two pygame.Rect objects are inside each other. These two functions give us the power to do collision
detection between two rectangles.
The pygame.time.Clock Object and tick() Method

Much of lines 22 to 43 do the same thing that Animation program in the last chapter did: initialize the
Pygame library, set WINDOWHEIGHT and WINDOWWIDTH, and put together the color and direction
constants. However, line 24 is new:
In the previous Animation program, we had a call to time.sleep(0.02) inside the game loop in order
to slow down the program enough so that we could see the blocks moving. The problem with this is that the
program might run too fast on fast computers and too slow on slow computers. We want to limit the
maximum number of iterations through the game loop there are per second.
A pygame.time.Clock object can do this for us. You can see on line 125 that we call
mainClock.tick(40) inside the game loop. This call to the Clock object's tick() method will check
if we have iterated through the game loop more than 40 times in the last second. If so, it puts a short sleep
into the program for us based on frequently tick() is being called. This ensures that the game never runs
faster than we expect. Be sure to call tick() only once in the game loop.
Setting Up the Window and Data Structures
30. pygame.display.set_caption('Collision Detection')

31.
32. # set up the bouncer and food data structures
33. foodCounter = 0
34. NEWFOOD = 40
35. FOODSIZE = 20
We are going to set up a few variables for the food blocks that appear on the screen. foodCounter will
start at the value
49. bouncer = {'rect':pygame.Rect(300, 100, 50, 50),

'dir':UPLEFT}
301
We are going to set up a new data structure called bouncer. bouncer is a dictionary with two keys. The
value stored in the 'rect' key will be a pygame.Rect object that represents the bouncer's size and
position. The value stored in the 'dir' key will be a direction that the bouncer is currently moving. The
bouncer will move the same way the blocks did in our previous animation program: moving in diagonal
directions and bouncing off of the sides of the window.
50. foods = []
Our program will keep track of every food square with a list of pygame.Rect objects called foods. At
the start of the program, we want to create twenty food squares randomly placed around the screen. We can
use the random.randint() function to come up with random xy coordinates.
On line 52, we will call the pygame.Rect()

constructor function to return a new pygame.Rect
object that will represent the position and size of the food
square. The first two parameters for pygame.Rect()
are the xy coordinates of the top left corner. We want the
random coordinate to be between 0 and the size of the
window minus the size of the food square. If we had the
random coordinate between 0 and the size of the
window, then the food square might be pushed outside of
the window altogether. Look at the diagram in Figure 17-
4.
The square on the left has an x-coordinate of its top

left corner at 380. Because the food square is 20 pixels
wide, the right edge of the food square is at 400. (This is
because 380 + 20 = 400.) The square on the right has an Figure 17-4: For a 20 by 20 rectangle, having the top left
corner at (400, 200) in a 400 by 400 window would place
x-coordinate of its top left corner at 400. Because the the rectangle outside of the window. To be inside, the
food square is 20 pixels wide, the right edge of the food top left corner should be at (380, 200) instead.
square is at 420, which puts the entire square outside of
the window (and not viewable to the user).
The third parameter for pygame.Rect() is a tuple that contains the width and height of the food square.
Both the width and height will be equal to the value in the FOODSIZE constant.
Drawing the Bouncer on the Screen

Lines 71 to 109 cause the bouncer to move around the window and bounce off of the edges of the window.
This code is very similar to lines 44 to 83 of our animation program in the last chapter, so we will not go over
them again here.
111. # draw the bouncer onto the surface

302
112. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, WHITE, bouncer
['rect'])
After moving the bouncer, we now want to draw it on the window in its new position. We call the
pygame.draw.rect() function to draw a rectangle. The windowSurface passed for the first
parameter tells the computer which pygame.Surface object to draw the rectangle on. The WHITE
variable, which has (255, 255, 255) stored in it, will tell the computer to draw a white rectangle. The
pygame.Rect object stored in the bouncer dictionary at the 'rect' key tells the position and size of
the rectangle to draw. This is all the information needed to draw a white rectangle on windowSurface.
Remember, we are not done drawing things on the windowSurface object yet. We still need to draw a
green square for each food square in the foods list. And we are just "drawing" rectangles on the
windowSurface object. This pygame.Surface object is only inside the computer's memory, which is
much faster to modify than the pixels on the screen. The window on the screen will not be updated until we
call the pygame.display.update() function.
Colliding with the Food Squares
114. # check if the bouncer has intersected with any food

squares.
Before we draw the food squares, we want to see if the bouncer has overlapped any of the food squares. If
it has, we will remove that food square from the foods list. This way, the computer won't draw any food
squares that the bouncer has "eaten".
On each iteration through the for loop, the current food square from the foods (plural) list will be stored
inside a variable called food (singular).
Don't Add to or Delete from a List while Iterating Over It

Notice that there is something slightly different with this for loop. If you look carefully at line 116, we
are not iterating over foods but actually over foods[:]. Just as foods[:2] would return a copy of the
list with the items from the start and up to (but not including) the item at index 2, and just as foods[3:]
would return a copy of the list with the items from index 3 to the end of the list, foods[:] will give you a
copy of the list with the items from the start to the end. Basically, foods[:] creates a new list with a copy
of all the items in foods. (This is a shorter way to copy a list than our getBoardCopy() function in the
Tic Tac Toe game.)
Why would we want to iterate over a copy of the list instead of the list itself? It is because we cannot add
or remove items from a list while we are iterating over it. Python can lose track of what the next value of
food variable should be if the size of the foods list is always changing. Think of how difficult it would be
for you if you tried to count the number of jelly beans in a jar while someone was adding or removing jelly
beans. But if we iterate over a copy of the list (and the copy never changes), then adding or removing items
from the original list won't be a problem.
303
Removing the Food Squares
116. if doRectsOverlap(bouncer['rect'], food):

Line 116 is where our doRectsOverlap() function that we defined earlier comes in handy. We pass
two pygame.Rect objects to doRectsOverlap(): the bouncer and the current food square. If these two
rectangles overlap, then doRectsOverlap() will return True and we will remove the overlapping food
squares from foods list.
Drawing the Food Squares on the Screen

The code on lines 120 and 121 are very similar to how we drew the white square for the player. We will
loop through each food square in the foods list, and then draw the rectangle onto the windowSurface
surface. This demonstration of collision detection is fairly easy. This program was very similar to our
bouncing program in the previous chapter, except now the bouncing square will "eat" the other squares as it
passes over them.
These past few programs are interesting to watch, but the user does not get to actually control anything. In
this next program, we will learn how to get input from the keyboard. Keyboard input is handled in Pygame
by using events.
The Keyboard Input Program's Source Code

Start a new file and type in the following code, then save it as pygameInput.py.
pygameInput.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/pygameInput.py

3.
4. # set up pygame
5. pygame.init()
7.
304
12. pygame.display.set_caption('Input')
13.
15. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
16. GREEN = (0, 255, 0)
17. WHITE = (255, 255, 255)
18.
19. # set up the player and food data structure
20. foodCounter = 0
21. NEWFOOD = 40
22. FOODSIZE = 20
23. player = pygame.Rect(300, 100, 50, 50)
24. foods = []
27.
28. # set up movement variables
29. moveLeft = False
30. moveRight = False
31. moveUp = False
32. moveDown = False
33.
34. MOVESPEED = 6
35.
36.
38. while True:
39. # check for events
42. pygame.quit()
43. sys.exit()
44. if event.type == KEYDOWN:
45. # change the keyboard variables
46. if event.key == K_LEFT or event.key == ord
('a'):
48. moveLeft = True
49. if event.key == K_RIGHT or event.key == ord
('d'):
51. moveRight = True
52. if event.key == K_UP or event.key == ord('w'):
54. moveUp = True
55. if event.key == K_DOWN or event.key == ord
('s'):
305
56. moveUp = False
57. moveDown = True
58. if event.type == KEYUP:
59. if event.key == K_ESCAPE:
60. pygame.quit()
61. sys.exit()
('a'):
('d'):
67. moveUp = False
('s'):
70. if event.key == ord('x'):
71. player.top = random.randint(0,
WINDOWHEIGHT - player.height)
72. player.left = random.randint(0,
WINDOWWIDTH - player.width)
73.
74. if event.type == MOUSEBUTTONUP:
75. foods.append(pygame.Rect(event.pos[0],
event.pos[1], FOODSIZE, FOODSIZE))
76.
79. # add new food
80. foodCounter = 0
WINDOWWIDTH - FOODSIZE), random.randint(0, WINDOWHEIGHT -
FOODSIZE), FOODSIZE, FOODSIZE))
82.
85.
86. # move the player
87. if moveDown and player.bottom < WINDOWHEIGHT:
88. player.top += MOVESPEED
89. if moveUp and player.top > 0:
90. player.top -= MOVESPEED
91. if moveLeft and player.left > 0:
92. player.left -= MOVESPEED
93. if moveRight and player.right < WINDOWWIDTH:
94. player.right += MOVESPEED
95.
96. # draw the player onto the surface
97. pygame.draw.rect(windowSurface, WHITE, player)
98.
306
99. # check if the player has intersected with any food
squares.
101. if player.colliderect(food):
103.
107.
This program looks identical to the collision detection program earlier in this chapter. But in this program,
the bouncer only moves around when we hold down keys on the keyboard. Holding down the "W" key moves
the bouncer up. The "A" key moves the bouncer to the left and the "D" key moves the bouncer to the right.
The "S" key moves the bouncer down. You can also move the bouncer by holding down the arrow keys on
the keyboard. The user can also use the keyboard's arrow keys.
We can also click anywhere in the GUI window and create new food objects at the coordinates where we
clicked. In addition, the ESC key will quit the program and the "X" key will teleport the bouncer to a random
place on the screen.
Setting Up the Window and Data Structures

First, we set the caption of the window's title bar to the string to 'Mouse' on line 12. We set the caption
of the window with a call to pygame.display.set_caption() the same way as we did in our
previous Pygame programs. Next we want to set up some variables that track the movement of the bouncer.
28. # set up movement variables

31. moveUp = False
We are going to use four different boolean variables to keep track of which of the arrow keys are being
held down. For example, when the user pushes the left arrow key on her keyboard, we will set the
moveLeft variable to True. When she lets go of the key, we will set the moveLeft variable back to
False. The "W" key affects the moveUp variable, the "S" key affects the moveDown variable, and the "D"
key affects the moveRight variable in a similar way.
Lines 34 to 43 are identical to code in the previous Pygame programs. These lines handle the start of the
game loop and handling what to do when the user wants to quit the program. We will skip the explanation for
this code here since we have already covered it in the last chapter.
307
Events and Handling the KEYDOWN Event
The code to handle the key press and key release events is below. But at the start of the program, we will
set all of these variables to False.
Pygame has another event type called KEYDOWN. On line 41, we check if the event.type attribute is
equal to the QUIT value to check if we should exit the program. But there are other events that Pygame can
generate. Here is a brief list of the events that could be returned by pygame.event.get():
Table 17-1: Events, and what causes them to be generated.

Event Description
QUIT Generated when the user closes with window.
Generated when the user pressed down a key. Has a key attribute that tells which
KEYDOWN key was pressed. Also has a mod attribute that tells if the Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or other
keys were held down when this key was pressed.
Generated when the user releases a key. Has a key and mod attribute that are
KEYUP
similar to those for KEYDOWN.
Generated whenever the mouse moves over the window. Has a pos attribute that
returns tuple (x, y) for the coordinates of where the mouse is in the window. The
rel attribute also returns a (x, y) tuple, but it gives coordinates relative since the
last MOUSEMOTION event. For example, if the mouse moves left by four pixels
from (200, 200) to (196, 200), then rel will be (-4, 0). The buttons attribute
MOUSEMOTION
returns a tuple of three integers. The first integer in the tuple is for the left mouse
button, the second integer for the middle mouse button (if there is a middle mouse
button), and the third integer is for the right mouse button. These integers will be 0
if they are not being pressed down when the mouse moved and 1 if they are pressed
down.
Generated when a mouse button is pressed down in the window. This event has a
pos attribute which is an (x, y) tuple for the coordinates of where the mouse was
when the button was pressed. There is also a button attribute which is an integer
from 1 to 5 that tells which mouse button was pressed:
Value of button Mouse Button
MOUSEBUTTONDOWN
1 Left button
2 Middle button
3 Center button
4 Scroll wheel moved up
5 Scroll wheel moved down
Generated when the mouse button is released. This has the same attributes as
MOUSEBUTTONUP
MOUSEBUTTONDOWN
Setting the Four Keyboard Variables
45. # change the keyboard

308 variables
('a'):
48. moveLeft = True
('d'):
54. moveUp = True
('s'):
56. moveUp = False
57. moveDown = True
If the event type is KEYDOWN, then the event object will have a key attribute that will tell us which key
was pressed down. On line 46, we can compare this value to K_LEFT, which represents the left arrow key on
the keyboard. We will do this for each of the arrow keys: K_LEFT, K_RIGHT, K_UP, K_DOWN.
When one of these keys is pressed down, we will set the corresponding movement variable to True. We
will also set the movement variable of the opposite direction to False. For example, the program executes
lines 47 and 48 when the left arrow key has been pressed. In this case, we will set moveLeft to True and
moveRight to False (even though moveRight might already be False, we set it to False just to be sure).
You may notice that on line 46, in event.key can either be equal to K_LEFT or ord('a'). The value
in event.key is set to the integer ASCII value of the key that was pressed on the keyboard. (There is no
ASCII value for the arrow keys, which is why we use the constant variable K_LEFT.) You can use the ord
() function to get the ASCII value of any single character to compare it with event.key.
By executing the code on lines 47 and 48 if the keystroke was either K_LEFT or ord('a'), we make the
left arrow key and the A key do the same thing. You may notice that the W, A, S, and D keys are all used as
alternates for changing the movement variables. This is because some people may want to use their left hand
to press the WASD keys instead of their right hand to press the arrow keys. Our program offers them both!
Handling the KEYUP Event
When the user releases the key that they are holding down, a KEYUP event is generated.

60. pygame.quit()
61. sys.exit()
309
If the key that the user released was the Esc key, then we want to terminate the program. Remember, in
Pygame you must call the pygame.quit() function before calling the sys.exit() function. We want
to do this when the user releases the Esc key, not when they first Esc key down.
Lines 62 to 69 will set a movement variable to False if that direction's key was let go.

