Head first java - chapter 5 SimpleDotCom game

[Noel McCarthy]

Hi I am very new to Java and have been working throught the book Head First Java. In Chapter 5 it goes through how to set up a simple dotcom game. I have tried to do this in eclipse, but I am getting one error with a red line under the public class GameHelper, when I hover the mouse over this error the following comment is seen

Te public type game helper must be defined in its own file

Here is the code as i complied it

package simpledotcom;

import java.io.*;
public class GameHelper
{
	public String getUserInput(String propmt)
	{
		String inputLine = null;
		System.out.print(propmt + "  ");
		
		]try	{
			BufferedReader is = new BufferedReader (new InputStreamReader(System.in]));
			inputLine = is.readLine();
			if (inputLine.length()==0) return null;
		}
		catch (IOException e)
		{
			System.out.println( "IOException " + e);
		}
		return inputLine;
	}
		
	}

public class SimpleDotCom 
{
	int [] llocationCells;
	int numOfHits;
	
	public void setlocationsCells(int [] locs)
	{
		locationCells = locs;
	}
	public String checkYourself (String stringGuess)
	{
		int guess = Integer.parseInt(stringGuess);
		String result = "miss";
		
		for ( int cell: locationCells) 
		{
			if (guess == cell)
			{
				result = "hit";
				numOfHits++;
				break;
				}
			}
		if (numOfHits == locationCells.length)
		{
			result = "kill" ;
		}
		System.out.println(result);
		return result;
	}
		




	public SimpleDotCom() {
		// TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
	}

	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args) 
	{
		int numOfGuesses = 0;
		GameHelper helper = new GameHelper ();
		SimpleDotCom thedotcom = new SimpleDotCom ();
		
		int randomNum = (int)(Math.random()*5);
		
		int[] locations = {randomNum, randomNum +1, randomNum +2};
		thedotcom.setlocationsCells(locations); 
		boolean isAlive = true;
		
		while (isAlive == true)
		{
			String guess = helper.getUserInput( "enter a number");
			String result = thedotcom.checkYourself(guess);
			numOfGuesses++;
			
			if(result.equals("kill"));
			{
			isAlive = false;
			System.out.println( "you took " + numOfGuesses + " guesses");
			
		}
		
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub

	}

}
}
  

When i try to Run this code, the following error is returned

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem:
The public type GameHelper must be defined in its own file

at simpledotcom.GameHelper.<init>(SimpleDotCom.java:4)
at simpledotcom.SimpleDotCom.main(SimpleDotCom.java:73)

Please can someone tell me when I have gone wrong?
Thanks,

[Deepak Rao]

Noel,

You have 2 classes and both are public in the same file. Only one should be public.
Remove the public from GameHelper class.
Run the SimpleDotCom class.

Thanks
Deepak

[Noel McCarthy]

And it works!

thank you!

[Rob Spoor]

Noel, can you please UseCodeTags next time? Not only will it preserve indentation, it also automatically takes care of syntax highlighting, so you don't have to do it manually.

And welcome to the Ranch!

[Noel McCarthy]

I knew there must have been a simpler way...
Yes I will find out how to use it and thanks for the welcome

[Campbell Ritchie]

Deepak Rao wrote: . . . Remove the public from GameHelper class. . . .

Disagree. You should put the two classes in different files.

I have changed your quote tags to code; don’t use coloured text in code tags. Also you ought to use spaces for indentation. I see you are using Eclipse; you should be able to set an option to convert your tabs to (4) spaces automatically.

[Noel McCarthy]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Deepak Rao wrote: . . . Remove the public from GameHelper class. . . .

Disagree. You should put the two classes in different files.

I have changed your quote tags to code; don’t use coloured text in code tags. Also you ought to use spaces for indentation. I see you are using Eclipse; you should be able to set an option to convert your tabs to (4) spaces automatically.

Thanks once again,

I now have two class objects in my simpledotcom package.
The SimpleDotCom package and the other the GameHelper package.

there are no errors and it works in the compiler, it only lets me enter one guess though and gives the following printout in the console


enter a number 1
hit
you took 1 guesses

and it doesnt give me the option to enter another guess, therefore there is something wrong with my loop?

this is a great resource I have been pouring over this problem for a few days, it got resolved a hell of alot quicker here

[Wendy L Gibbons]

what is controlling the loop to get more inputs?

as you are working in Eclipse now is the perfect time to learn debugging put a break point inside your loop and find out where it all goes wrong.