Printing strings in a number array

Question

I'm trying to print strings in a matrix. But I couldn't find a solution for that.

game_size = 3
matrix = list(range(game_size ** 2))
def board():
    for i in range(game_size):
        for j in range(game_size):
            print('%3d' % matrix[i * game_size + j], end=" ")
        print()
board()
position = int(input("Where to replace ?"))
matrix[position] = "X"
board()

First it prints this as exactly what I want

  0   1   2 
  3   4   5 
  6   7   8
Where to replace ?5

Then It came up with an error;

TypeError: %d format: a number is required, not str

How can I solve this problem. I want my output like;

  0   1   2 
  3   4   X 
  6   7   8 

Also X should be stored in array, just printing that doesn't work Output should be same format as it is.

Answer 1

You are currently using a format string which requires that all the inputs are integers. I've changed this to using f-strings in the solution below.

game_size = 3
matrix = list(range(game_size ** 2))
def board():
    for i in range(game_size):
        for j in range(game_size):
            print(f'{matrix[i * game_size + j]}'.rjust(3), end=" ")
        print()
board()
position = int(input("Where to replace ?"))
matrix[position] = "X"
board()

Output with game_size=3:

0   1   2   
3   4   5   
6   7   8   

Where to replace ?5
0   1   2   
3   4   X   
6   7   8  

Output with game_size=5:

  0   1   2   3   4 
  5   6   7   8   9 
 10  11  12  13  14 
 15  16  17  18  19 
 20  21  22  23  24 

Where to replace ?4
  0   1   2   3   X 
  5   6   7   8   9 
 10  11  12  13  14 
 15  16  17  18  19 
 20  21  22  23  24