Selection of inputs from given list

Question

If I make list for e.g.

lst=['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','n','o','p','q','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z']

I want a user to select input only from this given list

def select():
    select=''
    while guess not in ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']:
        guess=input("select a letter? ")
        
    return (select)

We can use this method but is there any other method so instead of putting the whole list we can put variable assign to that list

You can't limit the user. You could only replace all the "wrong" characters before processing them. — Banana, Aug 14 '20 at 10:05
Please describe what you want more clearly, e.g. with example input, output, error message, code etc. — khelwood, Aug 14 '20 at 10:06
Check this discussion [User selects an input from a finite list](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37565793/how-to-let-the-user-select-an-input-from-a-finite-list) — Gautamrk, Aug 14 '20 at 10:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 14 '20 at 10:17

You need a while loop to ask the user get input till the input is valid like below:

In [1]: valid_input_lst=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i',
   ...:                  'j', 'k', 'l', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 's', 't',
   ...:                  'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']

In [2]:

In [2]: input_char = None
In [4]: while True:
   ...:     print("Input:")
   ...:     input_char = input()
   ...:     if input_char in valid_input_lst:
   ...:         break
   ...:     print("The input is not valid..\n. It should be one of :{}".format(valid_input_lst))
   ...:
Input:
sy
The input is not valid..
. It should be one of :['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']
Input:
x

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '20 at 10:14

0

You probably want something like this:

char = input('Enter a character')
if char not in list:
    print("not a valid character")

You can't deny the user from entering anything, you should write software that knows how to handle the possible input.

answered Aug 14 '20 at 10:14

Eliran Turgeman

1,526
2
16
34

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 14 '20 at 10:38

get inquirer using pip:

pip install inquirer

here is an example

import inquirer
options = [
      inquirer.List("option",
                     message="Select an option ",
                     choices=["A","B","C","D"],
          ),
]
select = inquirer.prompt(options)
#you can print option using 'select' variable

Selection of inputs from given list

3 Answers3