help - computer guessing game

[whoareyou]

What is it you are trying to achieve?
The computer is supposed to guess a number you have thought of.
The computer should guess a number that you have thought of until it gets it right.
It should be smart, so if the computer guesses 2 and you say that the number is low, it would go
to one and then if you press low to that, if would say you changed your number.


What is the problem you are having?
I have no idea where to start.


Post any relevant code (You may choose to attach the file instead of posting the code if it is too long)

I will upload the sample program (exe) file later for you to actually see what its supposed to look like.

Turing:

var hidden, guess : int var reply : string (1) put "See if you can guess the hidden number" put "It is between 1 and 99 inclusive" loop     var count : int := 0     put "Do you want to play? Answer y or n " ..     get reply     exit when reply = "n"     randint (hidden, 1, 99)     loop         put "Enter your guess ",             "(any number between 1 and 99) " ..         get guess         count := count + 1         if guess < hidden then             put "You are low"         elsif guess > hidden then             put "You are high"         else             put "You got it in ", count, " guesses"             exit         end if     end loop end loop

Please specify what version of Turing you are using
4.1.1

[mirhagk]

your code is doing the opposite, it's letting the user guess, the computer is not doing the guess, verify what it's actually supposed to do.

[whoareyou]

yes i know. this is the fundamental code; i have to rework it so that its the opposite.

but i dont know where to start.

i've also included the sample program so that you can see what i'm talking about.

[whoareyou]

here is my code so far.
its not working the way i want it too.
for example, when it produces a number (i.e. 60) and i say that the number is higher, then it will show numbers below 60 sometimes

Turing:

var high:int:=99 var low:int:=1 var reply_yesno:string var reply_highlow:string var fguess:int var count:int:=0 randint (fguess, 1, 99) put "I will try to find out a number you guess between 1 and 99 inclusive." loop put "Do you want to play? Y or N?" get reply_yesno     if reply_yesno = "Y" or reply_yesno = "n" or reply_yesno = "y" or reply_yesno = "n" then     else     put "Invalid response!"     end if     exit when reply_yesno = "N" or reply_yesno = "n"     loop put "Is your number ", fguess, "?" get reply_yesno if reply_yesno = "Y" or reply_yesno = "y" then put "Great! I got in in ", count, " tries!"    else put "Is your number 'high'er or 'low'-er?"     get reply_highlow             if reply_highlow = "high" then                     fguess := low                         randint (fguess, low, high)                                               elsif reply_highlow = "low" then                     fguess:= high                         randint (fguess, low, high)                     else                 put "Incorrect Response!"         end if end if end loop end loop

[Tony]

whoareyou @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:37 pm wrote:

it will show numbers below 60 sometimes

Yes. Since you are telling the computer to guess by picking a random number.

If you rewrite you code to use Rand.Int instead of randint, you will probably see your problem.

[whoareyou]

Tony @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:09 pm wrote:

whoareyou @ Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:37 pm wrote:

it will show numbers below 60 sometimes

Yes. Since you are telling the computer to guess by picking a random number.

If you rewrite you code to use Rand.Int instead of randint, you will probably see your problem.

i tried to re-write the code using the Rand.Int, and no difference. also, i think im changing the range of the random integer when i write

Turing:

put "Is your number 'high'er or 'low'-er?"     get reply_highlow             if reply_highlow = "high" then                     fguess := low                         randint (fguess, low, high)                                               elsif reply_highlow = "low" then                     fguess:= high                         randint (fguess, low, high)                     else                 put "Incorrect Response!"

[Tony]

The latest code still uses randint, not Rand.Int

[whoareyou]

is there a difference between randint and Rand.Int? they seem pretty similar except that Rand.Int is assigned to the var directly (i.e. var hello:int:=Rand.Int ...) where as randint changes the value later on ... (i.e. randint (hello, 1, 6)

the way i learned in school was randint ...

anyways, the i updated my code to use the Rand.Int, and it still does not make a difference.

Turing:

var high : int := 99 var low : int := 1 var reply_yesno : string var reply_highlow : string var fguess : int:= Rand.Int (low, high) var count : int := 0 put "I will try to find out a number you guess between 1 and 99 inclusive." loop     put "Do you want to play? Y or N?"     get reply_yesno     if reply_yesno = "Y" or reply_yesno = "n" or reply_yesno = "y" or reply_yesno = "n" then     else         put "Invalid response!"     end if     exit when reply_yesno = "N" or reply_yesno = "n"     loop         put "Is your number ", fguess, "?"         get reply_yesno         if reply_yesno = "Y" or reply_yesno = "y" then             put "Great! I got in in ", count, " tries!"         else             put "Is your number 'high'er or 'low'-er?"             get reply_highlow             if reply_highlow = "high" then                 fguess := low                 fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)             elsif reply_highlow = "low" then                 fguess := high                 fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)             else                 put "Incorrect Response!"             end if         end if     end loop end loop

i dont understand why it keeps doing that when i put the if statement to change the range of the random integer being generated.

[Tony]

Good. Now look at this part really hard. Read it out loud to yourself. Explain it to a rubber duck -- http://compsci.ca/blog/rubber-ducks-help-best-with-computer-science/

Try to answer the question: how is the "high" guess different from "low" guess?

code:

if reply_highlow = "high" then   fguess := low   fguess := Rand.Int (low, high) elsif reply_highlow = "low" then   fguess := high   fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)

[whoareyou]

For "HIGH"
if the number is higher than what the computer guessed, it would take that current number stored in fguess and make that the new "low" value, then the computer will generate a new fguess using the fguess as a starting point, to high, which is still 99.

For "LOW"
if the number is lower than what the computer guess, then that current number would be stored as the new high value, then a new fguess would be generated starting from low to the previous number the computer generated.

[Tony]

That sounds like the right thing to do. Good.

But in your code, compare the lines where the number is actually picked:

code:

fguess := Rand.Int (low, high) ... fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)

low and high never change.

[whoareyou]

so basically, i was just setting fguess back to one for "high" and back to 99 for "low"
so to fix that ...

Turing:

if reply_highlow = "high" then                     low := fguess + 1                         fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)                                               elsif reply_highlow = "low" then                     high := fguess - 1                         fguess := Rand.Int (low, high)

?

and the +1 and -1 are so that the numbers don't repeat themselves?

[Tony]

Looks better.

You can make better educated guesses with an actual algorithm, such as a binary search.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search_algorithm#Number_guessing_game

[whoareyou]

ok THANK YOU!

i think i'll be learning about algorithms laters on in the semester!