Python. Variable in while loop not updating.

Question

I'm very new to programming and I've encountered a problem with a basic guessing game I've been writing. x is a random number generated by the computer. The program is supposed to compare the absolute value of (previous_guess - x) and the new guess minus x and tell the user if their new guess is closer or further away.

But the variable previous_guess isn't updating with the new value. Any help would be appreciated.

Here is the code so far:

    ###Guessing Game
import random

n = 100
x = random.randint(1,n)
print("I'm thinking of a number between 1 and ", n)

##print(x) ## testing/cheating.
count = 0

while True:
    previous_guess = 0 # Should update with old guess to be compared with new guess
    guess = int(input("Guess the number, or enter number greater that %d to quit." % n))
    count += 1

    print(previous_guess)
    print("Guesses: ", count)

    if guess > n:
        print("Goodbye.")
        break

    elif count < 2 and guess != x: 
        print("Unlucky.")
        previous_guess = guess #####

    elif count >= 2 and guess != x:
        if abs(guess - x) < abs(previous_guess - x):
            previous_guess = guess #####

            print("Getting warmer...")
        else:
            previous_guess = guess #####
            print("Getting colder...")

    elif guess == x:
        print("You win! %d is correct! Guessed in %d attempt(s)." % (x,count))
        break 

Answer 1

Your previous guess is being reinitialized every time you loop. This is a very common error in programming so it's not just you!

Change it to:

previous_guess = 0
while True:
   #Rest of code follows

Things you should be thinking about when stuff like this shows up.

1. Where is your variable declared?
2. Where is your variable initialized?
3. Where is your variable being used?

If you are unfamiliar with those terms it's okay! Look em up! As a programmer you HAVE to get good at googling or searching documentation (or asking things on stack overflow, which it would appear you have figured out).

Something else that is critical to coding things that work is learning how to debug.

Google "python debug tutorial", find one that makes sense (make sure that you can actually follow the tutorial) and off you go.

Answer 2

You're resetting previous_guess to 0 every time the loop begins again, hence throwing away the actual previous guess. Instead, you want:

previous_guess = 0
while True:
    guess = ....