Assigning List Element to a String in a For Loop

Question

I am trying to loop through two elements in a list (integers) and for each element in the list if the value is equal to the integer, I want to replace the element with the string. What am I doing wrong?

players = [np.random.randint(1, 4), np.random.randint(1, 4)]

for i in players:
    if i == 1:
        players[i] = 'rock'
    elif i == 2:
        players[i] = 'scissors'
    elif i == 3:
        players[i] = 'paper'

player_1 = players[0]
computer = players[1]

print(player_1)
print(computer)

Actual:

scissors
1

or, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
enter Player 1's choice:
  File "...", line 12, in <module>
    players[i] = 'scissors'
enter Player 2's choice:
IndexError: list assignment index out of range


Expected

scissors
rock

i is not the index it is actually the element inside the list. try enumerate or simply use range(len(players)) rather than players — mad_
– mad_, Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 18:57

Antonioig · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-09 19:23:09Z

1

i is returning a value between 1 and 4, that's why you have the list assignment index out of range error.

And you can just make a list of items:

items = ["rock","scissors","paper"]

and select them randomly

players = [items[np.random.randint(1, 4)], items[np.random.randint(1, 4)]]

edited Aug 9, 2019 at 19:23

answered Aug 9, 2019 at 19:12

Antonioig

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Error - Syntactical Remorse · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-09 19:05:42Z

0

i is the value of that element in the list, not the index. If you want to change the list than iterate using indices.

for indx, val in enumerate(players):
    if val == 1:
        players[indx] = 'rock'
    elif val == 2:
        players[indx] = 'scissors'
    elif val == 3:
        players[indx] = 'paper'

Also you don't need to use a large package like NumPy to get some random numbers since python has a built in way to do it:

import random
choices = [random.randint(0, 2) for _ in range(2)]
print(choices) # [0, 2]

You also can just use random to its fullest:

import random
CHOICES = ('rock', 'paper', 'scissors')
choice1 = random.choice(CHOICES)
choice2 = random.choice(CHOICES)
print(choice1, choice2) # rock paper

edited Aug 9, 2019 at 19:05

answered Aug 9, 2019 at 18:57

Error - Syntactical Remorse

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Comments

mad_ · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-09 19:03:06Z

0

Use len property of the list to iterate

for i in range(len(players)):
    if players[i] == 1:
        players[i] = 'rock'
    elif players[i] == 2:
        players[i] = 'scissors'
    elif players[i] == 3:
        players[i] = 'paper'

answered Aug 9, 2019 at 19:03

mad_

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