('a'):
('d'):
67. moveUp = False
('s'):
Teleporting the Player

If the user released one of the keys that moves the player, then we want to set the movement variable that
corresponds with the key to False. This will tell the later parts of our program to no longer move the
player's square on the screen.

We will also add teleportation to our game. If the user presses the "X" key, then we will set the position of
the user's square to a random place on the window. This will give the user the ability to teleport around the
window by pushing the "X" key (though they can't control where they will teleport: it's completely random).
Handling the MOUSEBUTTONUP Event

75. foods.append(pygame.Rect(event.pos[0],
event.pos[1], FOODSIZE, FOODSIZE))
Mouse input is handled by events just like keyboard input is. The MOUSEBUTTONUP event occurs when
the user clicks a mouse button somewhere in our window, and releases the mouse button. The pos attribute
in the Event object is set to a tuple of two integers for the xy coordinates. On line 75, the x coordinate is
stored in event.pos[0] and the y coordinate is stored in event.pos[1]. We will create a new Rect
310
object to represent a new food and place it where the MOUSEBUTTONUP event occurred. By adding a new
Rect object to the foods list, a new food square will be displayed on the screen.
Moving the Bouncer Around the Screen

We have set the movement variables (moveDown, moveUp, moveLeft, and moveRight) to True or
False depending on what keys the user has pressed. Now we will actually move the player's square (which
is represented by the pygame.Rect object stored in player) around by adjusting the xy coordinates of
player. If moveDown is set to True (and the bottom of the player's square is not below the bottom edge of
the window), then we move the player's square down by adding MOVESPEED to the player's current top
attribute. We do the same thing for the other three directions as well.
The colliderect() Method
99. # check if the player has intersected with any food

squares.
In our previous Collision Detection program, we had our own function to check if one rectangle had
collided with another. That function was included in this book so that you could understand how the code
behind collision detection works. In this program, we can use the collision detection function that comes with
Pygame. The colliderect() method for pygame.Rect objects is passed another pygame.Rect
object as an argument and returns True if the two rectangles collide and False if they do not. This is the
exact same behavior as the doRectsOverlap() function in our previous Collision Detection program.
The rest of the code is similar to the code in the Input program is similar to the earlier Collision Detection
program: draw the food squares and the player squares to the windowSurface surface, occasionally add a
new food square at a random location to the foods list, check if the player square has collided with any of
the food squares, and call mainClock.tick(40) to make the program run at an appropriate speed.
311
Summary: Collision Detection and Pygame Input
This chapter introduced the concept of collision detection, which is used in most graphical games.
Detecting collisions between two rectangles is easy: we just check if the four corners of either rectangle are
within the other rectangle. This is such a common thing to check for that Pygame provides it's own collision
detection function as the colliderect() method for pygame.Rect objects.
The first several games in this book were text-based. The program output was text printed to the screen and
the input was text typed by the user on the keyboard. But GUI programs can accept keyboard and mouse
inputs. Furthermore, GUI programs can respond to single keystrokes when the user pushes down or lets up a
single key. The user does not have to type in an entire response and press ENTER. This allows for immediate
feedback when the player presses down any key on the keyboard and much more interactive games.
The Pygame programs we shown so far have drawn rectangles, lines, circles, and even individual pixels to
the screen. These are called drawing primitives. But we also want to use pictures and images instead of
simple drawing primitives. The next chapter will tell you how to load images and draw them on the screen.
We will also learn how to play sounds and music for the player to hear.
312
• Image and Sound Files
• Drawing Sprites
• The pygame.image.load() Function
• The pygame.mixer.Sound Data Type
• The pygame.mixer.music Module
In the last two chapters, we've learned how to make GUI programs that have graphics and can accept input
from the keyboard and mouse. We've also learned how to draw shapes in different colors on the screen. In
this chapter, we will learn how to show pictures and images (called sprites) and play sounds and music in our
games.
A sprite is a name for a single two-dimensional image that is used as part of the graphics on the screen.
Here are some example sprites:
Figure 18-1: Some examples of sprites.
This is an example of sprites being used in a complete scene.

313
Figure 18-2: An example of a complete scene, with sprites drawn on top of a background.
The sprite images are drawn on top of the background. Notice that we can flip the sprite image horizontally
so that the sprites are facing the other way. We can draw the same sprite image multiple times on the same
window. We can also resize the sprites to be larger or smaller than the original sprite image. The background
image can also be considered one large sprite.
The next program we make will demonstrate how to play sounds and draw sprites using Pygame.
Image and Sound Files

Sprites are stored in image files on your computer. There are several different image formats that Pygame
can use. You can tell what format an image file uses by looking at the end of the file name. For example, the
file happy.png is in the PNG format. The image formats Pygame supports include BMP, PNG, JPG (and
JPEG), and GIF.
You can download images from your web browser. On most web browsers, you just have to right-click on
the image in the web page and select Save from the menu that appears. Remember where on the hard drive
you saved the image file.
You can also create your own images with a drawing program like MS Paint or Tux Paint.
The sound file formats that Pygame supports are MID, WAV, and MP3. You can download sound effects
from the Internet just like image files, as long as the sound effects are in one of these three formats. If you
have a microphone, you can also record sounds with your computer and use them in your games.
314
Sprites and Sounds Program
This program is the same as the Keyboard and Mouse Input program from the last chapter. However, in
this program we will use sprites instead of plain looking squares. We will use a sprite of a little man instead
of the white player square, and a sprite of cherries instead of the green food squares. We also play
background music and a sound effect when the player sprite eats one of the cherry sprites.
The Sprites and Sounds Program's Source Code

If you know how to use graphics software such as Photoshop or MS Paint, you can draw your own images
and use the image files in your games. If you don't know how to use these programs, you can just download
graphics from websites and use those image files instead. The same applies for music and sound files. You
can also find images on web sites or images from a digital camera. You can download the image and sound
files from this book's website at http://inventwithpython.com/resources/. You can download the source code
in this chapter from the URL http://inventwithpython.com/chapter18.
spritesAndSounds.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/spritesAndSounds.py
1. import pygame, sys, time, random

3.
4. # set up pygame
5. pygame.init()
7.
12. pygame.display.set_caption('Sprites and Sound')
13.
15. BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
16.
19. playerImage = pygame.image.load('player.png')
20. playerStretchedImage = pygame.transform.scale(playerImage,
(40, 40))
21. foodImage = pygame.image.load('cherry.png')
22. foods = []
- 20), random.randint(0, WINDOWHEIGHT - 20), 20, 20))
25.
315
26. foodCounter = 0
27. NEWFOOD = 40
28.
29. # set up keyboard variables
32. moveUp = False
34.
35. MOVESPEED = 6
36.
37. # set up music
38. pickUpSound = pygame.mixer.Sound('pickup.wav')
39. pygame.mixer.music.load('background.mid')
40. pygame.mixer.music.play(-1, 0.0)
41. musicPlaying = True
42.
44. while True:
48. pygame.quit()
49. sys.exit()
51. # change the keyboard variables
('a'):
54. moveLeft = True
('d'):
60. moveUp = True
('s'):
62. moveUp = False
63. moveDown = True
66. pygame.quit()
67. sys.exit()
('a'):
('d'):
316
73. moveUp = False
('s'):
79. if event.key == ord('m'):
80. if musicPlaying:
81. pygame.mixer.music.stop()
82. else:
84. musicPlaying = not musicPlaying
85.
87. foods.append(pygame.Rect(event.pos[0] - 10,
event.pos[1] - 10, 20, 20))
88.
91. # add new food
92. foodCounter = 0
WINDOWWIDTH - 20), random.randint(0, WINDOWHEIGHT - 20),
20, 20))
94.
97.
107.
108.
110. windowSurface.blit(playerStretchedImage, player)
111.
112. # check if the block has intersected with any food
squares.
317
116. player = pygame.Rect(player.left, player.top,
player.width + 2, player.height + 2)
117. playerStretchedImage = pygame.transform.scale
(playerImage, (player.width, player.height))
119. pickUpSound.play()
120.
122. for food in foods:
123. windowSurface.blit(foodImage, food)
124.
Figure 18-3: The Sprites and Sounds game.
Setting Up the Window and the Data Structure

Most of the code in this program was explained in the previous chapter, so we will only focus on the parts
that add sprites and sound.
12. pygame.display.set_caption('Sprites and Sound')
318
First, let's set the caption of the title bar to a string that describes this program. Pass the string 'Sprites
and Sound' to the pygame.display.set_caption() function.

20. playerStretchedImage = pygame.transform.scale(playerImage,
(40, 40))
21. foodImage = pygame.image.load('cherry.png')
We are going to use three different variables to represent the player, unlike the previous programs that just
used one. The player variable will store a Rect object that keeps track of where and how big the player is.
The player variable doesn't contain the player's image, just the player's size and location. At the beginning
of the program, the top left corner of the player will be located at (300, 100) and the player will have a height
and width of 40 pixels to start.
The second variable that represents the player will be playerImage. The pygame.image.load()
function is passed a string of the filename of the image to load. The return value of pygame.image.load
() is a Surface object that has the image in the image file drawn on its surface. We store this Surface
object inside of playerImage.
The pygame.transform.scale() Function

On line 20, we will use a new function in the pygame.transform module. The
pygame.transform.scale() function can shrink or enlarge a sprite. The first argument is a
pygame.Surface object with the image drawn on it. The second argument is a tuple for the new width
and height of the image in the first argument. The pygame.transform.scale() function returns a
pygame.Surface object with the image drawn at a new size. We will store the original image in the
playerImage variable but the stretched image in the playerStretchedImage variable.
On line 21, we call pygame.image.load() again to create a Surface object with the cherry image
drawn on it.
Be sure that you have the player.png and cherry.png file in the same directory as the spritesAndSounds.py
file, otherwise Pygame will not be able to find them and will give an error.
The Surface objects that are stored in playerImage and foodImage are the same as the Surface
object we use for the window. In our game, we will blit these surfaces onto the window's surface to create the
window that the user sees. This is exactly the same as the when we got a Surface object returned from the
render() method for Font objects in our Hello World program. In order to actually display the text, we
had to blit this Surface object (which the text was drawn on) to the window's Surface object. (And then,
of course, call the update() method on the window's Surface object.)
Setting Up the Music and Sounds
37. # set up music

38. pickUpSound = pygame.mixer.Sound('pickup.wav')
319
41. musicPlaying = True
Next we need to load the sound files. There are two sound systems in Pygame. The system in the
pygame.mixer module is responsible for playing short sound effects during the game. The system in the
pygame.mixer.music module is used for playing background music.
We will call the pygmae.mixer.Sound() constructor function to create a pygame.mixer.Sound

object (which we will simply call a Sound object). This object has a play() method that when called will
play the sound effect.
On line 39 we load the background music by calling pygame.mixer.music.load(). We will start playing the
background music immediately by calling pygame.mixer.music.play(). The first parameter tells
Pygame how many times to play the background music after the first time we play it. So passing 5 will cause
Pygame to play the background music 6 times over. If you pass -1 for the first parameter, the background
music will repeat itself forever.
The second parameter to pygame.mixer.music.play() tells at what point in the sound file to start
playing. Passing 0.0 will play the background music starting from the very beginning. If you passed 2.5 for
the second parameter, this will cause the background music to start playing two and half seconds into the
music.
Finally, we have a simple boolean variable named musicPlaying that will tell our program if it should
play the background music and sound effects or not. It is nice to give the player the option to run the program
without the sound playing.
Toggling the Sound On and Off
79. if event.key == ord('m'):

82. else:
84. musicPlaying = not musicPlaying
We will check if the user has pressed the M key. The M key will turn the background music on or off. If
musicPlaying is set to True, then that means the background music is currently playing and we should
stop the music by calling pygame.mixer.music.stop(). If musicPlaying is set to False, then
that means the background music is not currently playing and should be started by calling
pygame.mixer.music.play(). The parameters we pass to the pygame.mixer.music.play()
function are the same as we passed on line 40.
Finally, no matter what, we want to toggle the value in musicPlaying. Toggling a boolean value
means we set it to the opposite of its current value. The line musicPlaying = not musicPlaying
will set the variable to False if it is currently True or set it to True if it is currently False. Think of
toggling as what happens when you flip a light switch on or off.
320
Toggling the value in musicPlaying will ensure that the next time the user presses the M key, it will do
the opposite of what it did before.
Drawing the Player on the Window

110. windowSurface.blit(playerStretchedImage, player)
Remember that the value stored in playerStretchedImage is a Surface object. "Blitting" is the
process of drawing the contents of one Surface object to another Surface object. In this case, we want to
draw the sprite of the player onto the window's Surface object (which is stored in windowSurface).
(Also remember that the surface used to display on the screen is the Surface object that is returned by
pygame.display.set_caption().)
The second parameter to the blit() method is a Rect object that specifies where the sprite should be
blitted. The Rect object stored in player is what keeps track of the position of the player in the window.
Checking if the Player Has Collided with Cherries
116. player = pygame.Rect(player.left, player.top,
player.width + 2, player.height + 2)
117. playerStretchedImage = pygame.transform.scale
(playerImage, (player.width, player.height))
119. pickUpSound.play()
This code is similar to the code in the previous programs. But here we are adding a couple of new lines.
We want to call the play() method on the Sound object stored in the pickUpSound variable. But we only
want to do this if musicPlaying is set to True (which tells us that the sound turned on).
When the player eats one of the cherries, we are going to enlarge the size of the player by two pixels in
height and width. On line 116, we create a new Rect object to store in the player variable which will have
the same sizes as the old Rect object stored in player. Except the width and height of the new Rect object
will be 2 pixels larger.
When the Rect object that represents the position and size of the player, but the image of the player is
stored in a playerStretchedImage as a Surface object. We want to create a new stretched image by
calling pygame.transform.scale(). Be sure to pass the original Surface object in playerImage
and not playerStretchedImage. Stretching an image often distorts it a little. If we keep restretching a
stretched image over and over, the distortions add up quickly. But by stretching the original image to the new
size, we only distort the image once. This is why we pass playerImage as the first argument for
pygame.transform.scale().
321
Draw the Cherries on the Window

122. for food in foods:
123. windowSurface.blit(foodImage, food)
In our previous programs, we called the pygame.draw.rect() function to draw a green square for
each Rect object stored in the foods list. However, in this program we want to draw the cherry sprites
instead. We will call the blit() method and pass the Surface object stored in foodImage. (This is the
surface that has the image of cherries drawn on it.)
We only use the food variable (which contains each of the Rect objects in foods on each iteration
through the for loop) to tell the blit() method where to draw the foodImage.
Summary: Games with Graphics and Sounds

