As this project moves through the planning stages, it is important to have an idea of the following;

1. Input. This will be the data structure that will be read into the script and stored in a certain configuration within the program that can be used as intended. Here it might be advantageous to use the "list of tuples" structure I have created for the vertical horizon project. There is a specific plus of already dealing with leading zero numbers, because 001 is not the same as 1.

2. Processing. What do we want to do with the data? 

3. Output. This will be the list of ALL combos (1,000 for the pick 3 and 100,000 for the pick 5) followed by their straight hit count, their permutation hit count and their combined total past winnings, a dollar value based on the combined straight and box hits. It will print to the screen so I can be sure it is working, but will also write to a .csv file for further sorting and filtering using spreadsheet tools.

Logic dictates that the highest dollar value is the best paying combo, and the top combos will change over time, so a betting strategy will need to be in place. I think this lends itself better to playing the combo for a week rather than a day, so the strategy is

Pick 3 .50 straight / .50 box, total cost for a week is $14. Re run the program once per week to get a pick for the next week. Continue until a hit, then add in the pick 5, though here we will be looking specifically at the combos that have 5 unique digits so a box hit stays under the taxable claim form level. That cost at $1 straight and $1 box would be $28. Since 1 box hit on the pick 3 would be $40 or $80 (depending on if there was a pair in the top combo) the pick 5 play will wait until the pick 3 has a box hit.

On a $40 box hit, the 5 will replace the 3, keeping the cost at $28 and holding the $12 to offset the cost of the next week's pick 3. 

A box hit on the pick 5 with 5 unique numbers pays $75 less than a $500 pick 3 straight, no claim form required as it is less than $600. A win there opens up the possibility to play both the 3 and the 5 for a month and still have some profit left.

So now that the input data structure is decided and I have an idea of what the output should be, I can focus on processing to get the project underway. This will entail counting directly and counting permutations. The process is far from being up and running, so if it turns out that the permutation functions in pandas works better than the functions in python, the data structure may also change a bit, but reading in rows across columns will be the input method. As this means my history .csv files do not require any additional modifications.

Happy Coding!