[split] Please help with menu system

[deanhystad]

Managing the volume of code is not your problem. Your problem is that you are going to write a lot of lines of code when you should be writing few lines of code. This has to do with how you currently think about code.

Here's a small example. Your program includes this code:

  if MenuSelected == 0:
    print("->" + MenuOptions[0] + "<-")
    print(MenuOptions[1])
    print(MenuOptions[2])
    print(MenuOptions[3])
    print(MenuOptions[4])
  
  elif MenuSelected == 1:
    print(MenuOptions[0])
    print("->" + MenuOptions[1] + "<-")
    print(MenuOptions[2])
    print(MenuOptions[3]) 
    print(MenuOptions[4])
  
  elif MenuSelected == 2:
    print(MenuOptions[0])
    print(MenuOptions[1])
    print("->" + MenuOptions[2] + "<-")
    print(MenuOptions[3])  
    print(MenuOptions[4])
  
  elif MenuSelected == 3:
    print(MenuOptions[0])
    print(MenuOptions[1])
    print(MenuOptions[2])
    print("->" + MenuOptions[3] + "<-") 
    print(MenuOptions[4])
  
  elif MenuSelected == 4:
    print(MenuOptions[0])
    print(MenuOptions[1])
    print(MenuOptions[2])
    print(MenuOptions[3])
    print("->" + MenuOptions[4] + "<-") 

Notice all the repetition? This code repeats the same 6 lines of code over and over with only minor variation. The code is also directly tied to a particular menu list and selection variable. If you wanted to add 5 more menus, you would probably cut and paste this code 5 times and make small modifications.

I would write the same code like this:

def print_menu(menu, selection):
    """Print menu option with highlighting arrow"""
    for index, option in enumerate(menu):
        prefix = "->" if index == selection else "  "
        print(f"{prefix}{option}")

print_menu(MenuOptions, MenuSelection)

If I wanted to add 5 more menus I would define 5 more menu options lists (5 lines of code).

Just something you should start thinking about. Cut and paste is not a programming tool. Start thinking about how you can use functions and data structures to make your single use code more generic.