This game has added even more advanced graphics and introduced using sound in our games. The images
(called sprites) look much better than the simple drawing primitives used in our previous programs. The
game presented in this chapter also has music playing in the background while also playing sound effects.
Sprites can be scaled (that is, stretched) to a larger or smaller size. This way we can display sprites at any
size we want. This will come in handy in the game presented in the next chapter.
Now that we know how to create a GUI window, display sprites and drawing primitives, collect keyboard
and mouse input, play sounds, and implement collision detection, we are now ready to create a graphical
game in Pygame. The next chapter brings all of these elements together for our most advanced game yet.
322
• Pygame Constant Variables for Keyboard Keys
• The move_ip() Method for Rect objects
• The pygame.mouse.set_pos() Function
• Implementing Cheat Codes in Your Games
• Modifying the Dodger Game
The last three chapters have gone over the Pygame software library and demonstrated how to use its many
features. (You don't need to read those chapters before reading this chapter, though it may make this chapter
easier to understand.) In this chapter, we will use that knowledge to create a graphical game with sound that
receives input from the keyboard and mouse.
The Dodger game has the player control a small man (which we call the player's character) and must dodge
a whole bunch of baddies that fall from the top of the screen. The longer the player can keep dodging the
baddies, the higher the score they will get.
Just for fun, we will also add some cheat modes to the game. If the player holds down the "x" key, every
baddie's speed will be reduced to a super slow rate. If the player holds down the "z" key, the baddies will
reverse their direction and travel up the screen instead of downwards.
Review of the Basic Pygame Data Types

Before explaining each line of code in our Pygame game, let's review some of the basic data types used in
the Pygame library:
• pygame.Rect - Rect objects represent a rectangular space's location and size. The location can be
determined by the Rect object's topleft attribute (or the topright, bottomleft, and
bottomright attributes). These corner attributes are a tuple of integers for the x and y coordinates.
The size can be determined by the width and height attributes, which are integers of how many pixels
323
long or high the rectangle area is. Rect objects a colliderect() method to check if they are
intersecting with another Rect object.
• pygame.Surface - Surface objects are areas of colored pixels. Surface objects represent a
rectangular image, while Rect objects only represent a rectangular space and location. Surface
objects have a blit() method that is used to draw the image on one Surface object onto another
Surface object. The Surface object returned by the pygame.display.set_mode() function
is special because anything drawn on that Surface object will be displayed on the user's screen.
• Remember that Surface have things drawn on them, but we cannot see this because it only exists in
the computer's memory. We can only see a Surface object when it is "blitted" (that is, drawn) on the
screen. This is just the same as it is with any other piece of data. If you think about it, you cannot see
the string that is stored in a variable until the variable is printed to the screen.
• pygame.event.Event - The Event data type in the pygame.event module generates Event
objects whenever the user provides keyboard, mouse, or another kind of input. The
pygame.event.get() function returns a list of Event objects. You can check what type of event
the Event object is by checking its type attribute. QUIT, KEYDOWN, and MOUSEBUTTONUP are
examples of some event types.
• pygame.font.Font - The pygame.font module has the Font data type which represent the
typeface used for text in Pygame. You can create a Font object by calling the
pygame.font.SysFont() constructor function. The arguments to pass are a string of the font
name and an integer of the font size, however it is common to pass None for the font name to get the
default system font. For example, the common function call to create a Font object is
pygame.font.SysFont(None, 48).
• pygame.time.Clock - The Clock object in the pygame.time module are very helpful for
keeping our games from running as fast as possible. (This is often too fast for the player to keep up
with the computer, and makes the games not fun.) The Clock object has a tick() method, which we
pass how many frames per second (fps) we want the game to run at. The higher the fps, the faster the
game runs. Normally we use 40 fps. Notice that the pygame.time module is a different module than
the time module which contains the sleep() function.
Type in the following code and save it to a file named dodger.py. This game also requires some other
image and sound files which you can download from the URL http://inventwithpython.com/resources.
Dodger's Source Code

If you don't want to type in all this code, you can download it from this book's website at the URL
dodger.py
This code can be downloaded from http://inventwithpython.com/dodger.py
1. import pygame, random, sys

3.
6. TEXTCOLOR = (255, 255, 255)
7. BACKGROUNDCOLOR = (0, 0, 0)
8. FPS = 40
324
9. BADDIEMINSIZE = 10
10. BADDIEMAXSIZE = 40
11. BADDIEMINSPEED = 1
12. BADDIEMAXSPEED = 8
13. ADDNEWBADDIERATE = 6
14. PLAYERMOVERATE = 5
15.
16. def terminate():
17. pygame.quit()
18. sys.exit()
19.
20. def waitForPlayerToPressKey():
21. while True:
24. terminate()
26. if event.key == K_ESCAPE: # pressing
escape quits
27. terminate()
28. return
29.
30. def playerHasHitBaddie(playerRect, baddies):
31. for b in baddies:
32. if playerRect.colliderect(b['rect']):
33. return True
34. return False
35.
36. def drawText(text, font, surface, x, y):
37. textobj = font.render(text, 1, TEXTCOLOR)
38. textrect = textobj.get_rect()
39. textrect.topleft = (x, y)
40. surface.blit(textobj, textrect)
41.
42. # set up pygame, the window, and the mouse cursor
43. pygame.init()
WINDOWHEIGHT))
46. pygame.display.set_caption('Dodger')
47. pygame.mouse.set_visible(False)
48.
49. # set up fonts
50. font = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 48)
51.
52. # set up sounds
53. gameOverSound = pygame.mixer.Sound('gameover.wav')
55.
56. # set up images
325
58. playerRect = playerImage.get_rect()
59. baddieImage = pygame.image.load('baddie.png')
60.
61. # show the "Start" screen
62. drawText('Dodger', font, windowSurface, (WINDOWWIDTH / 3),
(WINDOWHEIGHT / 3))
63. drawText('Press a key to start.', font, windowSurface,
(WINDOWWIDTH / 3) - 30, (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3) + 50)
65. waitForPlayerToPressKey()
66.
67.
68. topScore = 0
69. while True:
70. # set up the start of the game
71. baddies = []
72. score = 0
73. playerRect.topleft = (WINDOWWIDTH / 2, WINDOWHEIGHT -
50)
74. moveLeft = moveRight = moveUp = moveDown = False
75. reverseCheat = slowCheat = False
76. baddieAddCounter = 0
78.
79. while True: # the game loop runs while the game part
is playing
80. score += 1 # increase score
81.
84. terminate()
85.
87. if event.key == ord('z'):
88. reverseCheat = True
90. slowCheat = True
('a'):
93. moveLeft = True
94. if event.key == K_RIGHT or event.key ==
ord('d'):
97. if event.key == K_UP or event.key == ord
('w'):
99. moveUp = True
('s'):
326
101. moveUp = False
102. moveDown = True
103.
106. reverseCheat = False
107. score = 0
109. slowCheat = False
110. score = 0
112. terminate()
113.
('a'):
ord('d'):
('w'):
119. moveUp = False
('s'):
122.
123. if event.type == MOUSEMOTION:
124. # If the mouse moves, move the player
where the cursor is.
125. playerRect.move_ip(event.pos[0] -
playerRect.centerx, event.pos[1] - playerRect.centery)
126.
127. # Add new baddies at the top of the screen, if
needed.
128. if not reverseCheat and not slowCheat:
129. baddieAddCounter += 1
130. if baddieAddCounter == ADDNEWBADDIERATE:
132. baddieSize = random.randint(BADDIEMINSIZE,
BADDIEMAXSIZE)
133. newBaddie = {'rect': pygame.Rect
(random.randint(0, WINDOWWIDTH-baddieSize), 0 -
baddieSize, baddieSize, baddieSize),
134. 'speed': random.randint
(BADDIEMINSPEED, BADDIEMAXSPEED),
135. 'surface':pygame.transform.scale
(baddieImage, (baddieSize, baddieSize)),
136. }
137.
138. baddies.append(newBaddie)
139.
327
140. # Move the player around.
141. if moveLeft and playerRect.left > 0:
142. playerRect.move_ip(-1 * PLAYERMOVERATE, 0)
143. if moveRight and playerRect.right < WINDOWWIDTH:
144. playerRect.move_ip(PLAYERMOVERATE, 0)
145. if moveUp and playerRect.top > 0:
146. playerRect.move_ip(0, -1 * PLAYERMOVERATE)
147. if moveDown and playerRect.bottom < WINDOWHEIGHT:
148. playerRect.move_ip(0, PLAYERMOVERATE)
149.
150. # Move the mouse cursor to match the player.
151. pygame.mouse.set_pos(playerRect.centerx,
playerRect.centery)
152.
153. # Move the baddies down.
156. b['rect'].move_ip(0, b['speed'])
157. elif reverseCheat:
158. b['rect'].move_ip(0, -5)
159. elif slowCheat:
160. b['rect'].move_ip(0, 1)
161.
162. # Delete baddies that have fallen past the
bottom.
163. for b in baddies[:]:
164. if b['rect'].top > WINDOWHEIGHT:
165. baddies.remove(b)
166.
167. # Draw the game world on the window.
168. windowSurface.fill(BACKGROUNDCOLOR)
169.
170. # Draw the score and top score.
171. drawText('Score: %s' % (score), font,
windowSurface, 10, 0)
172. drawText('Top Score: %s' % (topScore), font,
173.
174. # Draw the player's rectangle
175. windowSurface.blit(playerImage, playerRect)
176.
177. # Draw each baddie
179. windowSurface.blit(b['surface'], b['rect'])
180.
182.
183. # Check if any of the baddies have hit the player.
184. if playerHasHitBaddie(playerRect, baddies):
185. if score > topScore:
186. topScore = score # set new top score
328
187. break
188.
189. mainClock.tick(FPS)
190.
191. # Stop the game and show the "Game Over" screen.
193. gameOverSound.play()
194.
195. drawText('GAME OVER', font, windowSurface,
(WINDOWWIDTH / 3), (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3))
196. drawText('Press a key to play again.', font,
windowSurface, (WINDOWWIDTH / 3) - 80, (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3)
+ 50)
199.
200. gameOverSound.stop()
When you run this program, the game will look like this:
Figure 19-1: A screenshot of the Dodger game in action.
329
Importing the Modules
1. import pygame, random, sys

The Dodger game will import the same modules that our previous Pygame games have: pygame,
random, sys, and pygame.locals. The pygame.locals module contains several constant variables
that the Pygame library uses such as the event types (QUIT, KEYDOWN, etc.) and keyboard keys
(K_ESCAPE, K_LEFT, etc.). By using the from pygame.locals import * syntax, we can just type
QUIT instead of pygame.locals.QUIT.
Setting Up the Constant Variables

There are several constant variables in this game. We use constant variables because the variable name is
much more descriptive than a number. For example, from the line windowSurface.fill
(BACKGROUNDCOLOR) we know that the argument being sent is a color for the background. However, the
line windowSurface.fill(BACKGROUNDCOLOR) is not as clear what the argument being passed
means. We can also easily change some simple aspects about our game without having the change much of
the code by changing the values stored in these constant variables. By changing WINDOWWIDTH on line 4,
we automatically change the code everywhere WINDOWWIDTH is used. If we had used the value 600 instead,
then we would have to change each occurrence of 600 in the code. This would be especially confusing
because 600 would also be used for the height of the window as well, and we would not want to change
those values.
6. TEXTCOLOR = (255, 255, 255)
7. BACKGROUNDCOLOR = (0, 0, 0)
Here we set the height and width of the main window. Since the rest of our code works off of these
constant variables, changing the value here will change it everywhere in our program.
Instead of storing color tuples into a variable named WHITE or BLACK, we will use constant variables for
the color of the text and background. Remember that the three integers in the color tuples range from 0 to
255 and stand for red, green, and blue.
8. FPS = 40
Just so the computer does not run the game too fast for the user to handle, we will call
mainClock.tick() on each iteration of the game loop to slow it down. We need to pass an integer to
mainClock.tick() so that the function knows how long to pause the program. This integer will be the
number of frames per second we want the game to run. A "frame" is the same thing as an iteration through
the game loop. We will set up a constant variable FPS to 40, and always call mainClock.tick(FPS).
You can change FPS to a higher value to have the game run faster or a lower value to slow the game down.
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9. BADDIEMINSIZE = 10
10. BADDIEMAXSIZE = 40
11. BADDIEMINSPEED = 1
12. BADDIEMAXSPEED = 8
13. ADDNEWBADDIERATE = 6
Here we set some more constant variables that will describe the falling baddies. The width and height of
the baddies will be between BADDIEMINSIZE and BADDIEMAXSIZE. The rate at which the baddies fall
down the screen will be between BADDIEMINSPEED and BADDIEMAXSPEED pixels per iteration through
the game loop. And a new baddie will be added to the top of the window every ADDNEWBADDIERATE
iterations through the game loop.
14. PLAYERMOVERATE = 5
The PLAYERMOVERATE will store the number of pixels the player's character moves in the window on
each iteration through the game loop (if the character is moving). By increasing this number, you can
increase the speed the character moves. If you set PLAYERMOVERATE to 0, then the player's character won't
be able to move at all. (This wouldn't be a very fun game.)
Defining Functions
We will create several functions for our game. By putting code into functions, we can avoid having to type
the same code several times in our program. And because the code is in one place, if we find a bug the code
only needs to be fixed in one place.
16. def terminate():

17. pygame.quit()
18. sys.exit()
There are several places in our game that we want to terminate the program. In our other programs, this
just required a single call to sys.exit(). But since Pygame requires that we call both pygame.quit()
and sys.exit(), we will put them into a function called terminate() and just call the function. This
keeps us from repeating the same code over and over again. And remember, the more we type, the more
likely we will make a mistake and create a bug in our program.
20. def waitForPlayerToPressKey():

21. while True:
There are also a couple places where we want the game to pause and wait for the player to press a key. We
will create a new function called waitForPlayerToPressKey() to do this. Inside this function, we
have an infinite loop that only breaks when a KEYDOWN or QUIT event is received. At the start of the loop,
we call pygame.event.get() to return a list of Event objects to check out.
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24. terminate()
If the player has closed the window while the program is waiting for the player to press a key, Pygame will
generate a QUIT event and we should terminate the program. We will call our terminate() function here,
rather than call pygame.quit() and sys.exit() themselves.

