How to check if two elements at the same number index in different strings match?

Question

Assuming two equal length strings, how can I check if the elements at the same number index match? For example, I want to check if the letters in a partially guessed word ('ap_le') match with letters at the same index in a complete word ('apple'). So in that example, the function would ideally return True.

However, I'm not receiving any output and I believe the issue may be in the line: if mw[ltr] == ow[ltr]. I ran it trough pythontutor and it said there was a syntax error here, and I'm not sure how to check the sameness of element and index.

import string

def match_with_gaps(guess, correct_word):
    g = list(guess.replace(' ',''))
    cw = list(correct_word)
    
    indices = [idx for idx, x in enumerate(g) if x in string.ascii_lowercase]  
    for ltr in indices:
        if g[ltr] == cw[ltr]:
            return True
    return False       

match_with_gaps('ap_ le', 'apple')

Answer 1

You're just missing a colon in your if statement for the syntax error. I'm not sure where mw or ow are coming from, but I would use your variables from the list above then flip the logic to return false if there isn't a match only returning True if all indices match. Try this:

import string

def match_with_gaps(guess, correct_word):
    g = list(guess.replace(' ',''))
    cw = list(correct_word)
    
    indices = [idx for idx, x in enumerate(g) if x in string.ascii_lowercase]
    for index in indices:
        if g[index] != cw[index]:
            return False
    return True
    
match_with_gaps('ap_ le', 'apple')

Happy coding!