Accessing dictionary in while loop?

Question

This code is for adding score based on the letters containing in the word given as argument:

score = {"a": 1, "c": 3, "b": 3, "e": 1, "d": 2, "g": 2, 
         "f": 4, "i": 1, "h": 4, "k": 5, "j": 8, "m": 3, 
         "l": 1, "o": 1, "n": 1, "q": 10, "p": 3, "s": 1, 
         "r": 1, "u": 1, "t": 1, "w": 4, "v": 4, "y": 4, 
         "x": 8, "z": 10}

def scrabble_score(word):
  word = word.lower()
  n=0
  scorer=0
  while n<=len(word):
    scorer = scorer + score[word[n]]
    n+=1
  return scorer

ignore any other syntax error that I might have made..

Please be more specific than "giving error" – what error and on which line? — meowgoesthedog
– meowgoesthedog, Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 14:59

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-12 14:48:25Z

3

Iterate directly over the output of word.lower(), rather than indices. Also, you can use the sum function to compute the sum of all the dictionary lookups.

def scrabble_score(word):
    return sum(score[c] for c in word.lower())

A less concise version, sticking with the spirit of your original code, would still iterate over word directly.

def scrabble_score(word):
    scorer = 0
    for c in word.lower():
        scorer = scorer + score[c]  # or scorer += score[c]
    return scorer

answered Feb 12, 2019 at 14:48

chepner

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Comments

mad_ · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-12 14:50:20Z

0

while n<=len(word): will throw Index out of bounds

you need while n<len(word)

The working copy of your existing function

def scrabble_score(word):
    word = word.lower()
    n=0
    scorer=0
    while n<len(word):
        scorer += score[word[n]]
        n+=1
    return scorer

As others have pointed out a much cleaner approach would be to iterate over the characters of the word rather than indices

def scrabble_score(word):
    word = word.lower()
    scorer=0
    for char in word:
        scorer += score[char]
    return scorer

answered Feb 12, 2019 at 14:50

mad_

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Comments

blue note · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-12 14:51:28Z

0

Your code is correct. However, two style-related things

In python, strings are iterables of characters, so

scorer = 0

for letter in word.lower():
    scorer += score[letter]

Even, better, you can use a list comprehension

scorer = sum([score[letter] for letter in word.lower()])

edited Feb 12, 2019 at 14:51

answered Feb 12, 2019 at 14:50

blue note

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6 Comments

chepner Over a year ago

That's not a list comprehension; it's just a generator expression. sum([score[letter] for letter in word.lower()]) would make use of a list comprehension.

blue note Over a year ago

@chepner: correct, I omitted the brackets while typing.

chepner Over a year ago

There's no reason to use a list comprehension, though. sum just needs an iterable, and generator is sufficient (and does not require all the individual scores be computed before summing, saving memory).

blue note Over a year ago

@chepner: I know, but mentioning generator expressions to someone seeing the language for the first time seems a bit too much.

chepner Over a year ago

Why? They're very useful, and not that hard to understand.

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