Question

PS5, problem 3... I'm so close! The problem I am having is when I call the update_hand function in is_valid_word I get an error when it's checking for # test 4
hand = {'r': 1, 'a': 3, 'p': 2, 't': 1, 'u':2}
word = "honey"
The criteria for update_hand explicitly states that we are to assume that 'hand' has all the letters in word. Therefore it passes when testing the update_hand function. If I delete this from the test_ps5.py file, it runs successfully.

Answer 1

Here's my code for update_hand and is_valid_word. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

def update_hand(hand, word):

new_hand = hand

for letter in word:

new_hand[letter] = new_hand[letter] -1

return new_hand


def is_valid_word(word, hand, word_list):

test_hand = update_hand(hand, word)


for letter in word:

if test_hand.get(letter,0) < 0:
return False


match_found = False

i = 0

while match_found == False and i < len(word_list):

if word == word_list[i]:

match_found = True
break

else:

i += 1

return match_found

Answer 2

Your version of is_valid_word is fine, your version of update_hand will raise KeyError when it's given a word that's not composable with the letters in the hand. You'll need to do something like the statement below to prevent the errors in the 'honey' test.

new_hand[letter] = new_hand.get(letter,0) -1

Also your update_hand function mutates the hand it's given (which you don't want to do). Be sure to make a copy of it, don't just give the same dictionary a new name.

Answer 3

Thanks for the tip :)