How do i fix the error in my hangman game in Python 3

Question

This code is from a small game i've been working on over the past day or so, i know i shouldn't really post the whole code but i'm not entirely sure which part of the code is not working as intended, any help would be appreciated. the code is a hangman game and i am aware of the huge amount of repetition in the code but am unsure how to reduce it to one of every function that will work with each difficulty setting.

import random
import time


#Variables holding different words for each difficulty
def build_word_list(word_file):
    words = [item.strip("\n") for item in word_file]
    return words

EASYWORDS = open("Easy.txt","r+")
MEDWORDS = open("Med.txt","r+")
HARDWORDS = open("Hard.txt","r+")
INSANEWORDS = open("Insane.txt", "r+")

easy_words = build_word_list(EASYWORDS)
medium_words = build_word_list(MEDWORDS)
hard_words = build_word_list(HARDWORDS)
insane_words = build_word_list(INSANEWORDS)



#Where the user picks a difficulty
def difficulty():

    print("easy\n")
    print("medium\n")
    print("hard\n")
    print("insane\n")

    menu=input("Welcome to Hangman, type in what difficulty you would like... ").lower()
    if menu in ["easy", "e"]:
        easy()

    if menu in ["medium", "med", "m"]:
        med()

    if menu in ["hard", "h"]:
        hard()

    if menu in ["insane", "i"]:
        insane()

    else:   
        print("Please type in either hard, medium, easy or insane!")
        difficulty()


def difficulty2():

    print("Easy\n")
    print("Medium\n")
    print("Hard\n")
    print("Insane\n")
    print("Quit\n")

    menu=input("Welcome to Hangman, type in the difficulty you would like. Or would you like to quit the game?").lower()

    if menu == "hard" or menu == "h":

        hard()

    elif menu == "medium" or menu == "m" or menu =="med":

        med()

    elif menu == "easy" or menu == "e":

        easy()

    elif menu == "insane" or menu == "i":

        insane()

    elif menu == "quit" or "q":
        quit()

    else:   
        print("Please type in either hard, medium, easy or insane!")
        difficulty()



#if the user picked easy for their difficulty
def easy():
    global score 
    print ("\nStart guessing...")

    time.sleep(0.5)

    word = random.choice(words).lower()
    guesses = ''
    fails = 0
    while fails >= 0 and fails < 10:         
        failed = 0                
        for char in word:      
            if char in guesses:    
                print (char,)

            else:
                print ("_"),     
                failed += 1    
        if failed == 0:        
            print ("\nYou won, WELL DONE!")
            score = score + 1
            print ("your score is,", score)
            print ("the word was, ", word)
            difficultyEASY()

        guess = input("\nGuess a letter:").lower()
        while len(guess)==0:
            guess = input("\nTry again you muppet:").lower()
        guess = guess[0]
        guesses += guess 
        if guess not in word:
            fails += 1
            print ("\nWrong")

            if fails == 1:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fail....WATCH OUT!" )
            elif fails >= 2 and fails < 10:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fails....WATCH OUT!" )
            if fails == 10:
                print ("You Lose\n")
                print ("your score is, ", score)
                print ("the word was,", word)
                score = 0
                difficultyEASY()

#if the user picked medium for their difficulty
def med():
    global score 
    print ("\nStart guessing...")

    time.sleep(0.5)

    word = random.choice(words).lower()
    guesses = ''
    fails = 0
    while fails >= 0 and fails < 10:           
        failed = 0                
        for char in word:      
            if char in guesses:    
                print (char,)    

            else:
                print ("_"),     
                failed += 1    
        if failed == 0:        
            print ("\nYou won, WELL DONE!")
            score = score + 1
            print ("your score is,", score)
            difficultyMED()

        guess = input("\nGuess a letter:").lower()
        while len(guess)==0:
            guess = input("\nTry again you muppet:").lower()
        guess = guess[0]
        guesses += guess   
        if guess not in word:  
            fails += 1        
            print ("\nWrong")

            if fails == 1:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fail....WATCH OUT!" )
            elif fails >= 2 and fails < 10:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fails....WATCH OUT!" ) 
            if fails == 10:           
                print ("You Lose\n")
                print ("your score is, ", score)
                print ("the word was,", word)
                score = 0 
                difficultyMED()     

#if the user picked hard for their difficulty
def hard():
    global score  
    print ("\nStart guessing...")

