Here's my new and improved program:
def quiz_question(some_question, some_right_answer):
question = raw_input(some_question)
if question == some_right_answer:
print "Yes!\n"
else:
print "Wrong\n"
quiz_question("Name the capital of NC? ", "Raleigh")
quiz_question("Name the capital of SC? ", "Columbia")
quiz_question("Name the capital of NY? ", "Albany")
quiz_question("Name the capital of OH? ", "Columbus")
quiz_question("Name the capital of TX? ", "Austin")
I took Danny's advice and plagerized his function code (sorry about that,
Danny). I like it! It's much neater and I'm kicking myself for not realizing
this. I didn't like the if-else chain but I was stuck on what to do.
Creating programs is the way to learn! I know you've heard countless of
wannabe coders say this but I'll read the material and I think I know what
functions and loops (etc) are but when I try to create something, I'm stuck
and not sure how to proceed. Speaking of stuck, I'm not sure how to create
the counting variable that Greg suggested. Can someone lead me but don't
tell me the answer? Thanks!
>From: Danny Yoo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>CC: Joseph Quigley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Tutor <tutor@python.org>
>Subject: Re: [Tutor] My First Program
>Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:52:54 -0800 (PST)
>
>
> > > Hi! My first "ever" program that I've created is a simple game called
> > > "State Capitals". It's straight forward; 5 simple questions about
> > > state capitals in a non-GUI format.
>
>[some code cut]
>
>Hi Trent,
>
>
>Looks good so far! There is one direct thing we can do to make the
>program a little shorter: we can use "functions". If you want, we can go
>through an example to see what these things do.
>
>
>There's a fairly consistant pattern to each of the quiz questions. If we
>look at the first two blocks of questions, for example:
>
>
> > > question = raw_input("Question 1 - What is the capital of NC, a:
>Raleigh
> > > or
> > > b: Atlanta? ")
> > > if question == "a":
> > > print "Yes\n"
> > > else:
> > > print "WRONG\n"
>
>
> > > question = raw_input("Question 2 - What is the capital of SC, a:
> > > Greenville
> > > or b: Columbia? ")
> > > if question == "b":
> > > print "Yes\n"
> > > else:
> > > print "WRONG\n"
>
>
>and if we squint our eyes a bit, we might see a pattern here, something
>like:
>
> question = raw_input( {some question here} )
> if question == {some right answer here}:
> print "Yes\n"
> else:
> print "Wrong\n"
>
>where I've put placeholders (the stuff in braces) to mark the places
>that are different.
>
>
>There is a feature in many programming languages called the "function"
>that allows us to capture this pattern and give it a name. Think Mad
>Libs: what we can do is make a mad-lib game form, and then let people fill
>in what they want.
>
>The block above can be turned into this function:
>
>###################################################
>def quiz_question(some_question, some_right_answer):
> question = raw_input(some_question)
> if question == some_right_answer:
> print "Yes\n"
> else:
> print "Wrong\n"
>###################################################
>
>
>'quiz_question' is the name I've given this, though if you want to call
>it something else, please feel free to change the name.
>
>
>Once we have 'quiz_question', how do we use this? Let try this from the
>interactive interpreter:
>
>######
> >>> quiz_question("what's your favorite color?", "green")
>what's your favorite color?green
>Yes
>
> >>> quiz_question("what's your favorite color?", "green")
>what's your favorite color?blue no red!
>Wrong
>######
>
>
>Does this make sense so far?
>
>By having that function, it'll lets you add more questions to your quiz by
>just adding the stuff that's really important: the content of the
>questions and their right answers.
>
>
>The tutorials on:
>
> http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers
>
>should talk about functions a bit. Try playing with functions: it should
>make your program shorter, and that'll make it a little easier to think
>about how to do the three-strikes-you're-out! thing.
>
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