I would like to build something that allows me to obtain potions using two identical lists of ingredients.

ingredients = ["frog", "butterflies", "stones"]
ingredients_2 = ["frog", "butterflies", "stones"]

If I combine frog and stones, for example, I get frog marmelade. If I combine butterfly and butterfly I get super butterfly and so on...

But other than a terrifyingly long list of ifs, is there a better and more clever way to implement this?

I thought about a matrix:

row_num = 4
col_num = 4

grid = [[x for x in range(col_num)] for y in range(row_num)]

def print_grid():
    for row in grid:
        print(row)

grid[0][1] = "frog"
grid[0][2] = "butterfly"
grid[0][3] = "stone"

grid[1][0] = "frog"
grid[2][0] = "butterfly"
grid[3][0] = "stone"

grid[1][1] = "superfrog"
grid[1][2] = "froggerfly"
grid[1][3] = "frog marmelade"

grid[1][1] = "superfrog"
grid[1][2] = "froggerfly"
grid[1][3] = "frog marmelade"

grid[2][1] = "froggerfly"
grid[2][2] = "super butterfly"
grid[2][3] = "butterfly jam"

grid[3][1] = "frog marmelade"
grid[3][2] = "butterfly jam"
grid[3][3] = "super stone"
 
print_grid()

Output

['    ', 'frog', 'butterfly', 'stone']
['frog', 'superfrog', 'froggerfly', 'frog marmelade']
['butterfly', 'froggerfly', 'super butterfly', 'butterfly jam']
['stone', 'frog marmelade', 'butterfly jam', 'super stone']

But then I cannot picture how to query it... I think I'd need to be able to use a function similar to mix(ingredient1, ingredient2) and get the proper mix.

Can you help?

I would like to build something that allows me to obtain potions using two identical lists of ingredients.

ingredients = ["frog", "butterflies", "stones"]
ingredients_2 = ["frog", "butterflies", "stones"]

If I combine frog and stones, for example, I get frog marmelade. If I combine butterfly and butterfly I get super butterfly and so on...

But other than a terrifyingly long list of ifs, is there a better and more clever way to implement this?

I thought about a matrix:

row_num = 4
col_num = 4

grid = [[x for x in range(col_num)] for y in range(row_num)]

def print_grid():
    for row in grid:
        print(row)
        
def get_ingredient_1_index(ingredient_1):
    index = 0
    for item in grid[0]:
        if item == ingredient_1:
            return index
        index += 1
    return -1

def get_ingredient_2_index(ingredient_2):
    index = 0
    column_headers = [row[0] for row in grid]
    for item in column_headers:
        if item == ingredient_2:
            return index
        index += 1
    return -1


def mix_ingredients(ingredient_1, ingredient_2):
    coordinates_ingredient_1 = get_ingredient_1_index(ingredient_1)
    coordinates_ingredient_2 = get_ingredient_2_index(ingredient_2)
    return grid[coordinates_ingredient_2][coordinates_ingredient_1]


grid[0][1] = "frog"
grid[0][2] = "butterfly"
grid[0][3] = "stone"

grid[1][0] = "frog"
grid[2][0] = "butterfly"
grid[3][0] = "stone"

grid[1][1] = "superfrog"
grid[1][2] = "froggerfly"
grid[1][3] = "frog marmelade"

grid[1][1] = "superfrog"
grid[1][2] = "froggerfly"
grid[1][3] = "frog marmelade"

grid[2][1] = "froggerfly"
grid[2][2] = "super butterfly"
grid[2][3] = "butterfly jam"

grid[3][1] = "frog marmelade"
grid[3][2] = "butterfly jam"
grid[3][3] = "super stone"


print(mix_ingredients("frog", "butterfly"))

But I think it is a bit of clunky and poor solution.

Can you help in pointing me into a better direction?