Guessing Game HW

guessinggame.rb

#Guessing Game for user to guess the items in the array by Jeff Scholen with user feedback. Iron Yard Rails Engineering 3/31/2014
@n = 0
@atv_values = ["Be Nice.", "Dream Big.", "Pay It Forward.", "Work Hard. Play Hard."]
@atv_guess = ["Be ----.", "----- Big.", "Pay It -------.", "Work-------Play Hard."]
@atv_hints = ["---- guys finish last.", "I have a -----.", "Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment Movie", 
	"A serious and fun work culture motto." ]
@atv_missing_values = ["nice", "dream", "forward", "hard"]

def match_answer(user_input)
	case user_input
	when "phrase"
	puts "#{@atv_guess}"	
	when "nice"	
		@atv_guess[0]= ("Be Nice.")
		puts "#{@atv_guess}"	
		@atv_hints.delete("---- guys finish last.")
		@atv_missing_values.delete("nice")
	when "dream"
		@atv_guess[1]=("Dream Big.")
		puts "#{@atv_guess}"	
		@atv_hints.delete("I have a -----.")
		@atv_missing_values.delete("dream")
	when "forward"
		@atv_guess[2]=("Pay It Forward.")
		puts "#{@atv_guess}"	
		@atv_hints.delete("Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment Movie")
		@atv_missing_values.delete("forward")
	when "hard"
		@atv_guess[3]=("Work Hard. Play Hard.")	
		puts "#{@atv_guess}"	
		@atv_hints.delete("A serious and fun work culture motto.")
		@atv_missing_values.delete("hard")
	when "hint"
		give_a_hint(user_input)
	else
		puts "I think you need a hint."
		puts "Please type in hint:"
		answer = gets.chomp.downcase
		if @answer == "hint"
			give_a_hint(@answer)
		else
			puts "I REALLY think you need a hint."
			puts "Please type in hint:(Last Chance!)"
			@answer = gets.chomp.downcase
			if @answer == "hint"
				give_a_hint(@answer)
			else
				puts "Bye-Bye."
				exit
			end	
		end	
	end
end			

def give_a_hint(answer)
	# @n = 0 if @n > 3
	current_value_of_missing_value = @atv_missing_values[0]
	while @answer != current_value_of_missing_value
		puts "#{@atv_hints[0]}"
		puts "Guess?"
		#puts "#{@atv_missing_values[0]}" for debugging
		@answer = gets.chomp.downcase
			if @answer != current_value_of_missing_value
				puts "Try again!"
				length_of_answer = @answer.length
				missing_value = current_value_of_missing_value
				length_of_missing_value = missing_value.length
				
				if length_of_answer == length_of_missing_value 
						puts "You have the right number of letters!" 
				else
						puts "You dont have the right number of letters!"
				end	
			end	
	end	
	match_answer(@answer)
	# @n += 1	
end

puts "It's time to start the Phrase GUESSING GAME!"
sleep 1
puts "Go ahead and guess a word to see if it works in the phrase."

while @atv_guess != @atv_values
	
	print "Word?, type 'hint' if you want a hint, type 'phrase' to see where you are:"
	@answer = gets.chomp.downcase
	match_answer(@answer)
	

end

puts "You guessed the WHOLE phrase correctly!"

You got feedback in class :)
+1

The key to refactoring this to DRY it up is looking at these lines:

if answer == "hint"
  n = 0 if n > 3
  next_answer = " "
  while next_answer != "#{atv_missing_values[n]}"
    puts "#{atv_hints[n]}"
    puts "Guess?"
    next_answer = gets.chomp.downcase

Here you're just getting a new user answer, so instead of creating a new variable next_answer, reassign the original 'answer' variable. I'll take another look at this later today to suggest a way to refactor with this in mind :)

Hey Jeff -
With your final version, when I try to run the game in my terminal, nothing happens. There's no point where you actually use the methods you've defined. Now that you have these methods defined, you need to incorporate the method names into a loop so I can actually play the game, like so:

until # end goal
  match_answer
end

Also, there's a lot of stuff happening in match_answer that could be broken into smaller, cleaner methods. For example, instead of repeatedly replacing the atv_guess array item explicitly for each case, extract that into a method. Also, deleting the items from your two arrays can be extracted out. Take the following example:

def replace_guess_with_word(num)
  @atv_guess[num] = @atv_values[num]
end

def remove_guessed_items(num)
  @atv_hints.delete_at(num)
  @atv_missing_values.delete_at(num)
end

case user_input
when "nice"
  replace_guess_with_word(0)
  puts "#{@atv_guess}"
  removed_guessed_items(0)
when ...

WIth num in both cases being the position of the element you're replacing or removing.

I left off the good stuff! Sorry about that. I'll look at refactoring it with regard to your comments.