Thread: Urgent Ideas Needed

I have this terrible problem I have been working on, we cannot use loops and arrays and such as we have not learned about them. I can use boolean variables but I am teaching myself their functions essentially as my professor hasn't explained them. Anyways, this is due tonight at 11:55 PM eastern time.

Question: Let b11, b12, b13, b21, b22, b23, b31, b32, b33 represent the 3 x 3 tic tac toe board. Write a Java program that assigns each variable randomly with ' ', 'O', 'X' and determines if O, X, both, or none wins.

Problem: Cannot get it to correctly print out "Both Wins", haven't bothered to get "No winner" yet because I was going to put that in my ending else statement. Thanks for your help and ideas.

import java.util.Random;
public class Lab5 {
    static String getWinner() {
        char b11, b12, b13, 
             b21, b22, b23, 
             b31, b32, b33;
        int n;
        Random rand = new Random();
 
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
 
        if (n == 0) 
            b11 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b11 = 'X';
        else 
            b11 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b12 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b12 = 'X';
        else 
            b12 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b13 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b13 = 'X';
        else 
            b13 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b21 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b21 = 'X';
        else 
            b21 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b22 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b22 = 'X';
        else 
            b22 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b23 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b23 = 'X';
        else 
            b23 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b31 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b31 = 'X';
        else 
            b31 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b32 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b32 = 'X';
        else 
            b32 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b33 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b33 = 'X';
        else 
            b33 = ' ';
 
 
        /*Finding the winner */
        String s = " ";
 
 
        if (b11 == b21 && b21 == b31){
            if (b11 == 'X' && )  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                s = "O wins"; 
 
        } 
        if (b12 == b22 && b22 == b32) {
            if (b12 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b12 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        }
        if (b13 == b23 && b23 == b33) {
            if (b13 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b13 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        }
        if (b11 == b12 && b12 == b13) {
            if (b11 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        } 
        if (b21 == b22 && b22 == b23) {
            if (b21 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b21 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        }  
        if (b31 == b32 && b32== b33) {
            if (b31 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b31 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        }   
        if (b11 == b22 && b22 == b33) {
            if (b11 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        } 
        if (b31 == b22 && b22 == b13) {
            if (b31 == 'X')  
                s = "X wins";    
            else if (b31 == 'O')
                s = "O wins";                        
        }
        System.out.println(b11+" "+b12+" "+b13);
        System.out.println(b21+" "+b22+" "+b23);
        System.out.println(b31+" "+b32+" "+b33);
 
        // Vertical    
        if ((b11 == b21 && b21 == b31) || (b12 == b22 && b22 == b32) || (b13 == b23 && b23 == b33))      
        {
            if (b11 != b12 && b12 != b13 && b21 != b22 && b22 != b23 && b31 != b32 && b32 != b33) 
                s = "Both Wins";      
        }
 
        if ((b12 == b22 && b22 == b32) == (b13 == b23 && b23 == b33)) 
            s = "Both Wins"; 
        if ((b11 == b21 && b21 == b31) == (b13 == b23 && b23 == b33)) 
            s = "Both Wins";
        // Horizontal
        if ((b11 == b12 && b12 == b13) == (b21 == b22 && b22 == b23))
            s = "Both Wins";    
        if ((b11 == b12 && b12 == b13) == (b31 == b32 && b32 == b33))  
            s = "Both Wins"; 
        if ((b21 == b22 && b22 == b23) == (b31 == b32 && b32 == b33))  
            s = "Both Wins";
         // Diagonal
        if ((b11 == b22 && b22 == b33) == (b31 == b22 && b22 == b13))
            s = "Both Wins";
        else 
            s = "No Winner";  
 
        return s;      
    }    
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
       System.out.println(getWinner());
 
    }   
}

I've never played a game of tic-tac-toe where both players win. Do you mean a draw? Or both lose? Has political correctness changed the game?

This is what the professor asked in the question, I copied and pasted it directly, I had the same thoughts as you.

--- Update ---

How can I define two Boolean variables before all of my test cases named “xWins” and “oWins”. Instantiate them both to false. Then in each of my test cases, instead of setting a value for s, set xWins or oWins = true as applicable?? Any clue on how I can do this?

