Do you know any way to shorten 4 functions in Python?

Question

Is there any way to shorten these 4 functions in Python?

def right_check(board: List[List[dict]], rowid: int, colid: int) -> bool:
    """This function checks rows for 5 continuously symbols.

    Args:
        board (List[List[dict]]): The board
        rowid (int): The row ID where the win function is currently at.
        colid (int): The col ID where the win function is currently at.

    Returns:
        bool: True when function description applies
    """
    try:
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid][colid+1]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid][colid+2]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid][colid+3]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid][colid+4]["val"] == "X":
            print("X won")
            return True
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid][colid+1]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid][colid+2]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid][colid+3]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid][colid+4]["val"] == "O":
            print("O won")
            return True
    except IndexError:
        return False
 
def down_check(board: List[List[dict]], rowid: int, colid: int) -> bool:
    """This function checks columns for 5 continuously symbols.

    Args:
        board (List[List[dict]]): The board
        rowid (int): The row ID where the win function is currently at.
        colid (int): The col ID where the win function is currently at.

    Returns:
        bool: True when function description applies
    """
    try:
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+1][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+2][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+3][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+4][colid]["val"] == "X":
            print("X won")
            return True
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+1][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+2][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+3][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+4][colid]["val"] == "O":
            print("O won")
            return True
    except IndexError:
        return False
 
def down_right_check(board: List[List[dict]], rowid: int, colid: int) -> bool:
    """This function checks down-right direction for 5 continuously symbols.

    Args:
        board (List[List[dict]]): The board
        rowid (int): The row ID where the win function is currently at.
        colid (int): The col ID where the win function is currently at.

    Returns:
        bool: True when function description applies
    """
    try:
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+1][colid+1]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+2][colid+2]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+3][colid+3]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+4][colid+4]["val"] == "X":
            print("X won")
            return True
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+1][colid+1]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+2][colid+2]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+3][colid+3]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+4][colid+4]["val"] == "O":
            print("O won")
            return True
    except IndexError:
        return False
 
def down_left_check(board: List[List[dict]], rowid: int, colid: int) -> bool:
    """This function checks down-left direction for 5 continuously symbols.

    Args:
        board (List[List[dict]]): The board
        rowid (int): The row ID where the win function is currently at.
        colid (int): The col ID where the win function is currently at.

    Returns:
        bool: True when function description applies
    """
    try:
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+1][colid-1]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+2][colid-2]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+3][colid-3]["val"] == "X" and board[rowid+4][colid-4]["val"] == "X":
            print("X won")
            return True
        if board[rowid][colid]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+1][colid-1]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+2][colid-2]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+3][colid-3]["val"] == "O" and board[rowid+4][colid-4]["val"] == "O":
            print("O won")
            return True
    except IndexError:
        return False

I'm mostly interested in shortening the colid+1 +2 +3, rowid+1 +2 +3 part, and not having to duplicate every if with value "O".

Tomerikoo · Answer 1 · 2022-01-27T18:48:12.843

First of all you just don't need to duplicate with "O". The condition basically checks that all cells have the same value - regardless of if it's X or O. Just check if they are all the same. If they are, print that repeating value.

Further, you always check consecutive indexes, so you can use a loop instead of many ands.

Finally, one way to check if multiple items are identical, is using a set:

def right_check(board, rowid, colid):
    try:
        if len(set(board[rowid][colid+i]["val"] for i in range(5))) == 1:
            print(f"{board[rowid][colid]["val"]} won")
            return True
    except IndexError:
        return False

The same can be applied to the other direction-functions as well.

Do you know any way to shorten 4 functions in Python?

1 Answers1