Question

I’m making a rock, paper scissors game as a little project while I’m starting out and I have to use the same bit of code a lot. What’s the best way to do this because at the moment I have it copied and pasted all over the place. It looks untidy plus I’m having an issue with the looping while validating the input and it’s a pain to have to change it all.

user_continue = raw_input("Would you like to play again? Y/N: ")
user_continue = user_continue.upper()
#Yes or no continue for the continue while loop to continue working until correct user input.
y_n_continue = False
while y_n_continue == False:
    if user_continue == "Y" or user_continue == "YES" or user_continue == "N" or user_continue == "NO":
        if user_continue == "Y" or user_continue == "YES":
            continue_game = True
            y_n_continue = True
        elif user_continue == "N" or user_continue == "NO":
            continue_game = False
            y_n_continue = True
        else:
            print "Press Y or N"
            y_n_continue = False
    else:
        print ""

It would probably be easier if I added the whole code (With the fix, thanks to Anton.
At the moment I am getting the error – TypeError: ‘bool’ object is not callable.

I’m basically trying to get it to loop the game for as long as the user wants while also validating the inputs to make everything as bulletproof as possible.

EDIT 2 – Here is the new code and I have some test data under it.

When I launch it you are prompted to enter y/n at the start.

You also have to enter y or n twice after each game.

If you input ‘wrong’ data into the rock/paper/scissors selection it goes to the y/n selection

import random


def continue_game():
    while True:
        user_continue = raw_input("Would you like to play again? Y/N: ").upper()
        if user_continue in ["Y", "YES", "N", "NO"]:
            return user_continue in ["Y", "YES"]
        else:
            print "Press Y or N"



while continue_game():

    #computers choice of rock, paper or scissors
    computer_input = ["ROCK", "PAPER", "SCISSORS"]
    computer_choice = random.choice(computer_input)
    #users choice or rock, paper or scissors
    user_input = raw_input("Choose rock, paper or scissors: ")
    #Turns user input to upper case.
    user_choice = user_input.upper()
    if user_choice == "ROCK" or user_choice == "PAPER" or user_choice == "SCISSORS":
        #Computer = ROCK
        if computer_choice == "ROCK":
            #user = ROCK
            if user_choice == "ROCK":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You draw!"

                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False



            #user = PAPER
            elif user_choice == "PAPER":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You win!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False


            #user = SCISSORS   
            elif user_choice == "SCISSORS":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You lose!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False


        #Computer = PAPER
        elif computer_choice == "PAPER":
            #user = ROCK
            if user_choice == "ROCK":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You lose!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False

            #user = PAPER
            elif user_choice == "PAPER":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You draw!"
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False


            #user = SCISSORS   
            elif user_choice == "SCISSORS":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You win!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False

        #Computer = SCISSORS
        elif computer_choice == "SCISSORS":
            #user = ROCK
            if user_choice == "ROCK":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You win!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False

            #user = PAPER
            elif user_choice == "PAPER":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You lose!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False

            #user = SCISSORS   
            elif user_choice == "SCISSORS":
                print "You have chosen: " + user_choice
                print "The computer has chosen: " + computer_choice
                print "You draw!"
                #replay?
                if continue_game():
                    print "continue"
                else:
                    continue_game = False

        else:
            print "Something has gone wrong."
    else:
        print "Are you sure you entered that correctly?"

Output:

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

Choose rock, paper or scissors: rock

You have chosen: ROCK

The computer has chosen: PAPER

You lose!

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

continue

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

Choose rock, paper or scissors: paper

You have chosen: PAPER

The computer has chosen: ROCK

You win!

Would you like to play again? Y/N: wer

Press Y or N

Would you like to play again? Y/N: dfg

Press Y or N

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

continue

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

Choose rock, paper or scissors: test

Are you sure you entered that correctly?

Would you like to play again? Y/N: y

Choose rock, paper or scissors: rock

You have chosen: ROCK

The computer has chosen: SCISSORS

You win!

Would you like to play again? Y/N: n

exit

Would you like to play again? Y/N: n

>>> 

I know I’m being a pain but this is all appreciated.

Answer 1

You can just make a function out of the code and return the value of the continue_game variable. Here is a minified version of your code wrapped in a function, along with an example of its usage:

def continue_game():
    while True:
        user_continue = raw_input("Would you like to play again? Y/N: ").upper()
        if user_continue in ["Y", "YES", "N", "NO"]:
            return user_continue in ["Y", "YES"]
        else:
            print "Press Y or N"

if continue_game():
    print "continue"
else:
    print "exit"

UPDATE: regarding your full code, to fix the error, you need to delete the following line:

continue_game = True

and replace:

while continue_game == True:

with:

while continue_game():