6

I'm very new to programming and I've encountered a problem with a basic guessing game I've been writing. x is a random number generated by the computer. The program is supposed to compare the absolute value of (previous_guess - x) and the new guess minus x and tell the user if their new guess is closer or further away.

But the variable previous_guess isn't updating with the new value. Any help would be appreciated.

Here is the code so far:

    ###Guessing Game
import random

n = 100
x = random.randint(1,n)
print("I'm thinking of a number between 1 and ", n)

##print(x) ## testing/cheating.
count = 0

while True:
    previous_guess = 0 # Should update with old guess to be compared with new guess
    guess = int(input("Guess the number, or enter number greater that %d to quit." % n))
    count += 1

    print(previous_guess)
    print("Guesses: ", count)

    if guess > n:
        print("Goodbye.")
        break

    elif count < 2 and guess != x: 
        print("Unlucky.")
        previous_guess = guess #####

    elif count >= 2 and guess != x:
        if abs(guess - x) < abs(previous_guess - x):
            previous_guess = guess #####

            print("Getting warmer...")
        else:
            previous_guess = guess #####
            print("Getting colder...")

    elif guess == x:
        print("You win! %d is correct! Guessed in %d attempt(s)." % (x,count))
        break
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3
  • Read ericlippert.com/2014/03/05/how-to-debug-small-programs for tips about learning how to debug your programs. Commented Jun 21, 2018 at 19:16
  • 1
    Take a look at the Python Tutor visualizer. For programs that take thousands of steps, or have hundreds of variables, you want a traditional debugger, but for small programs like this, the interactive visualizer is an amazing way to see how your code is working. Commented Jun 21, 2018 at 19:49
  • I'm going to leave this here just for reference. Of course the correct answer is here already, however in my case it was because I typed x =+ 1 instead of x += 1. Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 20:12

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
11

Your previous guess is being reinitialized every time you loop. This is a very common error in programming so it's not just you!

Change it to:

previous_guess = 0
while True:
   #Rest of code follows

Things you should be thinking about when stuff like this shows up.

  1. Where is your variable declared?
  2. Where is your variable initialized?
  3. Where is your variable being used?

If you are unfamiliar with those terms it's okay! Look em up! As a programmer you HAVE to get good at googling or searching documentation (or asking things on stack overflow, which it would appear you have figured out).

Something else that is critical to coding things that work is learning how to debug.

Google "python debug tutorial", find one that makes sense (make sure that you can actually follow the tutorial) and off you go.

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Comments

8

You're resetting previous_guess to 0 every time the loop begins again, hence throwing away the actual previous guess. Instead, you want:

previous_guess = 0
while True:
    guess = ....
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Comments

2

You need to initialize previous guess before while loop. Otherwise it will be initialized again and again. You have updated previous guess in multiple places. You can make it simpler:

import random

n = 100
x = random.randint(1,n)
print("I'm thinking of a number between 1 and ", n)

##print(x) ## testing/cheating.
count = 0
previous_guess = 0  # Should update with old guess to be compared with new guess
while True:
    guess = int(input("Guess the number, or enter number greater that %d to quit." % n))
    count += 1

    print(previous_guess)
    print("Guesses: ", count)

    if guess > n:
        print("Goodbye.")
        break
    elif count < 2 and guess != x:
        print("Unlucky.")
    elif count >= 2 and guess != x:
        if abs(guess - x) < abs(previous_guess - x):
            print("Getting warmer...")
        else:
            print("Getting colder...")
    elif guess == x:
        print("You win! %d is correct! Guessed in %d attempt(s)." % (x,count))
        break
    previous_guess = guess  #####
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0

You need to initialize previous guess before while loop Otherwise it will be initialized again and again. You have to set the value of previous guess to x the computer generator and when you move on after loop you have to update the previous guess to next simply like this:

  1. Add before while { previous_guess = x }
  2. Add After While { previous_guess += x }
###Guessing Game
import random

n = 100
x = random.randint(1,n)
print("I'm thinking of a number between 1 and ", n)

##print(x) ## testing/cheating.
count = 0
previous_guess = x
while True:
     # Should update with old guess to be compared with new guess
    previous_guess += x
    guess = int(input("Guess the number, or enter number greater that %d to quit." % n))
    count += 1

    print(previous_guess)
    print("Guesses: ", count)

    if guess > n:
        print("Goodbye.")
        break

    elif count < 2 and guess != x: 
        print("Unlucky.")
        previous_guess = guess #####

    elif count >= 2 and guess != x:
        if abs(guess - x) < abs(previous_guess - x):
            previous_guess = guess #####

            print("Getting warmer...")
        else:
            previous_guess = guess #####
            print("Getting colder...")

    elif guess == x:
        print("You win! %d is correct! Guessed in %d attempt(s)." % (x,count))
        break

Picture When u win Picture When u loose

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