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Java Java Objects (Retired) Creating the MVP Strings and Chars

Posted by Natenda Manyau
Natenda Manyau
3,005 Points

Bummer! Hmmm, remember that the indexOf method on strings returns -1 if the char is missing, or greater than that if it

am not too sure what is wrong now. please help

ScrabblePlayer.java 
public class ScrabblePlayer {
    private String mHand;

    public ScrabblePlayer() {
        mHand = "";
    }

    public String getHand() {
       return mHand;
    }

    public void addTile(char tile) {
        // Adds the tile to the hand of the player
      mHand += tile;


    }

    public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
      boolean hand = mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0;
      if (hand) {
        mHand += tile;
      }else {mHand.indexOf(tile) <= 0;}
       return false;
    }
}
MUZ140058 Wellington Bore
MUZ140058 Wellington Bore
8,908 Points

In your if conditional, that is where you need to reference (mHand.indexOf(tile)>=0) and this should return true.hope the code below will help you past the code challenge 

public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
  if(mHand.indexOf(tile)>=0){
  return true;
  }
  else{
   return false;
  }

} }

Kevin McFarland
Kevin McFarland
5,122 Points
Kevin McFarland
Kevin McFarland
5,122 Points

Maybe you've already resolved your problem... If not see comments below code.

public boolean hasTile(char tile) { boolean hand = mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0; if (hand) { 2 mHand += tile; } else { mHand.indexOf(tile) <= 0;} <------------
return false; }

See the <-------- above: curly braces are isolating "return false" from the if/else statement - so it will always return false. See your other curly braces. The "return false" needs to be within the scope {} of the else statement.

2 Answers

Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points
Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points

The hasTile method's responsibility is just to check if a tile exists, so no need to modify mHand here.

Now when checking for the occurrence of the tile, you'll want to be looking specifically for -1 if it doesn't contain it (0 is a valid index that could contain the tile):

public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
       if(mHand.indexOf(tile) == -1)
         return false;
       else
         return true;
    }
Robert Richey
PLUS
Robert Richey
Courses Plus Student 16,352 Points
Robert Richey
Robert Richey
Courses Plus Student 16,352 Points

Hi Natasha,

Your code will run if you remove the conditional from the else statement - which, cannot have a conditional statement -- and -- if you put a return true; statement inside the if block. Only if and else if may have conditional statements.

After that, it's a matter of personal preference how you implement a solution. This will hopefully give you the sense that there are many different ways of writing code to solve a problem. Here is another example solution not yet mentioned.

public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
  if(mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0) { return true; }
  return false;
}

Notice I didn't bother with an else clause, because if the if statement evaluates to false, code will continue executing after the if block - and in this case will execute the next line return false;

Finally, here is a one line solution using the ternary operator ?:, just for fun.

public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
  return (mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0) ? true : false;
}

Kind Regards