I don't understand why this isn't working, help?

[Sorry Die]

So, I'm learning how to program in Python, and so far I think I'm doing okay. While trying a SWAT type of game, I made this.

def chooseEntryway():
    room = ''
    print('Which entryway will you take? The window, the back door, or the front door?')
    room = input()
    room = str(room)
    if room != 'window' or 'the back door' or 'the front door' or 'the window' or 'front door' or 'back door':
        print('That is not an available entryway. You need to enter from the window, the front door, or the back door.')
    while room == '':
        chooseEntryway()

This apparently doesn't work, even when Room DOES equal one of those, it still thinks it's false and prints the last line. Anyone know what's wrong?

[dwblas]

if room != 'window' or 'the back door' or 'the front door' or 'the window' or 'front door' or 'back door':

You have 2 problems. If room contains "the back door" it will not equal 'window', so there will always be 5 strings that do not match it. Second, the if statement breaks down into (truncated for brevity)

room="window"
 
if room != 'window':
    print "room not equal window"
# or 'the back door'
elif 'the back door':  ## always true
    print "the back door"
elif 'the front door':  ## always true
    print "the front door" 

Generally you search a list, or not in a list, when you have multiple items. See this page on Searching Lists using the "in" operator.