Number Guessing Game - Need Help

[joekbaum]

I am trying to create a program where the user chooses a number between 1-100 and the computer tries to guess it in as few tries as possible. I think I am close but still need some help. Any and all help is appreciated. The code i have so far is pasted below....

import random

print("In this game you will guess a number and the computer will try to guess it in as few tries as possible.")
number = int(input("\n\nEnter a number 1-100 --- "))
cNumber = random.randint(1, 100)
placeholder = cNumber
tries = 1
print(number, cNumber, tries, placeholder)

print("\nThe computer guessed ",cNumber)

while cNumber != number:
    if cNumber > number:
        cNumber = random.randint(1,placeholder)
        tries += 1
        print("\nThe computer guessed",cNumber)
    if cNumber < number:
        cNumber = random.randint(placeholder, 1)
        tries +=1
        print("\nThe computer guessed",cNumber)

print("The computer guessed your number in this many tries --- ",tries)

[joekbaum]

Hi I am new to python. I am trying to create a program where the user inputs a number and the computer guesses it in as few tries as possible. This is what I have so far. I am stuck. (Side Note... I am unsure why when I posted my code to this forum that it did not maintain the indentation.)

import random

print("In this game you will guess a number and the computer will try to guess it in as few tries as possible.")
number = int(input("\n\nEnter a number 1-100 --- "))
cNumber = random.randint(1, 100)
placeholder = cNumber
tries = 1
print(number, cNumber, tries, placeholder)

print("\nThe computer guessed ",cNumber)

while cNumber != number:
if cNumber > number:
cNumber = random.randint(1,placeholder)
tries += 1
print("\nThe computer guessed",cNumber)
if cNumber < number:
cNumber = random.randint(placeholder, 1)
tries +=1
print("\nThe computer guessed",cNumber)

print("The computer guessed your number in this many tries --- ",tries)

[joekbaum]

Sorry please disregard this post. I reposted it correctly.

[micseydel]

I've merged your threads and added code tags to your original post. (Please don't make second threads when the topic is the same.) The reason your second post had no indentation appears to be because you copied from the first, in which the indentation was lost.

[micseydel]

I think I am close but still need some help.

Could you be more specific? What problem are you having, exactly?

[joekbaum]

Sorry about that. Thanks for the help. Specifically, I need help with fixing the code. When I run it, it gets an error because the program guesses past the number and goes out of the parameters I set for the random number. I am not sure how to fix it. I am stuck. I am reading a Python book and one of the challenges for the chapter was to create this program.

[micseydel]

Here's some example output when I run your script

Output:
$ python tesit.py 
In this game you will guess a number and the computer will try to guess it in as few tries as possible.


Enter a number 1-100 --- 50
(50, 66, 1, 66)
('\nThe computer guessed ', 66)
('\nThe computer guessed', 15)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "tesit.py", line 18, in <module>
    cNumber = random.randint(placeholder, 1)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 242, in randint
    return self.randrange(a, b+1)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 218, in randrange
    raise ValueError, "empty range for randrange() (%d,%d, %d)" % (istart, istop, width)
ValueError: empty range for randrange() (66,2, -64)

(Ideally you would have provided this, and saved me the step of creating a file and running it.)

From this, we can narrow your problem to a specific line (18).

cNumber = random.randint(placeholder, 1)

You're calling randint in a way such that you'll always always have this problem as soon as this line is run (unless placeholder happens to be 1).

Output:
>>> random.randint(2, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 242, in randint
    return self.randrange(a, b+1)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 218, in randrange
    raise ValueError, "empty range for randrange() (%d,%d, %d)" % (istart, istop, width)
ValueError: empty range for randrange() (2,2, 0)
>>> random.randint(1, 1)
1

You should start your investigation there.

[joekbaum]

Thanks for your help.

[ShadowWarrior17]

Just use two points and add them and divide them by two and that's your first guess, just like a human would do. 0+100//2=50. Then an input would be if the guess is too high or low. Then the guess would be either 25 or 75 etc. Mathematically speaking, this should take about 8-10 steps, which is probably the quickest; unless you're randomly guessing or brute forcing.

Here's something I came up with quickly:

h=100
l=0
answer=""
while answer != "yes":
	m=(h+l)//2
	print("Is it",m,"?")
	answer=input("lower, higher or yes?")
	if answer=="lower":
		h*=1.5
	elif answer=="higher":
		h*=0.5

Though I'm not sure on it's reliability, just it's idea.