    time.sleep(0.5)

    word = random.choice(words).lower()
    guesses = ''
    fails = 0
    while fails >= 0 and fails < 10:  #try to fix this         
        failed = 0                
        for char in word:      
            if char in guesses:    
                print (char,)    

            else:
                print ("_"),     
                failed += 1    
        if failed == 0:        
            print ("\nYou won, WELL DONE!")
            score = score + 1
            print ("your score is,", score)
            difficultyHARD()

        guess = input("\nGuess a letter:").lower()
        while len(guess)==0:
            guess = input("\nTry again you muppet:").lower()
        guess = guess[0]
        guesses += guess   
        if guess not in word:  
            fails += 1        
            print ("\nWrong")

            if fails == 1:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fail....WATCH OUT!" )
            elif fails >= 2 and fails < 10:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fails....WATCH OUT!" ) 
            if fails == 10:           
                print ("You Lose\n")
                print ("your score is, ", score)
                print ("the word was,", word)
                score = 0 
                difficultyHARD()


#if the user picked insane for their difficulty
def insane():
    global score  
    print ("This words may contain an apostrophe. \nStart guessing...")

    time.sleep(0.5)

    word = random.choice(words).lower()
    guesses = ''
    fails = 0
    while fails >= 0 and fails < 10:  #try to fix this         
        failed = 0                
        for char in word:      
            if char in guesses:    
                print (char,)    

            else:
                print ("_"),     
                failed += 1    
        if failed == 0:        
            print ("\nYou won, WELL DONE!")
            score = score + 1
            print ("your score is,", score)
            difficultyINSANE()

        guess = input("\nGuess a letter:").lower()
        while len(guess)==0:
            guess = input("\nTry again you muppet:").lower()
        guess = guess[0]
        guesses += guess   
        if guess not in word:  
            fails += 1        
            print ("\nWrong")

            if fails == 1:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fail....WATCH OUT!" )
            elif fails >= 2 and fails < 10:
                print ("You have", + fails, "fails....WATCH OUT!" ) 
            if fails == 10:           
                print ("You Lose\n")
                print ("your score is, ", score)
                print ("the word was,", word)
                score = 0 
                difficultyINSANE()


def start():

    Continue = input("Do you want to play hangman?").lower()
    while Continue in ["y", "ye", "yes", "yeah"]:
        name = input("What is your name? ")
        print ("Hello, %s, Time to play hangman! You have ten guesses to win!" % name)
        print ("\n")
        time.sleep(1)
        difficulty()
    else:
        quit

#whether they want to try a diffirent difficulty or stay on easy

def difficultyEASY():
    diff = input("Do you want to change the difficulty?. Or quit the game? ")
    if diff == "yes" or difficulty =="y":
        difficulty2()
    elif diff == "no" or diff =="n":
        easy()

#whether they want to try a diffirent difficulty or stay on medium

def difficultyMED():
    diff = input("Do you want to change the difficulty?. Or quit the game? ")
    if diff == "yes" or difficulty =="y":
        difficulty2()
    elif diff == "no" or diff =="n":
        med()

#whether they want to try a diffirent difficulty or stay on hard

def difficultyHARD():
    diff = input("Do you want to change the difficulty?. Or quit the game? ")
    if diff == "yes" or difficulty =="y":
        difficulty2()
    elif diff == "no" or diff =="n":
        hard()

#whether they want to try a diffirent difficulty or stay on insane

def difficultyINSANE():
    diff = input("Do you want to change the difficulty?. Or quit the game? ")
    if diff == "yes" or difficulty =="y":
        difficulty2()
    elif diff == "no" or diff =="n":
        insane()

score = 0

start()

When i run this code the error i get is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "P:/Computer Science/Hangman All/Hangman v8.0.py", line 316, in <module>
    start()
  File "P:/Computer Science/Hangman All/Hangman v8.0.py", line 274, in start
    difficulty()
  File "P:/Computer Science/Hangman All/Hangman v8.0.py", line 41, in difficulty
    insane()
  File "P:/Computer Science/Hangman All/Hangman v8.0.py", line 227, in insane
    word = random.choice(words).lower()
NameError: name 'words' is not defined

I'm not sure what is wrong with words or how to fix it.

Answer 1

Your words variable is only defined in the scope of build_word_list function. All the other functions don't recognize it so you can't use it there.

You can have a "quickfix" by defining it as a global variable , although usually using global variables isn't the best practice and you might want to consider some other solution like passing words to your other functions that use it or use it within the confines of a class.

(If avoiding global variables interests you, maybe you would like to read this and this )

Answer 2

You have words defined in the method build_word_list .

You should declare words as a global variable so that it can be accessed everywhere or restructure you program into a class and use self to reference it.