Menu
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.
Given a list containing a number of strings of which one is to be selected and a prompt string, create a function that:
- Print a textual menu formatted as an index value followed by its corresponding string for each item in the list.
- Prompt the user to enter a number.
- return the string corresponding to the index number.
The function should reject out-of-range indices by recreating the whole menu before asking again for a number. The function should return an empty string if called with an empty list. For test purposes use the four phrases: 'fee fie', 'huff and puff', 'mirror mirror' and 'tick tock' in a list.
Note: This task is fashioned after the action of the [Bash select statement].
Java
<lang java5>public static String select(List<String> list, String prompt){
if(list.size() == 0) return ""; Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); String ret = null; do{ for(int i=0;i<list.size();i++){ System.out.println(i + ": "+list.get(i)); } System.out.print(prompt); int index = sc.nextInt(); if(index >= 0 && index < list.size()){ ret = list.get(index); } }while(ret == null); return ret;
}</lang>
OCaml
<lang ocaml>let rec select choices prompt = (* "choices" is an array of strings *)
if Array.length choices = 0 then invalid_arg "no choices"; Array.iteri (Printf.printf "%d: %s\n") choices; print_string prompt; let index = read_int () in if index >= 0 && index < Array.length choices then choices.(index) else select choices prompt</lang>
Python
<lang python>def _menu(items):
for indexitem in enumerate(items): print (" %2i) %s" % indexitem)
def _ok(reply, itemcount):
try: n = int(reply) return 0 <= n < itemcount except: return False
def selector(items, prompt):
'Prompt to select an item from the items' if not items: return reply = -1 itemcount = len(items) while not _ok(reply, itemcount): _menu(items) # Use input instead of raw_input for Python 3.x reply = raw_input(prompt).strip() return items[int(reply)]
if __name__ == '__main__':
items = ['fee fie', 'huff and puff', 'mirror mirror', 'tick tock'] item = selector(items, 'Which is from the three pigs: ') print ("You chose: " + item)
</lang>
Sample runs:
0) fee fie 1) huff and puff 2) mirror mirror 3) tick tock Which is from the three pigs: -1 0) fee fie 1) huff and puff 2) mirror mirror 3) tick tock Which is from the three pigs: 0 You chose: fee fie >>> ================================ RESTART ================================ >>> 0) fee fie 1) huff and puff 2) mirror mirror 3) tick tock Which is from the three pigs: 4 0) fee fie 1) huff and puff 2) mirror mirror 3) tick tock Which is from the three pigs: 3 You chose: tick tock