import string def userquery( prompt, choices, contextdata = '', defaultind=0 ): if contextdata: print 'Contextual Information:', contextdata for x in range( len( choices ) ): print '(%s)'%x, `choices[x]` choice = raw_input( prompt+( '(%s):'%defaultind ) ) if not choice: return choices[ defaultind ] try: choice = string.atoi( choice ) return choices[ choice] except IndexError : return choices[ defaultind ] except ValueError: return choice