Yes, my cursed knee-jerk reaction got the better of me. I thought about it some more. Since the players are not intelligent, it's possible to have one row or column of 'X' and another of 'Y' iff the determination of which player has won is made after the board is full.

As for your updated question, I'm not sure why you'd use a Boolean object at all. Why not just a primitive boolean, or is that a part of the assignment I'm not getting.

I see you have an error at this line (80-something):

if (b11 == 'X' && )

Have you fixed that?

I'll keep looking at your code in an attempt to better understand your question.

Someone told me that was the easiest way, he is a programmer at my workplace, but we haven't learned boolean variables at all, he hasn't taught anything of this nature. I understand !=, =, ==, &&, || etc. just not putting a new input variable such as "boolean s;" I fixed that error, I was just modifying code and forgot to change that before uploading here, sorry for that, my brain is overloaded.

No loops or arrays is a significant crutch handicap, but I don't see where you're doing anything wrong. I might start by assigning all of the variables to a space and then randomly changing them to 'X', 'Y', or leaving them as is, but that approach may not comply with the instructions. You probably also do not yet know the ternary operator, but I would probably use that too.

Post your corrected code, and I recommend adding some comments.

Think through the possible results. Since you know there could be 4 outcomes and one of the outcomes (both wins) is a set that includes both 'X' wins and 'Y' wins, then you need to modify your logic to determine if both wins is the outcome after one or the other wins. You might need another variable to track the winners, one that is true if 'X' wins, another that is true if 'Y' wins.

Finished!

import java.util.Random;
public class Lab5 {
    static String getWinner() {
        char b11, b12, b13, 
             b21, b22, b23, 
             b31, b32, b33;
        int n;
 
        Random rand = new Random();
 
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
 
        if (n == 0) 
            b11 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b11 = 'X';
        else 
            b11 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b12 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b12 = 'X';
        else 
            b12 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b13 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b13 = 'X';
        else 
            b13 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b21 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b21 = 'X';
        else 
            b21 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b22 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b22 = 'X';
        else 
            b22 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b23 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b23 = 'X';
        else 
            b23 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b31 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b31 = 'X';
        else 
            b31 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b32 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b32 = 'X';
        else 
            b32 = ' ';
        n = rand.nextInt(3);
        if (n == 0)
            b33 = 'O';
        else if (n == 1)
            b33 = 'X';
        else 
            b33 = ' ';
 
        /*Finding the winner */
 
        boolean xWins = false, oWins = false;
 
        if (b11 == b21 && b21 == b31){
            if (b11 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;     
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                oWins = true;
 
        } 
        if (b12 == b22 && b22 == b32) {
            if (b12 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;     
            else if (b12 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        }
        if (b13 == b23 && b23 == b33) {
            if (b13 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;      
            else if (b13 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        }
        if (b11 == b12 && b12 == b13) {
            if (b11 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;      
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        } 
        if (b21 == b22 && b22 == b23) {
            if (b21 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;      
            else if (b21 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        }  
        if (b31 == b32 && b32== b33) {
            if (b31 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;      
            else if (b31 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        }   
        if (b11 == b22 && b22 == b33) {
            if (b11 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;      
            else if (b11 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        } 
        if (b31 == b22 && b22 == b13) {
            if (b31 == 'X')  
                xWins = true;     
            else if (b31 == 'O')
                oWins = true;                        
        }
 
        String s;
 
        if (xWins && oWins) {
        s = "Both Win!";
        }
        else if (xWins && !oWins) {
        s = "X Wins!";
        }
        else if (!xWins && oWins) {
        s = "O Wins!";
        }
        else {
        s = "No one wins";
        }
 
        return s;      
    }    
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
       System.out.println(getWinner());
 
    }   
}

Excellent! I added the code to print the resulting board back in and ran it to see that all results looked right. Printing the board with the result was a nice feature that you should have left in and commented out if it was not desired in the final product. Some instructors insist that all test code is left in but commented out when the assignment is turned in.