https://hyperskill.org/projects/69

A small Python console implementation of the classic Hangman game. The script selects a random word from a built-in list and asks the player to guess it one letter at a time with a limited number of attempts.

• Language: Python 3.x
• Dependencies: only standard library modules (random, string)
• Player starts with 8 attempts to guess a randomly chosen secret word.
• Session score (wins / losses) is kept in memory while the program runs.

• hangman.py — the main script (use the provided code).

1. Save the provided code to a file named hangman.py.
2. Run from the terminal:

   python3 hangman.py

3. Follow on-screen prompts:
   • Type play to start a new game.
   • Type results to display the current session scoreboard.
   • Type exit to quit.

• Possible secret words: ["python", "java", "swift", "javascript"].
• The player has 8 incorrect attempts allowed.
• Each turn the program prints the current guessed state (known letters and - for unknown).
• The program expects a single lowercase ASCII letter as input. Validation:
  • If input length ≠ 1 → "Please, input a single letter."
  • If input is not a lowercase ASCII letter → "Please, enter a lowercase letter from the English alphabet."
• If the guessed letter is in the word, all occurrences of that letter are revealed.
• If the letter was already guessed (correctly or incorrectly), the game prints "You've already guessed this letter."
• If the letter is not in the word, the player loses one attempt.
• If the player reveals the whole word before attempts run out → win.
• If attempts reach 0 → loss. (The current implementation returns an empty string on loss; the secret word is not revealed.)

• Global variables:
  • words — list of candidate words.
  • success_nb, lost_nb — session counters for wins and losses.
• Functions:
  • get_user_input(guessed_letters) — displays the current guessed state, reads and validates a single-letter input, returns the valid letter.
  • play() — runs one game: selects a word, loops until win or attempts exhausted, returns the word if guessed or an empty string on loss.
• Main loop:
  • Prints "H A N G M A N" and repeatedly prompts the user for play, results, or exit, updating and showing the scoreboard.

• The script uses:
  • guessed_letters list of characters for display.
  • remaining_letters list to track letters not yet revealed (removes each occurrence when guessed).
  • fake_guessed_letters set to track incorrect guesses already made.
• The condition that detects repeated guesses:

  elif user_input not in remaining_letters and user_input in secret_word or user_input in fake_guessed_letters:
  

  This is equivalent to:

  (user_input not in remaining_letters and user_input in secret_word) or (user_input in fake_guessed_letters)
  

  and handles both re-guessing a previously revealed letter and repeating a previously incorrect guess.

• Reveal the secret word after a loss to give feedback.
• Persist the scoreboard to disk (JSON file or SQLite) so it survives program restarts.
• Add an ASCII-art hangman that updates with each incorrect attempt.
• Normalize uppercase input by applying .lower() automatically.
• Load a larger vocabulary from an external file to increase variety.
• Add CLI options (e.g., max attempts, word list path) using argparse.
• Add unit tests for input validation and game logic.

H A N G M A N
Type "play" to play the game, "results" to show the scoreboard, and "exit" to quit: play

----
Input a letter: p
p---
Input a letter: y
py--
...
You guessed the word python!
You survived!
Type "play" to play the game, "results" to show the scoreboard, and "exit" to quit: results
You won: 1 times.
You lost: 0 times.