Hangman Strings and Characters

This a small addition to shamstar's fine comments

Rather than hardcoding the value in i.e. ['h','e','l','','o']
try using POS. POS will search a string for the instance of a substring... which is exactly what you are doing



var
   GuessedChar : Char;
   TheWord : String;

if pos(GuessedChar,TheWord) > 0 then
  begin
    // add your correct guess code in here
  end
else
  begin
    // add your wrong guess code in here
  end

Hi,

As usual, it all depends on the kind of compleity you want to give to
your application.

Personall, my hangman version would probably make
entire sentences being guessed and I would use a string list.

For Delphi 5 down, here is a cool string list extension:

Type

   TStringListEnh = class( TStringList )
   private
      FDelimitChar : Char;
      FDelimitedText : String;
       
      procedure SetDelimitChar( const Value : Char );
      procedure SetDelimitedText( const Value : String );
   protected
      procedure DoDelimitText;
   public
       constructor Create;// uh, I don't have Delphi in front of me,
                                  // thus I don't remember if the constructor's
                                  //virtual here.
   published
       property DelimitChar : Char read FDelimitChar write SetDelimitChar;
       property DelimitedText : String read FDelimitedText write SetDelimitedText;
   end;

constructor TStringListEnh.Create;
begin
  Inherited Create;
  FDelimitChar := #0;
  FDelimitedText := '';
end;

procedure TStringListEnh.SetDelimitChar( const Value : Char );
begin
   FDelimitChar := Value;
   if FDelimitedText <> '' then
   begin
     if FDelimitChar <> #0 then
       DoDelimitText;
   end;
end;

procedure TStringListEnh.SetDelimitedText( const Value : String );
begin
  FDelimitedText := Value;
  if FDelimitChar <> #0 then
  begin
    if FDelimitedText <> '' then
      DoDelimitText;
  end;
end;

procedure TStringListEnh.DoDelimitText;
var TempList : TStringList;
      CharPos : Integer;
begin
   TempList := TStringList.Create;
   if Pos( FDelimitChar,FDelimitedText ) > 0 then
   begin
     CharPos := Pos( FDelimitChar,FDelimitedText );
     while CharPos > 0 do
     begin
        TempList.Add( Copy( FDelimitedText,1,Pred( CharPos ) );
         Delete( FDelimitedText,1,CharPos );
         CharPos := Pos( FDelimitChar,FDelimitedText );
     end;
  end;
  if TempList.Count > 0 then
  begin
    Text := '';
    AddStrings( TempList );
  end;
  TempList.Free;
end;

This class is useful to split a string in several substrings and can
nicely extend the plain stringlist. Please note that from D6 up the
TStringList class already has the two properties listed here, so you
just have to use them.

To look for a match in the list, use the IndexOf method.

With this technique you can for example make a multiplayer
version of the hangman( use a StringList to hold the various
words for the players ) or to expand the hangman to use entire
sentences.

If you don't want to cope with this new class, you can use the
CommaText property already built in the TStringList class.

Read the help for more details on all the subjects.

HTH,

Andrew