37 — Word guess: a hidden-word game

A hangman game hides a word and shows one blank per letter. A right guess fills the blanks, a wrong one costs a try. The word comes from random_pick (guide 10), and the loop is the menu loop from guide 26 aimed at letters instead of directions.

#Steps

1. Keep a list of secret words and pick one at random with random_pick:

   use random latest
   words = ["apple", "grape", "melon", "mango", "orange"]
   secret = random_pick(words)
   show secret
   

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   Run it a few times: a different word appears each time.

2. Show the word as one blank per letter. A list of "_" strings starts hidden, and " ".join(shown) prints them with spaces:

   secret = "grape"
   shown = []
   for ch in secret:
       shown.append("_")
   show " ".join(shown)
   

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   _ _ _ _ _ means five letters.

3. Reveal a guessed letter by walking the word with a for loop and writing the letter into the matching blank. for i in range(len(secret)) visits every position, and shown[i] = letter fills the blank when it matches:

   secret = "grape"
   shown = []
   for ch in secret:
       shown.append("_")
   ask letter, "guess a letter: "
   for i in range(len(secret)):
       if secret[i] == letter:
           shown[i] = letter
   show " ".join(shown)
   

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   Guessing a turns _ _ _ _ _ into _ _ a _ _.

4. The full game adds a try counter and win/lose checks. while remaining > 0 keeps asking, a wrong guess lowers remaining, "_" not in shown means every letter was found, and break leaves the loop. Save it as word-guess.nme:

   # A hidden-word game: guess the letters of a secret word.
   # Run: nme r word-guess
   
   use random latest
   
   words = ["apple", "grape", "melon", "mango", "orange"]
   secret = random_pick(words)
   
   shown = []
   for ch in secret:
       shown.append("_")
   
   remaining = 6
   guessed = []
   
   show "I picked a word with " + str(len(secret)) + " letters."
   
   while remaining > 0:
       show " ".join(shown)
       show "tries left: " + str(remaining)
       ask letter, "guess a letter (q to quit): "
       if letter == "q":
           show "the word was " + secret
           break
       if letter in guessed:
           show "you already guessed " + letter
           continue
       guessed.append(letter)
       if letter in secret:
           for i in range(len(secret)):
               if secret[i] == letter:
                   shown[i] = letter
           show "yes, " + letter + " is in the word"
           if "_" not in shown:
               show " ".join(shown)
               show "you won! the word was " + secret
               break
       else:
           remaining = remaining - 1
           show "no, " + letter + " is not in the word"
   
   if remaining == 0:
       show "you lost. the word was " + secret
   

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5. Run it and guess four letters, then quit:

   printf 'e\na\nr\nq\n' | nme r word-guess
   

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   I picked a word with 5 letters.
   _ _ _ _ _
   tries left: 6
   guess a letter (q to quit): yes, e is in the word
   _ _ _ _ e
   tries left: 6
   guess a letter (q to quit): yes, a is in the word
   _ _ a _ e
   tries left: 6
   guess a letter (q to quit): yes, r is in the word
   _ r a _ e
   tries left: 6
   guess a letter (q to quit): the word was grape
   

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   The hidden word is picked at random, so your run shows a different word and a different blank pattern.

#Try it yourself

Make the game accept capital letters. Right after ask letter, ... add letter = letter.lower() so typing A guesses the same as a:

secret = "grape"
shown = []
for ch in secret:
    shown.append("_")
ask letter, "guess a letter: "
letter = letter.lower()
for i in range(len(secret)):
    if secret[i] == letter:
        shown[i] = letter
show " ".join(shown)

Then add the same line to the full game and test it with A and G.

#What you learned

• random_pick(words) picks the hidden word from a list.
• A list of "_" shows one blank per letter; " ".join(shown) prints it.
• A for loop over range(len(secret)) reveals each matching letter.
• while remaining > 0 counts down the tries and break leaves the loop.