Python Coin Toss

Question

I am VERY new to Python and I have to create a game that simulates flipping a coin and ask the user to enter the number of times that a coin should be tossed. Based on that response the program has to choose a random number that is either 0 or 1 (and decide which represents “heads” and which represents “tails”) for that specified number of times. Count the number of “heads” and the number of “tails” produced, and present the following information to the user: a list consisting of the simulated coin tosses, and a summary of the number of heads and the number of tails produced. For example, if a user enters 5, the coin toss simulation may result in [‘heads’, ‘tails’, ‘tails’, ‘heads’, ‘heads’]. The program should print something like the following: “ [‘heads’, ‘tails’, ‘tails’, ‘heads’, ‘heads’]

This is what I have so far, and it isn't working at all...

import random

def coinToss():
    number = input("Number of times to flip coin: ")
    recordList = []
    heads = 0
    tails = 0
    flip = random.randint(0, 1)
    if (flip == 0):
        print("Heads")
        recordList.append("Heads")
    else:
        print("Tails")
        recordList.append("Tails")
    print(str(recordList))
    print(str(recordList.count("Heads")) + str(recordList.count("Tails")))

Answer 1

You need a loop to do this. I suggest a for loop:

import random
def coinToss():
    number = input("Number of times to flip coin: ")
    recordList = []
    heads = 0
    tails = 0
    for amount in range(number):
         flip = random.randint(0, 1)
         if (flip == 0):
              print("Heads")
              recordList.append("Heads")
         else:
              print("Tails")
              recordList.append("Tails")
    print(str(recordList))
    print(str(recordList.count("Heads")) + str(recordList.count("Tails")))

I suggest you read this on for loops.

Also, you could pass number as a parameter to the function:

import random
def coinToss(number):
    recordList, heads, tails = [], 0, 0 # multiple assignment
    for i in range(number): # do this 'number' amount of times
         flip = random.randint(0, 1)
         if (flip == 0):
              print("Heads")
              recordList.append("Heads")
         else:
              print("Tails")
              recordList.append("Tails")
    print(str(recordList))
    print(str(recordList.count("Heads")) + str(recordList.count("Tails")))

Then, you need to call the function in the end: coinToss().

Answer 2

You are nearly there:

1) You need to call the function:

coinToss()

2) You need to set up a loop to call random.randint() repeatedly.