How to start my for each loop

Question

I have a few questions with this problem I am working on

Starting from the very beginning I was not sure what type(char int or String) to declare the method. I chose String because it seemed like that is how it would be used. Maybe this was the main issue?
I kept getting a bummer message asking if I forgot to create a method that could accept a char so I declared a char in the parameter named tile. But when I try to start to start my for each loop I get a compiler error saying that "tile" is not a good way to start even though that is the thing I want to pull out. Also I did not get a compiler error when "tile was declared in the loop instead of in the parameter of the method.
Since we need a counter it seemed like we need an int instead of a char (I was having trouble adding char numbers together). I wasn't sure how to reconcile this with the method type so I checked stackoverflow not sure if what I did was correct or if there was a way to do this without needing the method I used.

ScrabblePlayer.java

public class ScrabblePlayer {
  private String mHand;

  public ScrabblePlayer() {
    mHand = "";
  }

  public String getHand() {
   return mHand;
  }

  int counter;
  public String getTileCount(char tile) {

    for (tile : mHand.toCharArray()) {
      counter++;}
    return Integer.toString(counter);
  }

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

  public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
   return mHand.indexOf(tile) > -1;
  }
}

Answer 1 · 2016-06-10T22:39:00Z

June 10, 2016 10:39pm

Hi David - A few observations:

Since the method is supposed to return the number of times a specific tile occurs in mHand the return type needs to be int.
You've declared the variable counter outside the method. Move that inside the method, before the for-each loop, and initialize it to zero.
Choose a different name for the loop variable since you are already using tile for the method parameter.
In the for-each loop you need to define the type of the loop variable:

for (char c : mHand.toCharArray()) {

}

Inside the loop use and if statement to see if tile is equal to the current character in the array. If it is then increment counter.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2 · 2016-06-10T22:37:13Z

June 10, 2016 10:37pm

First thing you need to do is know what the method is supposed to return- notice that you have it returning a String when the name of the method is getTileCount(). Just looking at the method title it tells me that it should return a number: public int getTileCount()

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

David Jones

David Jones

How to start my for each loop

2 Answers

Kourosh Raeen

Kourosh Raeen

Jeremy Hill

Jeremy Hill