26. if event.key == K_ESCAPE: # pressing
escape quits
27. terminate()
28. return
If we receive a KEYDOWN event, then we should first check if it is the Esc key that was pressed. If we are
waiting for the player to press a key, but the player presses the Esc key, we want to terminate the program. If
that wasn't the case, then execution will skip the if-block on line 27 and go straight to the return statement,
which exits the waitForPlayerToPressKey() function.
If a QUIT or KEYDOWN event is not generated, then this loop will keep looping until it is. This will freeze
the game until the player presses a key or closes the window.
30. def playerHasHitBaddie(playerRect, baddies):

32. if playerRect.colliderect(b['rect']):
33. return True
34. return False
We will also define a function named playerHasHitBaddie() which will return True if the player's
character has collided with one of the baddies. The baddies parameter is a list of baddie data structures.
These data structures are just dictionaries, so it is accurate to say that baddies is a list of dictionary objects.
Each of these dictionaries has a 'rect' key, and the value for that key is a Rect object that represents the
baddie's size and location.
playerRect is also a Rect object. Remember that Rect objects have a method named
colliderect() that returns True if the Rect object has collided with the Rect object that is passed to
the method. Otherwise, colliderect() will return False.
We can use this method in our playerHasHitBaddie() function. First we iterate through each baddie
data structure in the baddies list. If any of these baddies collide with the player's character, then
playerHasHitBaddie() will return True. If the code manages to iterate through all the baddies in the
baddies list without colliding with any of them, we will return False.
36. def drawText(text, font, surface, x, y):

37. textobj = font.render(text, 1, TEXTCOLOR)
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38. textrect = textobj.get_rect()
39. textrect.topleft = (x, y)
40. surface.blit(textobj, textrect)
Drawing text on the window involves many different steps. First, we must create a Surface object that
has the string rendered in a specific font on it. The render() method does this. Next, we need to know the
size and location of the Surface object we just made. We can get a Rect object with this information with
the get_rect() method for Surface objects.
This Rect object has no special connection to the Surface object with the text drawn on it, other than the
fact that it has a copy of the width and height information from the Surface object. We can change the
location of the Rect object by setting a new tuple value for its topleft attribute.
Finally, we blit the Surface object of the rendered text onto the Surface object that was passed to our
drawText() function. Displaying text in Pygame take a few more steps than simply calling the print()
function, but if we put this code into a single function (drawText()), then we only need to call the function
instead of typing out all the code every time we want to display text on the screen.
Initializing Pygame and Setting Up the Window

Now that the constant variables and functions are finished, we can start calling the Pygame functions that
will set up Pygame for use in our code. Many of these function calls are to set up the GUI window and create
objects that we will use in the game.
42. # set up pygame, the window, and the mouse cursor

43. pygame.init()
WINDOWHEIGHT))
46. pygame.display.set_caption('Dodger')
47. pygame.mouse.set_visible(False)
Line 43 sets up the Pygame library. Remember, the pygame.init() function must be called before we
can use any of Pygame's functions or data types. Line 44 creates a pygame.time.Clock() object and
stores it in the Rect variable. This object will help us keep the program from running too fast.
Line 45 creates a new Surface object which will be used for the window displayed on the screen. We
will specify the width and height of this Surface object (and the window) by passing a tuple with the
WINDOWWIDTH and WINDOWHEIGHT constant variables. Notice that there is only one argument passed to
pygame.display.set_mode(): a tuple. The arguments for pygame.display.set_mode() are
not two integers but a tuple of two integers.
On line 46, the caption of the window is set to the string 'Dodger'. This caption will appear in the title
bar at the top of the window.
In our game, we do not want the mouse cursor (the arrow that moves around the screen when we move the
mouse) to be visible. This is because we want the mouse to be able to move the player's character around the
screen, and the arrow cursor would get in the way of the character's image on the screen. We pass False to
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tell Pygame to make the cursor invisible. If we wanted to make the cursor visible again at some point in the
program, we could call pygame.mouse.set_visible(True).
49. # set up fonts

50. font = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 48)
We need to create a Font object to use when we create a Surface object with the image of text drawn
on it. (This process is called "rendering".) We want to create a generic font, so we will use the default Font
object that the pygame.font.SysFont() constructor function returns. We pass None so that the default
font is used, and we pass 48 so that the font has a size of 48 points.
52. # set up sounds

53. gameOverSound = pygame.mixer.Sound('gameover.wav')
Next we want to create the Sound objects and also set up the background music. The background music
will constantly be playing during the game, but Sound objects will only be played when we specifically
want them to. In this case, the Sound object will be played when the player loses the game.
You can use any .wav or .mid file for this game. You can download these sound files from this book's
website at the URL http://inventwithpython.com/resources. Or you can use your own sound files for this
game, as long as they have the filenames of gameover.wav and background.mid. (Or you can change the
strings used on lines 53 and 54 to match the filenames.)
The pygame.mixer.Sound() constructor function creates a new Sound object and stores a reference
to this object in the gameOverSound variable. In your own games, you can create as many Sound objects
as you like, each with a different sound file that it will play.
The pygame.mixer.music.load() function loads a sound file to play for the background music.
This function does not create any objects, and only one sound file can be loaded at a time.
56. # set up images

58. playerRect = playerImage.get_rect()
59. baddieImage = pygame.image.load('baddie.png')
Next we will load the image files that used for the player's character and the baddies on the screen. The
image for the character is stored in player.png and the image for the baddies is stored in baddie.png. All the
baddies look the same, so we only need one image file for them. You can download these images from the
book's website at the URL http://inventwithpython.com/resources.
Display the Start Screen

When the game first starts, we want to display the name of the game on the screen. We also want to
instruct the player that they can start the game by pushing any key. This screen appears so that the player has
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time to get ready to start playing after running the program. Also, before each game starts, we want to reset
the value of the top score back to 0.
61. # show the "Start" screen

62. drawText('Dodger', font, windowSurface, (WINDOWWIDTH / 3),
(WINDOWHEIGHT / 3))
63. drawText('Press a key to start.', font, windowSurface,
(WINDOWWIDTH / 3) - 30, (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3) + 50)
On lines 62 and 63, we call our drawText() function and pass it five arguments: 1) the string of the text
we want to appear, 2) the font that we want the string to appear in, 3) the Surface object onto which to
render the text, and 4) and 5) the x and y coordinate on the Surface object to draw the text at.
This may seem like many arguments to pass for a function call, but keep in mind that this function call
replaces five lines of code each time we call it. This shortens our program and makes it easier to find bugs
since there is less code to check.
The waitForPlayerToPressKey() function will pause the game by entering into a loop that checks
for any KEYDOWN events. Once a KEYDOWN event is generated, the execution breaks out of the loop and the
program continues to run.
Start of the Main Game Code
68. topScore = 0
69. while True:
We have finished defining the helper functions and variables that we need for this game. Line 68 is the
start of the main game code. The value in the topScore variable starts at 0 only when the program first
runs. Whenever the player loses and has a score larger than the current top score, the top score is replaced
with the player's score.
The infinite loop started on line 69 is technically not the "game loop". (The main game loop handles events
and drawing the window while the game is running.) Instead, this while loop will iterate each time the
player starts a new game. We will set up the code so that when the player loses and we need to reset the
game, the program's execution will go back to the start of this loop.
70. # set up the start of the game

71. baddies = []
72. score = 0
At the very beginning, we want to set the baddies list to an empty list. The baddies list is a list of
dictionary objects with the following keys:
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• 'rect' - The Rect object that describes where and what size the baddie is.
• 'speed' - How fast the baddie falls down the screen. This integer represents pixels per iteration
through the game loop.
• 'surface' - The Surface object that has the scaled image of the baddie image drawn on it. This is
the Surface object that will be blitted to the Surface object returned by
pygame.display.set_mode() and drawn on the screen.
Next, we want to reset the player's score to 0.
73. playerRect.topleft = (WINDOWWIDTH / 2, WINDOWHEIGHT -

50)
The starting location of the player will be in the center of the screen and 50 pixels up from the bottom. The
tuple that we set the topleft attribute to will change the location of the playerRect object. The first
item in the tuple is the x coordinate of the left edge. The second item in the tuple is the y coordinate of the top
edge.
74. moveLeft = moveRight = moveUp = moveDown = False

75. reverseCheat = slowCheat = False
Also at the start of the game, we want to have the movement variables moveLeft, moveRight,
moveUp, and moveDown set to False. The reverseCheat and slowCheat variables will be set to
True only when the player enables these cheats by holding down the "z" and "x" keys respectively.
The baddieAddCounter variable is used for a counter to tell the program when to add a new baddie at
the top of the screen. The value in baddieAddCounter will be incremented by one each time the game
loop iterates. When the baddieAddCounter counter is equal to the value in ADDNEWBADDIERATE, then
the baddieAddCounter counter is reset back to 0 and a new baddie is added to the top of the screen.
At the start of the game, we want the background music to begin playing. We can do this with a call to
pygame.mixer.music.play(). The first argument is the number of times the music should repeat
itself. -1 is a special value that tells Pygame we want the music to repeat endlessly. The second argument is
a float that says how many seconds into the music we want it to start playing. Passing 0.0 means we want to
play the music starting from the beginning of the music file. (Passing 2.0, for example, would have started
the music two seconds into the music file.)
The Game Loop

The game loop contains the code that is executed while the game is being played. The game loop
constantly updates the state of the game world by changing the position of the player and baddies, handling
events generated by Pygame, and drawing the state of the game world on the screen. All of this happens
several dozen times a second, which makes it seem that the game is happening in real time to the player.
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79. while True: # the game loop runs while the game part
is playing
80. score += 1 # increase score
Line 79 is the start of the main game loop. In the main game loop, we will increase the player's score,
handle any events that were generated, add any baddies to the top of the screen if needed, move the baddies
down a little, and then draw everything on the screen. This code will be executed over and over again as the
program execution iterates through the game loop. The loop will only exit when the player either loses the
game or quits the program.
First, we will increment the player's score. The longer the player can go without losing, the higher their
score will be.
Event Handling
There are four different types of events we will handle in our game: QUIT, KEYDOWN, KEYUP, and
MOUSEMOTION. The QUIT event is generated by Pygame if the player closes the program's window or shuts
down the computer. In that case, we want the program to close itself. The KEYDOWN and KEYUP events are
generated when the player pushes down and releases the keyboard keys, respectively. These events will be
how we can tell which direction the player wants to move the character. The player could also have pressed
the Esc key to signal that they want to shut down the program. Each time the player moves the mouse,
Pygame will generate a MOUSEMOTION event which will tell us the x and y coordinates of the mouse cursor
over the window.

84. terminate()
Line 82 is the start of the event-handling code. First we call pygame.event.get(), which returns a
list of Event objects. Each Event object represents an event that has been created since the last call to
pygame.event.get(). We will check the type attribute of the event object to see what type of event it
is, and handle the event accordingly.
If the type attribute of the Event object is equal to QUIT, then this tells us that the user has closed the
program somehow. The QUIT constant variable was imported from the pygame.locals module, but since
we imported that module with the line from pygame.locals import * instead of simply import
pygame.locals, we only need to type QUIT and not pygame.locals.QUIT.

88. reverseCheat = True
90. slowCheat = True
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If the event's type is KEYDOWN, then we know that the player has pressed down a key. The Event object
for keyboard events will also have a key attribute that is set to the numeric ASCII value of the key pressed.
The ord() function will return the ASCII value of the letter passed to it.
For example, on line 87, we can check if the event describes the "z" key being pressed down by checking if
event.key == ord('z'). If this condition is True, then we want to set the reverseCheat variable
to True to indicate that the reverse cheat has been activated. We will also check if the "x" key has been
pressed to activate the slow cheat in a similar way.
Pygame's keyboard events always use the ASCII values of lowercase letters, not uppercase. What this
means for your code is that you should always use event.key == ord('z') instead of event.key
== ord('Z'). Otherwise, your program may act as though the key hasn't been pressed at all.

('a'):
93. moveLeft = True
ord('d'):
('w'):
99. moveUp = True
('s'):
101. moveUp = False
102. moveDown = True
We also want to check if the event was generated by the player pressing one of the arrow keys. There is not
an ASCII value for every key on the keyboard, such as the arrow keys or the Esc key. Instead, Pygame
provides some constant variables to use instead.
We can check if the player has pressed the left arrow key with the condition: event.key == K_LEFT.
Again, the reason we can use K_LEFT instead of pygame.locals.K_LEFT is because we imported
pygame.locals with the line from pygame.locals import * instead of import
pygame.locals.
Noticed that pressing down on one of the arrow keys not only sets one of the movement variables to True,
but it also sets the movement variable in the opposite direction to False. For example, if the left arrow key
is pushed down, then the code on line 93 sets moveLeft to True, but it also sets moveRight to False.
This prevents the player from confusing the program into thinking that the player's character should move in
two opposite directions at the same time.
Here is a list of commonly-used constant variables for the key attribute of keyboard-related Event objects:
Table 19-1: Constant Variables for Keyboard

Keys
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Pygame Constant Variable Keyboard Key
K_LEFT Left arrow
K_RIGHT Right arrow
K_UP Up arrow
K_DOWN Down arrow
K_ESCAPE Esc
K_BACKSPACE Backspace
K_TAB Tab
K_RETURN Return or Enter
K_SPACE Space bar
K_DELETE Del
K_LSHIFT Left Shift
K_RSHIFT Right Shift
K_LCTRL Left Ctrl
K_RCTRL Right Ctrl
K_LALT Left Alt
K_RALT Right Alt
K_HOME Home
K_END End
K_PAGEUP PgUp
K_PAGEDOWN PgDn
K_F1 F1
K_F2 F2
K_F3 F3
K_F4 F4
K_F5 F5
K_F6 F6
K_F7 F7
K_F8 F8
K_F9 F9
K_F10 F10
K_F11 F11
K_F12 F12

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106. reverseCheat = False
107. score = 0
109. slowCheat = False
110. score = 0
The KEYUP event is created whenever the player stops pressing down on a keyboard key and it returns to
its normal, up position. KEYUP objects with a type of KEYUP also have a key attribute just like KEYDOWN
events.
On line 105, we check if the player has released the "z" key, which will deactivate the reverse cheat. In that
case, we set reverseCheat to False and reset the score to 0. The score reset is to discourage the player
for using the cheats.
Lines 108 to 110 do the same thing for the "x" key and the slow cheat. When the "x" key is released,
slowCheat is set to False and the player's score is reset to 0.

