I want the result of a user input to cause a different variable to be used

Question

Disclaimer I'm only 10 days into learning Python (little to no experience in any language prior to this)

I'm having difficulty conceptualizing my problem and thus, a solution for it.

I currently have the following code:

spacer = "_|_"
spacer_btm = " | "
blank = "_"
blank_btm = " "

print(blank + spacer + blank + spacer + blank)
print(blank + spacer + blank + spacer + blank)
print(blank_btm + spacer_btm + blank_btm + spacer_btm + blank_btm)

This is going to print out a grid. Originally i had the blank and blank_btm variables split into 9 separate variables, each denoting a space in the grid that I want to change. The problem I have is that since these are strings, they are immutable. I want to change that blank space/underscore value for something else based on the result of a user input. Ideally the value that replaces the blank or blank_btm would also be a string, but I'm confounded as to what sort of process I should use to get there.

for example if the input is 1 lets say that would mean the top left box in the grid gets "A" (or literally anything as a string)

For reference the previous code I had was

spacer = str("_|_")
spacer_btm = " | "
a1 = str("_")
a2 = str("_")
a3 = str("_")
b4 = str("_")
b5 = str("_")
b6 = str("_")
c7 = str(" ")
c8 = str(" ")
c9 = str(" ")
    
print(a1 + spacer + a2 + spacer + a3)
print(b4 + spacer + b5 + spacer + b6)
print(c7 + spacer_btm + c8 + spacer_btm + c9)

Answer 1

I liked the answer @misterwtf gave but I'll just move a step ahead and make an assumption that you would want the grid to be fixed and would want to fill the values in the boxes, like in tic-tac-toe.

If you have studied about python dictionary, I'd suggest you to use one.

You can simply define the dict variable like:

board = {'9': ' ' , '8': ' ' , '7': ' ' ,
            '6': ' ' , '5': ' ' , '4': ' ' ,
            '3': ' ' , '2': ' ' , '1': ' ' }

and then make the grid like:

print(' ' + board['9'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['8'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['7'])
print('---|---|---')
print(' ' + board['6'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['5'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['4'])
print('---|---|---')
print(' ' + board['3'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['2'] + ' |' + ' ' + board['1'])

It would be better if you make this^ into a function (study about that as well).

Now, you can take the input from the user. Say, you want to fill the top-left box. You'll simply write:

board['9'] = input()

and now when you make the grid again, voila. you've successfully entered the value in the grid.

Answer 2

The closest solution to your code I can think of is the following one.

spacer = "_|_"
spacer_btm = " | "
blank = "_"
blank_btm = " "

print(('A' if input() == '1' else blank) + spacer + blank + spacer + blank)
print(blank + spacer + blank + spacer + blank)
print(blank_btm + spacer_btm + blank_btm + spacer_btm + blank_btm)

When Python executes the input builtin function, the program hangs until you press ENTER .

I would not do it like this but I don't want to give you a solution you would not understand. For example, I suppose you need to prompt the user repeatedly, in a read-eval-print loop, but do you know what a while loop is?