Drawing a Seven-Segment Display with Python

A seven-segment display is an electronic device used to display decimal digits from 0 to 9. It consists of seven LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) arranged in an “8” pattern, where six segments form the number and the seventh is often used as a decimal point. Creating a simulation of such a display using Python can be an engaging project for learning basic graphics programming, understanding digital displays, or simply for fun.

To draw a seven-segment display in Python, we can use various libraries such as Turtle or Pygame for graphics rendering. In this article, we will use the Turtle graphics library due to its simplicity and ease of use for beginners.

First, ensure that you have Python installed on your machine and that the Turtle module is available. Turtle is part of Python’s standard library, so you should have it by default.

Below is a simple Python script that draws a seven-segment display and demonstrates how to activate specific segments to form numbers:

pythonCopy Code
import turtle

def draw_segment(t, position, length=50, width=10):
    """Draw a single segment at the given position."""
    x, y = position
    if x == "h":  # Horizontal segment
        t.penup()
        t.goto(y, -length/2)
        t.pendown()
        t.goto(y, length/2)
    elif x == "v":  # Vertical segment
        t.penup()
        t.goto(-width/2, y)
        t.pendown()
        t.goto(width/2, y)

def draw_seven_segment():
    t = turtle.Turtle()
    t.speed(0)
    t.penup()
    t.goto(0,0)
    positions = [("h", 0), ("v", -25), ("v", 25), ("h", -50), ("v", -25), ("v", 25), ("h", 50)]
    for pos in positions:
        draw_segment(t, pos)
    t.hideturtle()
    turtle.done()

def display_number(number):
    segments = [
        [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0], # 0
        [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], # 1
        [1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1], # 2
        [1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1], # 3
        [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1], # 4
        [1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1], # 5
        [1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], # 6
        [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], # 7
        [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], # 8
        [1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1]  # 9
    ]
    t = turtle.Turtle()
    t.speed(0)
    t.penup()
    for idx, seg in enumerate(segments[number]):
        if seg:
            x, y = positions[idx]
            if x == "h":
                t.goto(y, -25)
                t.pendown()
                t.goto(y, 25)
            elif x == "v":
                t.goto(-10, y)
                t.pendown()
                t.goto(10, y)
            t.penup()
    t.hideturtle()
    turtle.done()

# Example usage:
draw_seven_segment()
display_number(5)

This script first defines a function to draw individual segments and then uses these segments to form digits by activating specific combinations of them. The display_number function demonstrates how to render any digit from 0 to 9 by activating the corresponding segments.

[tags]
Python, Seven-Segment Display, Turtle Graphics, Programming, Simulation