112. terminate()
At any time during the game, the player can press the Esc key on the keyboard to quit the game. Here we
check if the key that was released was the Esc key by checking event.key == K_ESCAPE. If so, we call
our terminate() function which will exit the program.

('a'):
ord('d'):
('w'):
119. moveUp = False
('s'):
Lines 114 to 121 check if the player has stopped holding down one of the arrow keys (or the corresponding
WASD key). In that event, we will set the corresponding movement variable to False. For example, if the
player was holding down the left arrow key, then the moveLeft would have been set to True on line 93.
When they release it, the condition on line 114 will evaluate to True, and the moveLeft variable will be
set to False.
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The move_ip() Method for Rect objects
123. if event.type == MOUSEMOTION:

124. # If the mouse moves, move the player
where the cursor is.
125. playerRect.move_ip(event.pos[0] -
playerRect.centerx, event.pos[1] - playerRect.centery)
Now that we have handled the keyboard events, let's handle any mouse events that may have been
generated. In the Dodger game, we don't do anything if the player has clicked a mouse button but the game
does respond when the player moves the mouse. This gives the player two ways of controlling the player
character in the game: the keyboard and the mouse.
If the event's type is MOUSEMOTION, then we want to move the player's character to the location of the
mouse cursor. The MOUSEMOTION event is generated whenever the mouse is moved. Event objects with a
type of MOUSEMOTION also have an attribute named pos. The pos attribute stores a tuple of the x and y
coordinates of where the mouse cursor moved in the window.
The move_ip() method for Rect objects will move the location of the Rect object horizontally or
vertically by a number of pixels. For example, playerRect.move_ip(10, 20) would move the Rect
object 10 pixels to the right and 20 pixels down. To move the Rect object left or up, pass negative values.
For example, playerRect.move_ip(-5, -15) will move the Rect object left by 5 pixels and up 15
pixels.
The "ip" at the end of move_ip() stands for "in place". This is because the method changes the Rect
object itself, in its own place. There is also a move() method which does not change the Rect object, but
instead creates a new Rect object that has the new location. This is useful if you want to keep the original
Rect object's location the same but also have a Rect object with the new location.
Adding New Baddies
127. # Add new baddies at the top of the screen, if

needed.
129. baddieAddCounter += 1
On each iteration of the game loop, we want to increment the baddieAddCounter variable by one.
However, we only want to do this if the cheats are not enabled. Remember that reverseCheat and
slowCheat: are only set to True as long as the "z" and "x" keys are being held down, respectively. And
while those keys are being held down, baddieAddCounter is not incremented. This means that no new
baddies will appear at the top of the screen.
130. if baddieAddCounter == ADDNEWBADDIERATE:

341
132. baddieSize = random.randint(BADDIEMINSIZE,
BADDIEMAXSIZE)
133. newBaddie = {'rect': pygame.Rect
(random.randint(0, WINDOWWIDTH-baddieSize), 0 -
baddieSize, baddieSize, baddieSize),
134. 'speed': random.randint
(BADDIEMINSPEED, BADDIEMAXSPEED),
135. 'surface':pygame.transform.scale
(baddieImage, (baddieSize, baddieSize)),
136. }
When the baddieAddCounter reaches the value in ADDNEWBADDIERATE, then the condition on line
130 is True and it is time to add a new baddie to the top of the screen. First, the baddieAddCounter
counter is reset back to 0 (otherwise, when it keeps incrementing it will always be greater than
ADDNEWBADDIERATE and never equal to it. This will cause baddies to stop appearing at the top of the
screen.)
Line 132 generates a size for the baddie in pixels. The size will be between BADDIEMINSIZE and
BADDIEMAXSIZE, which we have set to 10 and 40 in this program.
Line 133 is where a new baddie data structure is created. Remember, the data structure for baddies is
simply a dictionary with keys 'rect', 'speed', and 'surface'. The 'rect' key holds a reference to
a Rect object which stores the location and size of the baddie. The call to the pygame.Rect() constructor
function has four parameters: the x coordinate of the top edge of the area, the y coordinate of the left edge of
the area, the width in pixels, and the height in pixels.
We want the baddie to appear randomly across the top of the window, so we pass random.randint(0,
WINDOWWIDTH-baddieSize) for the x coordinate of the left edge. This will evaluate to a random place
across the top of the window. The reason we pass WINDOWWIDTH-baddieSize instead of
WINDOWWIDTH is because this value is for the left edge of the baddie. If the left edge of the baddie is too far
on the right side of the screen, then part of the baddie will be off the edge of the window and not visible.
We want the bottom edge of the baddie to be just above the top edge of the window. The y coordinate of
the top edge of the window is 0, so to put the baddie's bottom edge there, we want to set the top edge to 0 -
baddieSize.
The baddie's width and height should be the same, so we will pass baddieSize for the third and fourth
argument.
The rate of speed that the baddie moves down the screen will be set in the 'speed' key, and is set to a
random integer between BADDIEMINSPEED and BADDIEMAXSPEED.
138. baddies.append(newBaddie)
Line 138 will add the newly created baddie data structure to the list of baddie data structures. Our program
will use this list to check if the player has collided with any of the baddies and to know where to draw
baddies on the window.
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Moving the Player's Character
140. # Move the player around.

141. if moveLeft and playerRect.left > 0:
142. playerRect.move_ip(-1 * PLAYERMOVERATE, 0)
The four movement variables moveLeft, moveRight, moveUp and moveDown are set to True and
False when Pygame generates the KEYDOWN and KEYUP events, respectively. (This code is from line 86 to
line 121.)
If the player's character is moving left and the left edge of the player's character is greater than 0 (which is
the left edge of the window), then we want to move the character's Rect object (stored in playerRect).
We will always move the playerRect object by the number of pixels in PLAYERMOVERATE. To get
the negative form of an integer, you can simply multiple it by -1. So on line 142, since 5 is stored in
PLAYERMOVERATE, the expression -1 * PLAYERMOVERATE evaluates to -5.
This means that calling playerRect.move_ip(-1 * PLAYERMOVERATE, 0) will change the

location of playerRect by 5 pixels to the left of its current location.
143. if moveRight and playerRect.right < WINDOWWIDTH:

144. playerRect.move_ip(PLAYERMOVERATE, 0)
145. if moveUp and playerRect.top > 0:
146. playerRect.move_ip(0, -1 * PLAYERMOVERATE)
147. if moveDown and playerRect.bottom < WINDOWHEIGHT:
148. playerRect.move_ip(0, PLAYERMOVERATE)
We want to do the same thing for the other three directions: right, up, and down. Each of the three if
statements in lines 143 to 148 checks that their movement variable is set to True and that the edge of the
Rect object of the player is inside the window before calling the move_ip() method to move the Rect
object.
The pygame.mouse.set_pos() Function
150. # Move the mouse cursor to match the player.

151. pygame.mouse.set_pos(playerRect.centerx,
playerRect.centery)
Line 151 moves the mouse cursor to the same position as the player's character. The
pygame.mouse.set_pos() function moves the mouse cursor to the x and y coordinates that you pass it.
Specifically, the cursor will be right in the middle of the character's Rect object because we pass the
centerx and centery attributes of playerRect for the coordinates. The mouse cursor still exists and
can be moved, even though it is invisible because we called pygame.mouse.set_visible(False) on
line 47.
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The reason we want the mouse cursor to match the location of the player's character is to avoid sudden
jumps. Imagine that the mouse cursor and the player's character are at the same location on the left side of the
window. When the player holds down the right arrow key, the character moves to the right edge of the
window but the mouse cursor would stay at the left edge of the screen. If the player then moves the mouse
just a little bit, the player's character would immediately jump to the location of the mouse cursor on the left
edge of the screen. By moving the mouse cursor along with the player's character, any mouse movements
would not result in a sudden jump across the window.
153. # Move the baddies down.

Now we want to loop through each baddie data structure in the baddies list to move them down a little.

156. b['rect'].move_ip(0, b['speed'])
If neither of the cheats have been activated (by the player pushing the "z" or "x" keys which sets
reverseCheat or slowCheat to True, respectively), then move the baddie's location down a number of
pixels equal to its speed, which is stored in the 'speed' key.
Implementing the Cheat Codes
157. elif reverseCheat:

158. b['rect'].move_ip(0, -5)
If the reverse cheat has been activated, then the baddie should actually be moved up by five pixels. Passing
-5 for the second argument to move_ip() will move the Rect object upwards by five pixels.
159. elif slowCheat:

160. b['rect'].move_ip(0, 1)
If the slow cheat has been activated, then the baddie should move downwards, but only by the slow speed
of one pixel per iteration through the game loop. The baddie's normal speed (which is stored in the 'speed'
key of the baddie's data structure) will be ignored while the slow cheat is activated.
Removing the Baddies
162. # Delete baddies that have fallen past the

bottom.
344
163. for b in baddies[:]:
After moving the baddies down the window, we want to remove any baddies that fell below the bottom
edge of the window from the baddies list. Remember that we while we are iterating through a list, we
should not modify the contents of the list by adding or removing items. So instead of iterating through the
baddies list with our baddies loop, we will iterate through a copy of the baddies list.
Remember that a list slice will evaluate a copy of a list's items. For example, spam[2:4] will return a
new list with the items from index 2 up to (but not including) index 4. Leaving the first index blank will
indicate that first index should be used. For example, spam[:4] will return a list with items from the start
of the list up to (but not including) the item at index 4. Leaving the second index blank will indicate that the
last index should be used. For example, spam[2:] will return a list with items from index 2 all the way
(and including) the last item in the list.
But leaving both indexes in the slice blank is a way to represent the entire list. The baddies[:]
expression is a list slice of the whole list, so it evaluates to a copy of the entire list. This is useful because
while we are iterating on the copy of the list, we can modify the original list and remove any baddie data
structures that have fallen past the bottom edge of the window.
Our for loop on line 163 uses a variable b for the current item in the iteration through baddies[:].
164. if b['rect'].top > WINDOWHEIGHT:

165. baddies.remove(b)
Let's evaluate the expression b['rect'].top. b is the current baddie data structure from the baddies[:] list.
Each baddie data structure in the list is a dictionary with a 'rect' key, which stores a Rect object. So b
['rect'] is the Rect object for the baddie. Finally, the top is the y coordinate of the top edge of the rectangular
area. Remember that in the coordinate system, the y coordinates increase going down. So b['rect'].top
> WINDOWHEIGHT will check if the top edge of the baddie is below the bottom of the window.
If this condition is True, then the we will remove the baddie data structure from the baddies list.
Drawing the Window

It isn't enough that our game updates the state of the game world in its memory. Our program will also
have to display the game world to the player. We can do this by drawing the graphics of the baddies and
player's character on the screen. Because the game loop is executed several times a second, drawing the
baddies and player in new positions makes their movement look smooth and natural. But every element on
the screen must be drawn one at a time by calling the appropriate Pygame function.
167. # Draw the game world on the window.

168. windowSurface.fill(BACKGROUNDCOLOR)
Now that we have updated all the data structures for the baddies and the player's character, let's draw
everything on the screen. First, before we draw anything else on the Surface object referred to by
345
windowSurface, we want to black out the entire screen to erase anything drawn on it in a previous
iteration through the game loop.
Remember that the Surface object in windowSurface is the special Surface object because it was
the one returned by pygame.display.set_mode(). This means that anything drawn on that Surface
object will appear on the screen, but only after the pygame.display.update() function is called.
Drawing the Player's Score
170. # Draw the score and top score.

171. drawText('Score: %s' % (score), font,
172. drawText('Top Score: %s' % (topScore), font,
Next we will render the text for score and top score to the top left corner of the window. The 'Score: %
s' % (score) uses string interpolation to insert the value in the score variable into the string. This is the
same thing as 'Score: ' + str(score). We pass this string, the Font object stored in the font
variable, the Surface object on which to draw the text on, and the x and y coordinates of where the text
should be placed. Remember that our drawText() will handle the call to the render() and blit()
methods.
For the top score, we do the exact same thing. We pass 40 for the y coordinate instead of 0 (like we do for
the score) so that the top score text appears beneath the score text.
Drawing the Player's Character
174. # Draw the player's rectangle

175. windowSurface.blit(playerImage, playerRect)
Remember that the information about the player is kept in two different variables. playerImage is a
Surface object that contains all the colored pixels that make up the player's character's image.
playerRect is a Rect object that stores the information about the size and location of the player's
character.
We call the blit() method on windowSurface and pass playerImage and playerRect. This
draws the player character's image on windowSurface at the appropriate location.
177. # Draw each baddie

179. windowSurface.blit(b['surface'], b['rect'])
346
We use a for loop here to draw every baddie on the windowSurface object. Remember that each item
in the baddies list is a dictionary with 'surface' and 'rect' keys containing the Surface object
with the baddie image and the Rect object with the position and size information, respectively.
Now that we have finished drawing everything to the windowSurface object, we should draw this
surface to the screen with a call to pygame.display.update().
Collision Detection
183. # Check if any of the baddies have hit the player.

