Question

So I wrote a short and simple chat bot in Python, however there’s an irritating issue. The program will only call the posResponses() function initially.

In context, if I respond to its initial question with ‘sad’, ‘terrible’ or even ‘asdfasdfasdf’ I will still get a positive response.

What should happen is if I input a negative/ambiguous keyword the negResponses()/ambiguousResponses() function should be called. That is not the case. What did I do wrong, and how do I fix it? Code is as follows:

import random
import time

def opening():
    print('Hello!')

def responseType():
    responseType = str(input('How are you ?'))
    if responseType == 'good' or 'great' or 'fantastic' or 'decent' or 'fine' or 'ok' or 'okay': posResponses()
    elif responseType == 'bad' or 'terrible' or 'sad' or 'grumpy' or 'angry' or 'irritated' or 'tired': negResponses()
    else: ambiguousResponses()

def posResponses():
    number = random.randint(1, 4)
    if number == 1:
        print('That\'s great! So what\'s up?')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number == 2:
        print('Really? I\'d like to hear more.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()        
    if number == 3:
        print('I\'m glad to hear that. What\'s going on?')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()        
    if number == 4:
        print('Ah, me too. You should begin a topic discussion.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()        

def negResponses():
    number2 = random.randint(5, 8)
    if number2 == 5:
        print('That\'s really too bad. Care to elaborate?')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number2 == 6:
        print('Awww. Why?')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number2 == 7:
        print('That sucks! How come?')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number2 == 8:
        print('What a shame! You should explain why.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()

def ambiguousResponses():
    number = random.randint(1, 4)
    if number == 1:
        print('Interesting. Carry on.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number == 2:
        print('Wow, elaborate!')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number == 3:
        print('What an astute remark! Continue.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()
    if number == 4:
        print('How interesting. Please do explain further.')
        input()
        ambiguousResponses()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    opening()
    responseType()

Answer 1

Python is parsing it like this:

if (responseType == 'good') or 'great' or 'fantastic' or 'decent' or 'fine' or 'ok' or 'okay': posResponses()
elif (responseType == 'bad') or 'terrible' or 'sad' or 'grumpy' or 'angry' or 'irritated' or 'tired': negResponses()
else: ambiguousResponses()

'great' is a truthy value, so that if statement always succeeds. You probably want to rewrite it like:

if responseType == 'good' or responseType == 'great' or responseType == 'fantastic' or responseType == 'decent' or responseType == 'fine' or responseType == 'ok' or responseType == 'okay':
    posResponses()
elif responseType == 'bad' or responseType == 'terrible' or responseType == 'sad' or responseType == 'grumpy' or responseType == 'angry' or responseType == 'irritated' or responseType == 'tired':
    negResponses()
else:
    ambiguousResponses()

Or, preferably:

if responseType in {'good', 'great', 'fantastic', 'decent', 'fine', 'ok', 'okay'}:
    posResponses()
elif responseType in {'bad', 'terrible', 'sad', 'grumpy', 'angry', 'irritated', 'tired'}:
    negResponses()

You could even move those responses into a constant:

# near the top of the file:
GOOD_RESPONSES = {'good', 'great', 'fantastic', 'decent', 'fine', 'ok', 'okay'}
BAD_RESPONSES = {'bad', 'terrible', 'sad', 'grumpy', 'angry', 'irritated', 'tired'}

# when you need to judge a response:
if responseType in GOOD_RESPONSES:
    posResponses()
elif responseType in BAD_RESPONSES:
    negResponses()
else:
    ambiguousResponses()