Question

Question on PS3 #4.

I have run into an issue with the first part of my play_hand function. I was successful running the harness test functions for the first 3 functions.

When I run the code (pasted in the link below) and enter an invalid word, I cannot escape the "if not... " part of the function.

I know that my solution is not correct but I want to know why I can't escape the "if not..." part of the function when I enter an invalid word.

I am not as concerned with the solution to the actual problem #4.

http://pastebin.com/RjU6Y4QF

Answer 1

Just to clarify. My problem is that when I enter an invalid word, I get prompted to enter a new word. Ok so far so good. But even if that new word is valid, the error message about entering an invalid word is returned. In other words I can't enter a valid word if I first enter an invalid one.

Answer 2

i'm getting a sytax error for the break - i is not 'in' a loop

i commented out the break and it worked for me
http://dpaste.com/802363/

Answer 3

I tried taking out the break and here is the result that I got:

http://pastebin.com/Ff1Z00UJ

So when I enter an invalid word, those letters are removed from the hand and I can't use them to make a new valid word. I don't know why this is happening. My get_word_score, update_hand, and valid_word functions all passed their harness tests.

Can anyone provide any insight as to why this is happening?

Answer 4

A few things to consider:
1. include all the code, so we don't have to hunt
2. play_hand isn't returning anything, maybe it should?
3. an if should generally have a else statement
4. its probable that is_valid_word never returns True

Answer 5

i put your play_hand() function into my ps3 solution and i did not experience the symptom you described. i gave it several invalid words and it did not remove any letters from hand.
I don't see how that could possbly happen with the code from your original post - that function does not do anything other than ask for a word over and over till it gets a valid word then just stops - http://dpaste.com/803364/

Answer 6

I had this same problem originally. The test harness will pass but when you implement play_hand the "hand" gets mutated when you send it to "is_valid_word" so you need to use something like "temp_hand=hand.copy()" at the start of your "play_hand" and send "temp_hand" instead of "hand".

Answer 7

Msmithhnova I think you are probably correct. However I am still having trouble. I just looked at the solution code for PS3 and I am having trouble running #4.

Answer 8

What is it doing or not doing? Also, it would likely be easiest to assist you if you were to post your ps3a.py on one of the code sites.