Menu

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.

Menu
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.

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].

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