184. if playerHasHitBaddie(playerRect, baddies):
185. if score > topScore:
186. topScore = score # set new top score
187. break
Now let's check if the player has collided with any of the baddies. We already wrote a function to check for
this: playerHasHitBaddie(). This function will return True if the player's character has collided with
any of the baddies in the baddies list. Otherwise, the function will return False.
If the player's character has hit a baddie, then we check if the player's current score is greater than the top
score. If it is, we set the new top score to be the player's current score. Either way, we break out of the game
loop. The program's execution will jump down to line 191.
189. mainClock.tick(FPS)
To keep the computer from running through the game loop as fast as possible (which would be much too
fast for the player to keep up with), we call mainClock.tick() to pause for a brief amount of time. The
pause will be long enough to ensure that about 40 (the value we stored inside the FPS variable) iterations
through the game loop occur each second.
The Game Over Screen
191. # Stop the game and show the "Game Over" screen.
193. gameOverSound.play()
When the player loses, we want to stop playing the background music and play the "game over" sound
effect. We call the stop() function in the pygame.mixer.music module to stop the background music.
Then we call the play() method on the Sound object stored in gameOverSound.
347
195. drawText('GAME OVER', font, windowSurface,
(WINDOWWIDTH / 3), (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3))
196. drawText('Press a key to play again.', font,
windowSurface, (WINDOWWIDTH / 3) - 80, (WINDOWHEIGHT / 3)
+ 50)
Now we want to display text on the window to tell the player that the game is over, and they should press a
key to start playing a new game. The two calls to our drawText() function will draw this text to the
windowSurface object, and the call to pygame.display.update() will draw this Surface object
to the screen.
After displaying this text, we want the game to stop until the player presses a key, so we call our
waitForPlayerToPressKey() function.
200. gameOverSound.stop()
After the player presses a key, the program execution will return from the
waitForPlayerToPressKey() call on line 198. Depending on how long the player takes to press a
key, the "game over" sound effect may or may not still be playing. We want to stop this sound effect before
this loop ends and we start a new game, so we have a call to gameOverSound.stop() here.
Modifying the Dodger Game

That's it for our graphical game. You may find that the game is too easy or too hard. But the game is very
easy to modify because we took the time to use constant variables instead of typing in the values directly.
Now all we need to do to change the game is modify the value set in the constant variables.
For example, if you want the game to run slower in general, change the FPS variable on line 8 to a smaller
value such as 20. This will make both the baddies and the player's character move slower since the game
loop will only be executed 20 times a second instead of 40.
If you just want to slow down the baddies and not the player, then change BADDIEMAXSPEED to a
smaller value such as 4. This will make all the baddies move between 1 (the value in BADDIEMINSPEED)
and 4 pixels per iteration through the game loop instead of 1 and 8.
If you want the game to have fewer but larger baddies instead of many fast baddies, then increase
ADDNEWBADDIERATE to 12, BADDIEMINSIZE to 40, and BADDIEMAXSIZE to 80. Now that baddies
are being added every 12 iterations through the game loop instead of every 6 iterations, there will be half as
many baddies as before. But to keep the game interesting, the baddies are now much larger than before.
While the basic game remains the same, you can modify any of the constant variables to drastically affect
the behavior of the game. Keep trying out new values for the constant variables until you find a set of values
you like the best.
348
Summary: Creating Your Own Games
Unlike our previous text-based games, Dodger really looks like the kind of modern computer game we
usually play. It has graphics and music and uses the mouse. While Pygame provides functions and data types
as building blocks, it is you the programmer who puts them together to create fun, interactive games.
And it is all because you know exactly how to instruct the computer to do it, step by step, line by line. You
can speak the computer's language, and get it to do large amounts of number crunching and drawing for you.
This is a very useful skill, and I hope you will continue to learn more about Python programming. (And there
is still more to learn!)
Here are several websites that can teach you more about programming Python:
More Python tutorials and the documentation of all the Python

http://www.python.org/doc/
modules and functions.
http://www.pygame.org/docs/ Complete documentation on the modules and functions for Pygame.
This book's website, which includes all the source code for these
http://inventwithpython.com programs and additional information. This site also has the image and
sound files used in the Pygame programs.
A web application that helps you trace through the execution of the
http://inventwithpython.com/traces
programs in this book, step by step.
http://inventwithpython.com/videos Videos that accompany the programs in this book.
al@inventwithpython.com The author's email address.
Or you can find out more about Python by searching the World Wide Web. Go to the search engine
website http://google.com and search for "Python programming" or "Python tutorials" to find web sites that
can teach you more about Python programming.
Now get going and invent your own games. And good luck!
349
Most of the programs in this book make use of the newer version 3 of Python. The Pygame games make
use of Python 2 because the Pygame library is not yet compatible with Python 3. Python 3 corrects many of
the faults with version 2 of the langugae, however, these changes can also make it impossible to run Python 3
programs with the Python 2 interpreter, and vice versa.
There are only a few changes between the two versions, and this appendix will go through the ones
relevant to this book. Learning both Python 2 and 3 is fairly simple. All of the modules imported by the
programs in this book (except for the pygame module) are part of the standard library and work with both
Python 2 and Python 3.
In short, use Python 3 unless you need to use a library that is not yet compatible with version 3. Learning
both Python 2 and 3 is easy because there are only a few changes between them.
The print() Function and the print statement

In Python 3, print() is a function just like input() or len(). The function version requires
parentheses just like any other function call (although you can add parentheses to the print statement
optionally).
The print statement in Python 2 will always print a newline character at the end of the string. To make it
print a space instead, put a comma at the end of the print statement:
>>> # Python 2
>>> print "Hello",
To print something besides a newline at the end of the print() function in Python 3, use the keyword
parameter end:
350
>>> # Python 3
>>> print("Hello", end="")
The input() and raw_input() Functions

In Python 2, the function to get input from the keyboard is raw_input(). In Python 3, the input()
function does this. You can simply rename the function wherever it appears in your code.
>>> # Python 2
>>> name = raw_input()
>>> # Python 3
>>> name = input()
The range() Function's Return Value

In Python 2, the range() function returns an actual list with the integers. In Python 3, the range()
function returns a "range object". Both can be used exactly the same way in for loops:
>>> for i in range(10): # Works in Python 2 and 3

... print(i)
However, if you want to create an actual list of integers in Python 3, you must convert the "range object"
into a list with the list() function:
>>> # Python 2
>>> listOfInts = range(10)
>>> # Python 3
>>> listOfInts = list(range(10))
Division with the / Operator

In Python 2, doing division with the / operator results in a floating point number (that is, a number with a
decimal point) only if one of the numbers is a float itself:
>>> # Python 2
>>> 25.0 / 8
3.125
351
>>> 25 / 8.0
3.125
However, in Python 2, if both of the numbers are integers, then the result of division is the rounded down
integer. In Python 3, the result is a floating point number no matter what:
>>> # Python 2
>>> 25 / 8
3
>>> # Python 3
>>> 25 / 8
3.125
Formatting Strings with the format() Method and %s

In both Python 2 and 3, you can include %s inside a string and follow it with a list of values for each %s
such as:
>>> # Python 2 and 3

>>> 'My name is %s and I am from %s.' % ('Al', 'Houston')
'My name is Al and I am from Houston.'
However, Python 3 adds a new string method called format(). This string lets you provide a list of
arguments as parameters to format(). Instead of %s, you use {0} and {1} and {2} and so on:
>>> # Python 3
>>> 'My name is {0} and I am from {1}.'.format('Al',
'Houston')
'My name is Al and I am from Houston.'
The numbers inside the curly braces are the index of the parameters to format(). So switching them
around in the string will switch around where the parameters to format() are placed:
>>> # Python 3
>>> 'My name is {1} and I am from {0}.'.format('Al',
'Houston')
'My name is Houston and I am from Al.'
One nice feature is that you can use the same parameter to format() multiple times in the string without
making extra parameters to format():
352
>>> # Python 3
>>> 'My name is {0}, {0}, {0}, {0} and I am from {1}.'.format
('Jimmy Four Times', 'Houston')
'My name is Jimmy Four Times, Jimmy Four Times, Jimmy Four
Times, Jimmy Four Times and I am from Houston.'
Along with numeric indexes, you can also put text inside the curly braces. This text can match to keyword
arguments passed to format():
>>> # Python 3
>>> 'My name is {0} and I like {thing} and I am from
{hometown}.'.format('Al', hometown='Houston', thing='cats')
'My name is Al and I like cats and I am from Houston.'
353
Here is a collection of all the statements and functions in Python that this book covers, along with some
examples of their use. The examples all take place in the interactive shell, so you can experiment with them
yourself by following the examples in the interactive shell.
If you would like to learn more functions and methods, the official Python documentation covers every
function that comes with Python. It can be found at http://docs.python.org/
Doug Hellmann also has a blog called "Python Module of the Week" which covers the various modules that
come with Python in good detail with plenty of examples. His blog can be found at
http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/
Statements
Assignment Statements
The assignment statement is used to store a value inside a variable. The statement is a variable name,
followed by the = operator, followed by a value or expression. The expression is evaluated to the value to be
stored in the variable.
>>> spam = 42
>>> span
42
>>> eggs = 10 + 5
>>> eggs
15
>>>
354
break Statements
break statements will immediately make the execution jump out of the innermost loop that it is placed in.
Notice in the following example that the print() function call is never executed because the break
statement moves execution out of the while loop.
>>> while True:

... break
... print('Hello!')
...
>>>
The break statement only breaks out of the innermost loop. Notice that the print('Goodbye!') call is
never executed, and that even though print('Hello!') is in a for loop that should iterate three times, it is
only called once.

... print('Start of outer #%s' % (i))
... for j in range(3):
... print('Hello!')
... break
... print('Goodbye!')
... print('End of outer #%s' % (i))
...
Start of outer loop #0
Hello!
End of outer loop #0
Hello!
Hello!
>>>
continue Statements
continue statements will immediately make the execution jump to the start of the innermost loop that it is
placed in. Notice in the following example that the print('Hello!') call is executed by print('Goodbye!')
is never executed because the continue statement moves execution back to the start of the loop for the next
iteration.

... print('Hello! #%s' % (i))
... continue
...
Hello! 0
Hello! 1
355
Hello! 2
>>>
continue statements only work on the innermost loop. Notice in the following example that the print
('Goodbye!') call is skipped by the continue, but the continue does not skip the print('End of
outer #%s' % (i)) call.

... print('Start of outer #%s' % (i))
... for j in range(3):
... print('Hello!')
... continue
... print('End of outer #%s' % (i))
...
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
>>>
def Statements
def statements are used to define a new function. The def statement is the def keyword, followed by the
function name, the parentheses which contain any parameters, a colon, and a block that contains the function's
code. A function cannot be called until after it has been defined.
>>> def foo(name):

... print('Your name must be %s.' % (name))
...
>>> foo('Stan')
Your name must be Stan.
>>>
del Statements
del statements will delete, or undefine, a variable. This is useful for removing items in lists and dicts. The
del statement is the del keyword followed by the variable or item to be deleted.
356
>>> spam = ['cats', 'dogs', 'mice']
>>> spam
['cats', 'dogs', 'mice']
>>> del spam[1]
>>> spam
['cats', 'mice']
for Loop Statements
for loops set a variable to each value in a list or each key in a dict. A for loop can be exited early if it
encounters a break statement. A continue statment will cause execution to immediately move to the next
iteration at the start of the loop.
>>> spam = ['cats', 'dogs', 'mice']

>>> for i in spam:
... print i
...
cats
dogs
mice
>>>
>>> spam = {'animal':'cats', 'food':'pasta', 'color':'blue'}

>>> for i in spam:
... print i
...
animal
food
color
>>>
import Statements
import statements allow you to use functions and variables located inside other Python scripts (called
modules) in your program. There are many modules that come with Python already (such as time, sys, or
random). The import statement is the import keyword, followed by the module name. To use a function in
a module, put the module name and a period before the function call.
>>> import random

6
>>>
357
if, elif, else Statements
The if, elif, else statements can decide whether or not to execute a block of code. The if and elif
statements start with the if or elif keyword, followed by a condition (that is, an expression that evaluates to
a boolean value True or False), followed by a colon and a block of code.
If the condition that follows the if statement is True, then the block of code that comes after the if
statement is executed. If the condition that follows the if statement is False and the elif's condition is
True, then the block that follows the elif statement is executed. If all the if and elif statements are
False, then the block that follows the else statement is executed.
Only one of the blocks that follows an if, elif, or else statement will be executed.
The if statement is always first. An if statement does not need to have an elif or else statement after it.
If the if statement has both an elif and else statement, the else statement must come after all the elif
statements. There can be any number of elif statements.
>>> myPet = 'cat'

>>> if myPet == 'dog':
... print('Dogs are very friendly.')
... elif myPet == 'bird':
... print('Bird chirps are very loud.')
... elif myPet == 'cat':
... print('Cats make me sneeze.')
... else:
... print('I do not know what type of pet that is.')
...
Cats make me sneeze
>>>
return Statements
return statements immediately send execution out of a function and back to the line where the function
was called. They can be followed by a value or expression to be used as the function's return value. return
statements can only be used inside of functions (that is, inside a def statement's block).
If the return keyword is by itself, then the function returns the None value.
>>> def foo():

... return 42
...
>>> foo()
42
>>>
358
while Loop Statements
while loops will execute the block of code over and over until their condition (that is, an expression that
evaluates to a boolean True or False value) is False. The condition is checked at the beginning of each
iteration.
A while loop can be exited early if it encounters a break statement. A continue statement will cause
execution to go back to the start of the while loop and recheck the while loop's condition.
>>> i = 0
>>> while i < 3:
... print('Value of i is %s' % (i))
... i = i + 1
...
Value of i is 0
Value of i is 1
Value of i is 2
>>>
Functions
The abs() Function
The abs(n) function returns the absolute value of n. The absolute value of a number is the positive form of
the number.
>>> abs(-5)
5
>>> abs(10)
10
>>>
The bool() Function
The bool(x) function returns the boolean value of x. If x is an empty list, string, dict, or the numeric
values 0 or 0.0, the bool(x) evaluates to False. Otherwise, bool(x) will return True.
>>> bool('')
False
>>> bool([])
False
>>> bool(42)
True
>>> bool(0)
False
>>>
359
The chr() Function
The chr(n) function takes an integer ASCII value n and returns a string with that ASCII value's character.
A table of all ASCII values can be found in Chapter 13, The Caesar Cipher.
>>> chr(65)
'A'
>>> chr(66)
'B'
>>> chr(53)
'5'
>>>
The float() Function
The float(x) function takes an integer or string x and returns the floating point version of x.
>>> float(42)
42.0
>>>
The input() Function
The input() function pauses the execution of the program and lets the user type in a string from the
keyboard. When the user presses Enter, the keystrokes (except for the Enter) are returned as a string.
>>> spam = input()

Albert
>>> spam
Albert
>>>
The int() Function
The int(x) function takes a floating point number or string x and returns the integer version of x. If x is a
floating point number, then the integer returned is x rounded down.
>>> int(42.0)
42
>>> int('99')
99
The list() Function
The list(x) function returns the list form of x. Usually, the "range object" returned by the range()
function is passed to list() in order to get a list object of the range object's values.
360
>>> spam = list(range(10))
>>> spam
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
>>>
The ord() Function
The ord(c) function takes a single character string c and returns the integer ASCII value of c. A table with
all the ASCII values can be found in Chapter 13, The Caesar Cipher.
>>> chr(65)
'A'
>>> chr(66)
'B'
>>> chr(53)
'5'
>>>
The print() Function
The print(x) function takes a value x and displays it on the screen with a newline automatically added to
the end. The print() function can take any number of multiple arguments and will display them with a single
space placed in between the arguments. A print() function call with no arguments will display just a
newline on the screen.
The print() function has two optional keyword arguments. The end keyword argument can change the
newline automatically added to the end of the string to any other string. The sep keyword argument can change
the single space autoamtically inserted in between multiple arguments to any other string.
>>> print('Hello')
Hello
>>> print()
>>> print(2, 4, 6)
2 4 6
>>> print(2, 4, 6, sep='XXX')
2XXX4XXX6
>>> print('Hello', end='ZZZ\n'
HelloZZZ
>>>
The range() Function
The range(n) function returns a range object with the values 0 to n-1. This range object can be used in
for loops to iterate over the integer values 0 to n-1. If you want an actual list value with these integer values,
pass the range object to the list() function.
361
The range(start, stop) form can provide a different start value other than 0. The range(start,
stop, step) form can provide a different start value than 0 and also increment a different value than 1.

