Small problem with arrays in Hangman java game

[Klaas Vredevort]

Hi everyone...

I have coded this Hangman prog as a school project, however I am experiencing a small problem. The program prints a number of *s for every random word that is chosen. For instance, the word "oasis" would be *****. Yet, when printing the *s, it gives the last letter of the word a "null" value, in other words the array's last space is empty. For instance once again: oasis is now ****null...

And for some reason, if you type in the correct letter for the first letter of the word (in oasis "o"), it simply doesn't print it.

The problem would be in the test() void.

I am printing the code here. The text files (if you want to compile the program), can be found at http://www.geocities.com/kitaarmykruis/content.txt

Will anybody be willing to take a look?

I am also placing the driver program for anyone who wants to compile.

  import java.io.*;
 
class JasperHangman
{
    public String [] words = new String [5]; // number of words in all files
    public String randomWord;
    public String [] afrikaansWords = new String [51478];
    /* file has around about 52 000 Afrikaans words
    copyright Mieliestronk <a href="http://www.mieliestronk.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.mieliestronk.com</a> */
 

    public JasperHangman () throws IOException
    {
 

 
    }
 

    public String randomChoose () throws IOException
    {
 
        BufferedReader inputCategoryChoice = new BufferedReader (new InputStreamReader (System.in));
        System.out.println ("What is your choice? 1) for music 2) for movies 3) for Afrikaans");
        int choice = Integer.parseInt (inputCategoryChoice.readLine ());
 
        if ((choice == 1 || choice == 2)) // both of these files have equal numbers of words
        {
 
            FileReader fileObj1 = new FileReader (choice + ".txt"); //chooses file
            BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader (fileObj1); // reads data from selected file
 
            for (int i = 0 ; i < words.length ; i++)
            {
                words [i] = input.readLine ();
            }
 
            int random = (int) (Math.random () * 5); // number of objects in 1- or 2.txt file
 
            randomWord = words [random];
            System.out.println ();
            System.out.println (randomWord);
            test ();
 
        }
 
        if ((choice == 3))
        {
            FileReader fileObj1 = new FileReader (choice + ".txt"); //chooses file
            BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader (fileObj1); // reads data from selected file
 

            for (int i = 0 ; i < afrikaansWords.length ; i++)
            {
                afrikaansWords [i] = input.readLine ().toLowerCase ();  // files in 3.txt file are in upper case
            }
 
            int random = (int) (Math.random () * afrikaansWords.length); // number of objects in 3.txt file
 
            randomWord = afrikaansWords [random];
            System.out.println ();
            System.out.println (randomWord);
            test ();
        }
 
        return randomWord;
 
    }
 

    public void test () throws IOException
    {
        boolean found = false;
        boolean gameOver = false;
        boolean gebruikteLetter = false;
        int lengthW = randomWord.length (); // length of the actual chosen random word
        String usedLetter [] = new String [lengthW + 4]; // allowed missed chances of the player
        int gameOverInt = 0;
        int times = 0;
        String letters [] = new String [lengthW];
        String [] templateArray = new String [letters.length];
        int chancesTaken = 0; // number of letters chosen, correct or incorrect, by user
        String wordsUsed = "";
        int win = 0;
 
        BufferedReader testInput = new BufferedReader (new InputStreamReader (System.in));
 

 
        for (int i = 0 ; i < lengthW - 1 ; i++)
        {
            letters [i] = randomWord.substring (i, (i + 1));
            
            for (int t = i ; t < lengthW - 1 ; t++)
            // fills the array with "*" characters that are changed when user chooses a correct letter
          
              {
                templateArray [t] = "*";
            }
        }
 
        System.out.println ();
 
        while ((win != lengthW) && (!gameOver) && (chancesTaken < usedLetter.length)) // situations under which
            // game continues
            {
 
                for (int s = 0 ; s < lengthW ; s++)
                {
                    System.out.print (templateArray [s]);
                }
 
                System.out.println ("     Win = " + (lengthW));
 

                System.out.println ("What letter do you choose?");
                String letterChosen = testInput.readLine ();
                letterChosen.toLowerCase ();
 

                for (int h = 0 ; h < usedLetter.length ; h++)
                {
                    if (letterChosen.equalsIgnoreCase (letters [h]))
                    {
                        System.out.println ("You have used this letter, try again");
                        gebruikteLetter = true;
                        break;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        for (int r = 0 ; r < letters.length ; r++)
                        {
                            if (letterChosen.equals (letters [r]))
                            {
                                templateArray [r] = letterChosen;
 
                            }
 

                        }
 
                    }
 

 
                }
 
                System.out.println ("End");
                chancesTaken++;
            }
    }
}
  

  // The "JasperHangmanDriver" class.
import java.io.*;
 
public class JasperHangmanDriver
{
 
    public void input () throws IOException
    {
        JasperHangman dataObj = new JasperHangman ();
        dataObj.randomChoose ();
        dataObj.test ();
    }
 

    public static void main (String [] args) throws IOException
    {
        JasperHangmanDriver mainObj = new JasperHangmanDriver ();
        //mainObj.input ();
        mainObj.input ();
 
        // Place your code here
    } // main method
} // JasperHangmanDriver class
  

[Michael Dunn]

> Yet, when printing the *s, it gives the last letter of the word a "null"
> value, in other words the array's last space is empty. For instance once
> again: oasis is now ****null...

create a demo program and strip everything unrelated to the problem

it may look like this

class JasperHangman
{
    public String randomWord = "hello";//hard-coded for debugging
    public void test ()
    {
        int lengthW = randomWord.length (); // length of the actual chosen random word
        String letters [] = new String [lengthW];
        String [] templateArray = new String [letters.length];
 
        for (int t = 0 ; t < lengthW - 1 ; t++)
        {
            templateArray [t] = "*";
        }
        for (int s = 0 ; s < lengthW ; s++)
        {
            System.out.print (templateArray [s]);
        }
 
        System.out.println();
    }
}
class JasperHangmanDriver
{
    public void input ()
    {
        JasperHangman dataObj = new JasperHangman ();
        dataObj.test ();
    }
    public static void main (String [] args)
    {
        JasperHangmanDriver mainObj = new JasperHangmanDriver ();
        mainObj.input ();
    }
}

there is one notable difference in how you are filling the array,
and what you are printing from the array

[Bert Bates]

Hi Klaas,

Well, we're all volunteers here so there's never a guarantee that a question will be answered in a specific amount of time. That said, I took a quick glance at your code and decided that I didn't want to wade through all of it looking a problem that's probably pretty isolated. I'd recommend that you send us a smaller bit of code that isolates the problem you're having, and you'll probably get a faster response. Also, you might find that when you isolate the bit of code that's causing you grief, you might just find the problem yourself!

hth,

Bert