hangman-player.py

from operator import itemgetter

def limit_search_space(space, pattern, bad_char):
    # _ for unknown character
    index = 0
    # filter by symbols
    for char in pattern:
        if char != '_':
            space = [word for word in space if word[index] == char]
        else:
            space = [word for word in space if word[index] != bad_char]
        index += 1

    return space

def get_occurrences(space):
    occ = dict()
    for word in space:
        for char in word:
            if char in occ:
                occ[char] += 1
            else:
                occ[char] = 1
    return sorted(occ.items(), key=itemgetter(1), reverse=True)

# Get word length and dictionary
word_length = int(input("Which length has your word? "))
dictionary = open("/usr/share/dict/words")

# create search space with common length
search_space = set([word.strip().lower() for word in dictionary if not word.strip().endswith("'s") and len(word.strip()) == word_length])
dictionary.close()

# create word pattern
pattern = ['_' for i in range(word_length)]
bad_character = None # character which is banned for the next iteration
guessed_characters = set() # solved characters

while len(search_space) > 1:
    #print("Guessed characters:", guessed_characters)
    possible_guesses = get_occurrences(search_space)
    first_guess = None

    # Search for possible guess
    for guess in possible_guesses:
        if guess[0] not in guessed_characters:
            first_guess = guess[0]
            break
    # Print guess
    print("Guessing", first_guess)
    guessed_characters.add(first_guess)
    solved_pots = input("Solved pots: ").split(",")
    for pot in solved_pots:
        p = int(pot)
        if p == -1:
            bad_character = first_guess
            break
        pattern[p] = first_guess
    print("New guessing pattern", pattern)

    # Limit and create new search space
    search_space = limit_search_space(search_space, pattern, bad_character)

if len(search_space) == 1:
    print("Your word is", search_space[0])
else:
    print("I don't know your word.")