Adding/Subtracting values in dictionary via user inputs

Question

attributes = {"Health": 0, "Strength": 0, "Dexterity": 0,   
"Intelligence": 0}

points = 40

def add_points(attributes):
    type = input("Which attribute would you like to adjust?: ")
    if type in attributes:
        how_many = int(input("Add how many points?: "))
        if how_many <= points:
            type += how_many
    return type

add_points(attributes)

Some context. The code above is a piece of my character creator program I am building. I have the entire program written, however I want to use a function rathre than typing a bunch of loops. Trying to make my code more concise and Pythonic.

I cannot figure out how to take the value of whatever key is chosen by the user and add x amount of points (also chosen by the user) to the value assigned to said key.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S: just a side remark, avoid using the `type` keyword as a variable name in python. — madjaoue, Jul 29 '18 at 16:51
also you can use `dict.fromkeys()` to create your dictionary from names only (and the same 0 value) — Jean-François Fabre, Jul 29 '18 at 16:53
For using `type`, may be you can look into similar discussion in https://stackoverflow.com/a/10568115/5916727 — niraj, Jul 29 '18 at 16:54
@harkbot it's a built-in method (a bit more than that actually), you don't want to overwrite it. — madjaoue, Jul 29 '18 at 16:59

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 29 '18 at 16:55

0

To take the value of a key:

 prevValue = attributes.get(type)

to change the value:

attributes[type] = prevValue + how_many

answered Jul 29 '18 at 16:55

Miguel

1,295
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25

Ok i've got that part figured out now. I'm confused on why Python is throwing a syntax error when I try to affect the global variable called points with the amount of points selected by the user. If I use how_many = int(input("Add how many points?: ")) if how_many <= global points: that throws a syntax error referring specifically to the use of global. Any ideas? – harkbot Jul 29 '18 at 17:03
On the line after the function declaration, add a line which says `global points`. Then you can simply reference the global variable anywhere within this function by just writing `points`. – Damodar Dahal Jul 29 '18 at 21:41

Adding/Subtracting values in dictionary via user inputs

1 Answers1