... print i
...
0
1
2
3
>>> for i in range(2, 4):
... print i
...
2
3
>>> for i in range(2, 10, 2):
... print i
...
2
4
6
8
>>>
The round() Function
The round(f) function will round a floating point number argument either up or down (depending on
which is closer), and return the result as an integer value.
>>> round(2.9)
3
>>> round(2.1)
2
>>> round(2.5)
3
>>>
The str() Function
The str(x) function will take a value (commonly an integer or float) and return the string form of x.
>>> str(42)
'42'
>>> str(5.0)
'5.0'
>>>
362
The type() Function
The type(x) function takes a value x of any data type and returns what data type the value is. The return
value itself is of a data type called type.
>>> type(5)
<class 'int'>
>>> type(5.0)
<class 'float'>
>>> type('Hello')
<class 'str'>
>>> type([1, 2, 3])
<class 'list'>
>>> type({'a':42})
<class 'dict'>
>>> type(type('Hello'))
<class 'type'>
>>> str(type(5)) == "<class 'int'>"
True
>>>
Functions in the random Module
The random.choice() Function
The random.choice(li) function returns a random item from the list li. It is equivalent to li
[random.randint(0, len(li)-1)].
>>> import random

>>> random.choice(['cat', 'dog', 'mouse'])
dog
cat
dog
The random.randint() Function
The random.randint(a, b) function returns a random integer between (and including) the arguments
a and b.
>>> import random

6
7
363
24
The random.shuffle() Function
The random.shuffle(li) function will shuffle the order the items in the list li. Note that this function
does not return anything: it shuffles the items in the list in place.
>>> import random

>>> spam = ['cat', 'dog', 'frog', 'fly', 'egg']
>>> spam
['cat', 'egg', 'frog', 'dog', 'fly']
>>> spam
['cat', 'frog', 'egg', 'fly', 'dog']
>>> spam
['fly', 'egg', 'frog', 'dog', 'cat']
Functions in the sys Module
The sys.exit() Function
The sys.exit() function causes your Python program to terminate and stop executing instructions.
>>> import sys

>>> sys.exit()
(The Python interactive shell or your Python program will
terminate.
Functions in the time Module
The time.sleep() Function
The time.sleep(n) function causes the Python program to pause execution for n seconds. The argument
n can either be an integer or a floating point value.
>>> import time

>>> time.sleep(5)
(There is a 5 second pause here while nothing happens.)
>>>
364
Methods
Dict Methods
The keys() Dict Method
The keys() dict method returns a list where each item is a key in the dictionary. Because dictionaries are
not sorted, the items in the returned list will be in an uncertain order.
>>> spam = {'a':'spam', 'b':'eggs', 42:'ham'}

>>> spam.keys()
['a', 42, 'b']
>>>
The values() Dict Method
The values() dict method returns a list where each item is a value in the dictionary. Because dictionaries
are not sorted, the items in the returned list will be in an uncertain order.
>>> spam = {'a':'spam', 'b':'eggs', 42:'ham'}

>>> spam.values()
['spam', 'ham', 'eggs']
>>>
List Methods
The append() List Method
The append(x) list method adds the value x to the end of the items in the list.
>>> spam = ['cat', 'dog', 'mice']

>>> spam.append('horse')
>>> spam
['cat', 'dog', 'mice', 'horse']
>>>
The reverse() List Method
The reverse() list method reverse the order of the items in the list in place. Note that because the items
are reversed in place, this method does not return anything.
>>> spam = [1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> spam.reverse()
>>> spam
365
[4, 3, 2, 1]
>>>
The sort() List Method
The sort() list method puts all the items in the list in sorted order. This is done in place, so the sort()
method does not return anything. The sort is alphanumeric, which means that numbers come before letters.
>>> spam = ['Alice', 'Bob', '42', '50', '4 Stars']

>>> spam.sort()
>>> spam
['4 Stars', '42', '50', 'Alice', 'Bob']
>>>
String Methods
The endswith() String Method
The endswith(s) string method returns True if the string ends with the string s, otherwise it returns
False.
>>> 'Hello'.endswith('o')
True
>>> 'Hello'.endswith('O')
False
>>> 'Hello'.endswith('llo')
True
>>>
The isalpha() String Method
The isalpha() string method returns True if the string is not blank and only contains letters. If the string
has numbers, spaces, or any other non-letter characters, the method returns False.
>>> 'Hello'.isalpha()
True
>>> 'Hello there!'.isalpha()
False
>>> ''.isalpha()
False
>>>
The isdigit() String Method
The isdigit() string method returns True if the string is not blank and only contains numbers. If the
string has letters, spaces, or any other non-number characters, the method returns False. Note that periods will
also make the method return False.
366
>>> '42'.isdigit()
True
>>> '10 15 20'.isdigit()
False
>>> '3.5'.isdigit()
False
>>> ''.isdigit()
False
>>>
The islower() string Method
The islower() string method will return True if the all the letters in it are lowercase and the string has at
least one lowercase letter.
>>> 'albert'.islower()
True
>>> 'hello world!'.islower()
True
>>> 'hello World!'.islower()
False
>>> ''.islower()
False
The isupper() String Method
The isupper() string method will return True if the all the letters in it are uppercase and the string has at
least one uppercase letter.
>>> 'ALBERT'.isupper()
True
>>> 'HELLO WORLD!'.isupper()
True
>>> 'hELLO wORLD!'.isupper()
False
>>> ''.isupper()
False
The join() String Method
The join(li) string method returns a string that contains all of the string items in the list li, with the
string in between each of the items. This is most commonly used on a single space string to combine several
word strings in a list together into one string.
>>> spam = ['cat', 'dog', 'mouse']

>>> ' '.join(spam)
'cat dog mouse'
>>> 'XXX'.join(spam) 367
'catXXXdogXXXmouse'
>>> 'XXX'.join([])
''
The lower() String Method
The lower() string method returns a lowercase string version of the string.
>>> spam = 'Hello World!'

>>> spam.lower()
'hello world!'
>>> My name is Al.lower()
'my name is al.'
>>>
The split() String Method
The split() string method returns a list of strings, where each string in the list is from splitting the string
by whitespace. Whitespace characters include spaces, tabs, and newlines. The whitespace is not included in the
strings in the returned list.
The split(s) version can specify a string s to split the string on.
>>> spam = 'Hello there, young lady.'

>>> spam.split()
['Hello', 'there,', 'young', 'lady.']
>>> 'Man is a wolf to man. - Roman proverb'.split()
['Man', 'is', 'a', 'wolf', 'to', 'man.', '-', 'Roman',
'proverb']
>>> 'Cats and cats and dogs and cats and a mouse.'.split('cats')
['Cats and ', ' and dogs and ', ' and a mouse.']
>>>
The startswith() String Method
The startswith() string method returns True if the string ends with the string s, otherwise it returns
False.
>>> 'Hello'.startswith('H')
True
>>> 'Hello'.startswith('h')
False
>>> 'Hello'.startswith('Hel')
True
>>>
368
The upper() String Method
The upper() string method returns an uppercase string version of the string.
>>> spam = 'Hello world!'

>>> spam.upper()
'HELLO WORLD!'
>>> 'My name is Al.'
'MY NAME IS AL.'
>>>
369
You may want to share the game programs you make with other people. Having other people play your
games is a great way to show off your skills. However, they may not have Python installed on their computer.
There is a way to run Python programs without installing the Python interpreter: You will have to compile
your .py script into a .exe executable program.
Compiling source code means converting that source code into machine language, which is the programming
language your computer understands. Programming in machine language is very long and tedious, and higher-
level languages such as Python make programming easier.
This appendix will show you how to compile your .py Python files into .exe programs that can be run on
Windows without having Python installed.
Step 1: Download and Install py2exe

First, you will need to download and install a module called py2exe from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/files/. Be sure to download the correct version of py2exe for your version
of Python. (For example, download py2exe-0.6.9.win32-py2.6.exe if you have installed Python 2.6 on your
computer.)
The py2exe module only works on 2.x versions of Python, and not Python 3. You will have to convert your
programs to run on Python 2 if you have written them for Python 3. This is fairly easy. There are not many
differences between Python 2 and 3, and they are documented in Appendix A of this book.
After downloading the py2exe installer, double click on it to install it. This installation is much like how you
installed Python. Just keep clicking the Next button until you reach the end.
After you have installed py2exe, you can make sure that the installation was successful by running the
interactive shell and typing the following:
>>> import py2exe

>>>
370
If you do not see anything, then the installation was successful. If you see this error:
>>> import py2exe

>>> import py2exe
File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ImportError: No module named py2exe
>>>
Step 2: Create Your setup.py Script

After you have installed py2exe and confirmed that it is installed, you will need to create a Python program
with the name setup.py. The contents of this program should be as follows:
from distutils.core import setup

import py2exe
setup(console=['hello.py'])
Replace hello.py in the source code above with the filename of the Python program you want to compile. Be
sure to save the setup.py in the same folder as the Python program you want to compile (that is, hello.py, or
whatever the filename is).
Step 3: Run Your setup.py Script

Next, you will have to run your setup.py with a command line option. You cannot run setup.py from IDLE
by pushing the F5 key or selecting Run Module from the Run menu. You must use the Windows command line.
To start the Windows command line, click on the Start button in the bottom left corner and select "Run". In
the windows that opens, type "cmd" and click OK.
A black window with text should appear. Type "cd c:\Python26" (or the folder that you have saved
your programs to) to change folders to the folder containing your Python script and setup.py. From that folder,
type "c:\Python26\python.exe setup.py py2exe". The first part (c:\Python26
\python.exe) runs the Python interpreter from the command line. The first command line option
(setup.py) is the script that the interpreter should run. The second command line option (py2exe) tells the
script to run with the py2exe option.
There will be a large amount of text from running this program. You can ignore this text.
When the compilation is finished, there will be two new folders, named build and dist. You can delete the
build folder because it only contains files that were used during compilation. The dist folder contains all the
files you want to give to other people, including the hello.exe binary executable. (Your executable may have a
different name. If your setup.py had hello.py, then compilation produces a program named hello.exe.)
Step 4: Distribute Your Program

It's not easy to email all the files in the dist folder to someone. You can use a "zip program" to package these
many files into one file (called a zip file because it has the extension .zip). Zip programs can be downloaded
from the Internet for free. Some popular, free zip programs are:
371
Zip Software Website
7-zip http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
WinRAR http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
You can rename the dist folder to something else if you wish. The files simply have to be in the same
directory.
Summary
The process for turning your .py Python scripts into .exe binary executable programs for Windows is simple:
Step 1: Download and install py2exe from http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/files/
Step 2: Create a setup.py file that looks like this:
from distutils.core import setup

import py2exe
setup(console=['hello.py'])
Step 3: Run "c:\Python26\python.exe setup.py py2exe"
Step 4: Package up the dist folder into a zip file.
372
Glossary
absolute value - The positive form of a negative number. For example, the absolute value of -2 is 2. The
absolute value of a positive number is simply the positive number itself.
AI - see, artificial intelligence
algorithm - A series of instructions to compute something.
applications - A program that is run by an operating system. See also, program.
arguments - The values that are passed for parameters in a function call.
artificial intelligence - Code or a program that can intelligent make decisions (for example, decisions
when playing a game) in response to user actions.
ASCII art - Using text characters and spaces to draw simple pictures.
assembly language - The simplest programming language. Assembly language instructions are a human-
readable form that can directly translate into machine code instructions.
assignment operator - The = sign. Used to assign values to variables.
assignment statement - A line of code that assigns a value to a variable using the assignment operator.
This defines, that is, creates the variable when used with a new variable. For example: spam = 42
asterisk - The * symbol. The asterisk is used as a multiplication sign.
augmented assignment operator - The +=, -=, *=, and /= operators. The assignment spam += 42
is equivalent to spam = spam + 42.
block - A group of lines of code with the same amount of indentation. Blocks can contain other blocks of
greater indentation inside them.
boolean - A data type with only two values, True and False.
boolean operator - Boolean operators include and, or, and not.
break statement - The break statement immediately jumps out of the current while or for loop to the
first line after the end of the loop's block.
brute force - In cryptography, to try every possible key in order to decrypt an encrypted message.
caesar cipher - A simple substitution cipher in which each symbol is replaced by one and only one other
symbol.
cartesian coordinate system - A system of coordinates used to identify exact points in some area of
space (such as the monitor, or on a game board). Cartesian coordinates systems commonly have two
coordinates, one of the X-axis (that is, the horizontal left-right axis) and one of the Y-axis (that is, the vertical
up-down axis).
373
case-sensitivity - Declaring different capitalizations of a name to mean different things. Python is a case-
sensitive language, so spam, Spam, and SPAM are three different variables.
central processing unit - CPU, the main chip that your computer uses to process software instructions.
cipher - In cryptography, an algorithm used to encrypt and decrypt messages with a certain key.
ciphertext - In cryptography, the encrypted form of a message.
comment - Part of the source code that is ignored by the Python interpreter. Comments are there to remind
the programmer about something about the code. Comments begin with a # sign and go on for the rest of the
line.
commutative property - The property of addition and multiplication that describes how the order of the
numbers being added or multiplied does not matter. For example, 2 + 4 = 6, and 4 + 2 = 6. Also, 3 * 5 = 15, and
5 * 3 = 15.
comparison operators - The operators < ("less than"), <= ("less than or equal to"), > ("greater than"), >=
("greater than or equal to"), == ("equal to"), and != ("not equal too").
condition - Another name for an expression, one that exists in an if or while statement that evaluates to a
boolean True or False value.
constant variables - Variables whose values do not change. Constant variables are often used because it is
easier to type the name of the variable then the value that they store. As a convention, constant variable names
are typed in all uppercase letters.
convention - A way of doing things that is not required, but is usually done to make a task easier.
conversion specifiers - The text inside a string that makes use of string interpolation. The most common
conversion specifier is %s, which specifies that the variable it interpolates should be converted to a string.
cpu - see, Central Processing Unit
cryptanalysis - The science of breaking secret codes and ciphers.
cryptography - The science of making secret codes and ciphers.
data types - A category of values. Some types in Python are: strings, integers, floats, boolean, lists, and
NoneType.
decrementing - To decrease a numeric value by one.
decrypting - To convert an encrypted message to the readable plaintext version.
def statement - A statement that defines a new function. The def statement begins with the def keyword,
followed by the function name and a set of parentheses, with any number of parameter names delimited by
commas. At the end is a : colon character. For example, def funcName(param1, param2):
delimit - To separate with. For example, the string 'cats,dogs,mice' is delimited with commas.
dictionary - A container data type that can store other

