🔒 Beginner Python Project: Is My Rock Paper Scissors Code Efficient?

[fossil prairie]

I'm new to Python and recently coded a rock-paper-scissors game as a learning exercise. My goal was to get more familiar with the random function and conditional statements. I'd love to get some feedback on my code – are there ways I could make it more efficient or improve its readability?

Here's the code:
`import random

paper_opt = "Paper"
scissors_opt = "Scissors"
rock_opt = "Rock"
options = [paper_opt, scissors_opt, rock_opt]

while True:
user_choice = input(f"please pick between {paper_opt}. {scissors_opt} or {rock_opt} :")

if user_choice.lower() == paper_opt.lower():
    print(f"You played {paper_opt}")
    break
elif user_choice.lower() == scissors_opt.lower():
    print(f"You played {scissors_opt}")
    break
elif user_choice.lower() == rock_opt.lower():
    print(f"You played {rock_opt}")
    break
else:
    print("Invalid choice. please pick Paper, Scissors or Rock")

opponent_choice = random.choice(options)
print(f"The opponent played {opponent_choice}")

if user_choice.lower() == opponent_choice.lower():
print("It's a tie!")
elif (user_choice.lower() == "paper") and opponent_choice.lower() == "rock" or
(user_choice.lower() == "rock") and opponent_choice.lower() == "scissors" or
(user_choice.lower() == "scissors") and opponent_choice.lower() == "paper":
print("You Win!")
else:
print("You Lose!")`

[gusty tartan]

@fossil prairie

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[hallow quarry]

if user_choice.lower() == paper_opt.lower():
        print(f"You played {paper_opt}")
        break
    elif user_choice.lower() == scissors_opt.lower():
        print(f"You played {scissors_opt}")
        break
    elif user_choice.lower() == rock_opt.lower():
        print(f"You played {rock_opt}")
        break
    else:
        print("Invalid choice. please pick Paper, Scissors or Rock")

this is quite ineffecient

[high smelt]

you can extract the .lower() so you don't have to repeat it over and over

user_choice = input(...)
user_choice = user_choice.lower()
```and for the 3 `_opt`s you can just use the lower case from the start

[hallow quarry]

you already know what the user played because it's stored in the variable already

you can simply check if it's a valid option, and if so, display it

if user_choice in options:
    print(f"You picked {user_choice}")

[lapis path]

I think there might be a reason for the .lower() so that the options are not case sensitive

[hallow quarry]

yes, but they're saying to apply lower() immediately so you don't have to use .lower() every single time you refer to that variable

[fossil prairie]

thanks for the advice!

[lapis path]

imo at this level efficiency isn't as important as readability

[fossil prairie]

yeah I get that, I suppose I was more looking at as trying to avoid bad habits

[lapis path]

.capitalize could be a good idea

!e

print("heLLo wOrLD".capitalize())

[gusty tartan]

@lapis path :white_check_mark: Your 3.12 eval job has completed with return code 0.

Hello world

[lapis path]

import random

paper_opt = "Paper"
scissors_opt = "Scissors"
rock_opt = "Rock"
options = [paper_opt, scissors_opt, rock_opt]

while True:
    user_choice = input(f"please pick between {paper_opt}. {scissors_opt} or {rock_opt} :").capitalize()
    if user_choice in options:
        print(f"You played {user_choice}")
        break
    else:
        print("Invalid choice. please pick Paper, Scissors or Rock")

opponent_choice = random.choice(options)
print(f"The opponent played {opponent_choice}")

if user_choice == opponent_choice:
    print("It's a tie!")
elif (options.index(user_choice) - options.index(opponent_choice)) % 3 == 1: # magic??
    print("You Win!")
else:
    print("You Lose!")

[fossil prairie]

... wow i need to figure out how that index function works hahaha

[hallow quarry]

since the list of options are in order, you can use the index positions to figure out if the player options are in some sort of order

index 1 beats index 0

index 2 beats index 1

index 0 beats index 2

[fossil prairie]

oh cool, yeah i get it. thats neat

[keen mauve]

to make it a tiny bit better i would make a random for the indices and then whenever i need to print the value, i get them from the list
that way all the conditions still work and i don't have to use options.index at the end

[fossil prairie]

so... like
opponent_index = random.randint(0, 2) opponent_choice = options[opponent_index]

and

elif (options.index(user_choice) - opponent_index) % 3 == 1:

[lapis path]

yeah that can be done too

[gusty tartan]

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