374values. Values are accessed by a key. For example,
spam['foo'] = 42 assigns the key 'foo' of the spam dictionary the value 42.
else statement - An else statement always follows an if statement, and the code inside the else-block is
executed if the if statement's condition was False.
empty list - The list [], which contains no values and has a length of zero. See also, empty string.
empty string - The string '', which contains no characters and has a length of zero. See also, empty list.
encrypting - To convert a message into a form that resembles garbage data, and cannot be understood
except by someone who knows the ciphr and key used to encrypt the message.
escape character - Escape characters allow the programmer to specify characters in Python that are
difficult or impossible to type into the source code. All escape characters are preceeded by a \ forward backslash
character. For example, \n displays a newline character when it is printed.
evaluate - Reducing an expression down to a single value. The expression 2 + 3 + 1 evaluates to the
value 6.
execute - The Python interpreter executes lines of code, by evaluating any expressions or performing the
task that the code does.
exit - When a program ends. "Terminate" means the same thing.
expression - Values and function calls connected by operators. Expressions can be evaluated down to a
single value.
file editor - A program used to type in or change files, including files of Python source code. The IDLE
program has a file editor that you use to type in your programs.
floating point numbers - Numbers with fractions or decimal points are not integers. The numbers 3.5
and 42.1 and 5.0 are floating point numbers.
flow chart - A chart that informally shows the flow of execution for a program, and the main events that
occur in the program and in what order.
flow control statements - Statements that cause the flow of execution to change, often depending on
conditions. For example, a function call sends the execution to the beginning of a function. Also, a loop causes
the execution to iterate over a section of code several times.
flow of execution - The order that Python instructions are executed. Usually the Python interpreter will
start at the top of a program and go down executing one line at a time. Flow control statements can move the
flow of execution to different parts of code in the program.
function - A collection of instructions to be executed when the function is called. Functions also have a
return value, which is the value that a function call evaluates to.
function call - A command to pass execution to the code contained inside a function, also passing
arguments to the function. Function calls evaluate to the return value of the function.
garbage data - Random data or values that have no meaning.

375
global scope - The scope of variables outside of all functions. Python code in the global scope cannot see
variables inside any function's local scope.
hard-coding - Using a value in a program, instead of using a variable. While a variable could allow the
program to change, by hard-coding a value in a program, the value stays permanently fixed unless the source
code is changed.
hardware - The parts of a computer that you can touch, such as the keyboard, monitor, case, or mouse. See
also, software.
higher-level programming languages - Programming languages that humans can understand, such as
Python. An interpreter can translate a higher-level language into machine code, which is the only language
computers can understand.
IDLE - Interactive DeveLopment Environment. IDLE is a program that helps you type in your programs and
games.
I/O - Input/Output. This is a term used in reference of the data that is sent into a program (input) and that is
produced by the program (output).
immutable sequence - A container data type that cannot have values added or deleted from it. In Python,
the two immutable sequence data types are strings and tuples.
import statement - A line of code with the import keyword followed by the name of a module. This
allows you to call any functions that are contained in the module.
incrementing - To increase the value of a numeric variable by one.
indentation - The indentation of a line of code is the number of spaces before the start of the actual code.
Indentation in Python is used to mark when blocks begin and end. Indentation is usually done in multiples of
four spaces.
index - An integer between square brackets that is placed at the end of an ordered container variable (most
often a list) to evaluate to a specific item in that container. The first index starts at 0, not 1. For example, if
spam refers to the list ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], then spam[2] evaluates to 'c'.
index error - An index error occurs when you attempt to access an index that does not exist. This is much
like using a variable that does not exist. For example, if spam refers to the list ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'],
then spam[10] would cause an index error.
infinite loop - A loop that has a condition that always evaluates to True, which makes the loop keep
looping forever. The only way to exit an infinite loop is with a break statement.
input - The text or data that the user or player enters into a program, mostly from the keyboard.
integer division - Division that ignores any remainder and rounds the evaluated number down. Integer
division occurs when both numbers in the division expression are integers. For example, 20 / 7 evaluates to
the integer 6, even though the answer is 6.666 or 6 remainder 2.
integers - Integers are whole numbers like 4 and 99 and 0. The numbers 3.5 and 42.1 and 5.0 are not
integers.
376
interactive shell - A part of IDLE that lets you execute Python code one line at a time. It allows you to
immediately see what value the expression you type in evaluates to.
interpreter - A program that translates instructions written in a higher-level programming language (such as
Python) to machine code that the computer can understand and execute.
iteration - A single run through of the code in a loop's block. For example, if the code in a while-block is
executed ten times before execution leaves the loop, we say that there were ten iterations of the while-block's
code.
key-value pairs - In dictionary data types, keys are values that are used to access the values in a dictionary,
much like a list's index is used to access the values in a list. Unlike lists, dictionary keys can be of any data type,
not just integers.
keys - In dictionaries, keys are the indexes used to
keys - In cryptography, a specific value (usuaully a number) that determines how a cipher encrypts a
message. To decrypt the message, you must know both the cipher and the key value that was used.
list - The main container data type, lists can contain several other values, including other lists. Values in lists
are accessed by an integer index between square brackets. For example, if spam is assigned the list ['a',
'b', 'c'], then spam[2] would evaluate to 'c'.
list concatenation - Combining the contents of one list to the end of another with the + operator. For
example, [1, 2, 3] + ['a', 'b', 'c'] evaluates to [1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c'].
local scope - The scope of variables inside a single functions. Python code inside a function can read the
value of variables in the global scope, but any changes or new variables made will only exist while execution is
inside that function call.
loop - A block of code inside a loop (after a for or while statement) will repeatedly execute until some
condition is met.
loop unrolling - Replacing code inside a loop with multiple copies of that code. For example, instead of
for i in range(10): print 'Hello', you could unroll that loop by having ten lines of print
'Hello'
machine code - The language that the computer's CPU understands. Machine code instructions are series
of ones and zeros, and is generally unreadable by humans. Interpreters (such as the Python interpreter) translate
a higher-level language into machine code.
methods - Functions that are associated with values of a data type. For example, the string method upper
() would be invoked on a string like this: 'Hello'.upper()
module - A separate Python program that can be included in your programs so that you can make use of the
functions in the module.
modulus operator - The "remainder" operator that is represented with a % percent sign. For example,
while 20 / 7 is 6 with a remainder of 2, 20 % 7 would evaluate to 2.
mutable sequence - A container data type that is ordered and can have values added or removed from it.
Lists are a mutable sequence data type in Python.
377
negative numbers - All numbers less than 0. Negative numbers have a minus sign in front of them to
differentiate them from positive numbers, for example, -42 or -10.
nested loops - Loops that exist inside other loops.
None - The only value in the NoneType data type. "None" is often used to represent the lack of a value.
operating system - A large program that runs other software programs (called applications) the same way
on different hardware. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are examples of operating systems.
operators - Operators connect values in expressions. Operators include +, -, *, /, and, and or
ordinal - In ASCII, the number that is represented by an ASCII character. For example, the ASCII character
'A' has the ordinal 65.
origin - In cartesian coordinate systems, the point at the coordinates 0, 0.
OS - see, operating system
output - The text that a program produces for the user. For example, print statements produce output.
overwrite - To replace a value stored in a variable with a new value.
parameter - A variable that is specified to have a value passed in a function call. For example, the statement
def spam(eggs, cheese) defines a function with two parameters named eggs and cheese.
pie chart - A circular chart that shows percentage portions as portions of the entire circle.
plaintext - The decrypted, human-readable form of a message.
player - A person who plays the computer game.
positive numbers - All numbers equal to or greater than 0.
pound sign - The # sign. Pound signs are used to begin comments.
print statement - The print keyword followed by a value that is to be displayed on the screen.
program - A collection of instructions that can process input and produce output when run by computer.
programmer - A person who writes computer programs.
reference - Rather than containing the values themselves, list variables actually contain references to lists.
For example, spam = [1, 2, 3] assigns spam a reference to the list. cheese = spam would copy the
reference to the list spam refers to. Any changes made to the cheese or spam variable would be reflected in
the other variable.
return statement - The return followed by a single value, which is what the call to the function the
return statement is in will evaluate to.
return value - The value that a call to the function will evaluate to. You can specify what the return value is
with the return keyword followed by the value. Functions
378 with no return statement will return the value
None.
scope - See, local scope and global scope.
sequence - A sequence data type is an ordered container data type, and have a "first" or "last" item. The
sequence data types in Python are lists, tuples, and strings. Dictionaries are not sequences, they are unordered.
See also, unordered.
shell - see, interactive shell
simple substitution ciphers -
slice - A subset of values in a list. These are accessed using the : colon character in between the square
brackets. For example, if spam has the value ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'], then the slice spam
[2:4] has the value ['c', 'd']. Similar to a substring.
software - see, program
source code - The text that you type in to write a program.
statement - A command or line of Python code that does not evaluate to a value.
string concatenation - Combining two strings together with the + operator to form a new string. For
example, 'Hello ' + 'World!' evaluates to the string 'Hello World!'
string formatting - Another term for string interpolation.
string interpolation - Using conversion specifiers in a string as place holders for other values. Using string
interpolation is a more convenient alternative to string concatenation. For example, 'Hello, %s. Are you
going to %s on %s?' % (name, activity, day) evaluates to the string 'Hello, Albert.
Are you going to program on Thursday?', if the variables have those corresponding values.
string - A value made up of text. Strings are typed in with a single quote ' or double " on either side. For
example, 'Hello'
substring - A subset of a string value. For example, if spam is the string 'Hello', then the substring
spam[1:4] is 'ell'. Similar to a list slice.
symbols - In cryptography, the individual characters that are encrypted.
syntax - The rules for how code is ordered in a programming language, much like grammar is made up of
the rules for understandable English sentences.
syntax error - An error that occurs when the Python interpreter does not understand the code because the
code is incomplete or in the wrong order.
terminate - When a program ends. "Exit" means the same thing.
tracing - To follow through the lines of code in a program in the order that they would execute.
truth tables - Tables showing every possible combination of

379
tuple - A container data type similar to a list. Tuples are immutable sequence data types, meaning that they
cannot have values added or removed from them. For example, (1, 2, 'cats', 'hello') is a tuple of
four values.
type - see, data types
unordered - In container data types, unordered data types do not have a "first" or "last" value contained
inside them, they simply contain values. Dictionaries are the only unordered data type in Python. Lists, tuples,
and strings are ordered data types. See also, sequence.
user - The person using the program.
value - A specific instance of a data type. 42 is a value of the integer type. 'Hello' is a value of the string
type.
variables - A container that can store a value. List variables contain references to lists.
while loop statement - The while keyword, followed by a condition, ending with a : colon character.
The while statement marks the beginning of a while loop.
x-axis - In cartesian coordinate systems, the horizontal (left-right) coordinate axis.
y-axis - In cartesian coordinate systems, the vertical (up-down) coordinate axis.
380
About the Author
Albert Sweigart (but you can call him Al), is a software developer in San Francisco, California who enjoys
bicycling, reading, volunteering, network security, haunting coffee shops, and making useful software.
He is originally from Houston, Texas. He finally put his University of Texas at Austin computer science
degree in a frame. He is a friendly introvert, a cat person, and fears that he is losing brain cells over time. He
laughs out loud when watching park squirrels, and people think he’s a simpleton.
His web site and blog are located at http://coffeeghost.net
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This summary is located here:

Who is this book for?

This book is for:

Downloading and Installing Python

Fig 1-2: The IDLE program's interactive shell on Windows.

How to Use This Book

The Featured Programs

Line Numbers and Spaces

9. number = random.randint(1, 20)

number = random.randint(1, 20)

Text Wrapping in This Book

1. print('This is the first line!

Tracing the Program Online

Checking Your Code Online

The online diff tool is at this web page: http://inventwithpython.com/diff

Let's start by learning how to use Python's interactive shell.

Some Simple Math Stuff

When used in this way, +, -, *,

Integers and Floating

These math problems are called expressions. Computers

As you can see with the last expression in the above

Expressions Inside Other Expressions

Storing Values in Variables

When you press Enter you won't see anything in

This instruction (called an assignment statement)

Now, spam evaluates to the value inside the variable, 15.

Figure 2-5: "fizz" and "eggs" have values stored in them.

>>> spam = 'hello'

>>> spam = 'hello'

>>> 'Hello' + 'World!'

>>> 'Hello ' + 'World!'

Figure 3-1: The file editor window.

A tradition for programmers learning a new language is to make their first

1. # This program says hello and asks for my name.

Saving Your Program

If you get an error that looks like this:

Traceback (most recent call last):

Opening The Programs You've Saved

How the "Hello World" Program Works

1. # This program says hello and asks for my name.

The print() Function

The input() Function

5. print('It is good to meet you, ' + myName)

The "Guess the Number" Game

Hello! What is your name?

Guess the Number's Source Code

1. # This is a guess the number game.

1. # This is a guess the number game.

6. print('Hello! What is your name?')

The random.randint() Function

9. number = random.randint(1, 20)

>>> import random

>>> random.randint(1000, 2000)

9. number = random.randint(1, 20)