Thread: Calendar date

Hey guys ... well, if you read my intro, you'll know where I'm coming from. I'm working on creating a very simple "date" ... here's the code.

public class Date {
  private int day;
  private String month;
  private int year;
 
 
  /**
   * Creates a instance of a date and starts it on November 2, 2010
   */
 
  public Date() {
    day = 2;
    month = "November";
    year = 2010;
  }
 
  /**
   * Creates a date where the user specifies the date to start on.
   * The month must contain a string with a valid month name.
   * The day must contain an integer with values between 1-30 or 1-31 depending on the date.
   * Note that February and leap year are exceptions.
   * The year must be non negative.
   */
 
  public Date (String month, int day, int year) {
    if (month=="January"||month=="February"||month=="March"||month=="April"||month=="May"||month=="June"||month=="July"||month=="August"||month=="September"||month=="October"
          ||month=="November"||month=="December") {
    this.month = month;
    }
    else { //how to handle a bad input? 
    }
 
    this.day = day;
 
    if (year > 0) {
      this.year = year;
    }
    else { //how to handle a bad input?
    }
  }
 
 
 
 
  /**
   * @ensure that the month, day, and year are all valid inputs.
   * @return Date returns the current date in the form of a string
   */
 
 
  public String getDate() {
 
    return month + " " + day + "," + " "  + year + ".";
  }
  /**
   * @return day the day of the current date.
   */
 
  public int getDay() {
    return day;
  }
 
  /**
   * @return month the month of the current date.  The month must be capitalized and spelled correctly.
   */ 
 
  public String getMonth() {
    return month;
  }
 
  /**
   * @return year returns the year of the current date.  The year must be a non-negative number.
   */
 
  public int getYear() {
    return year;
  }
 
  public void nextWeek() {
 
    day = day + 7;
  }
 
  public void tomorrow() {
 
  }
 
}

What I'm having a hard time doing is figuring out how to switch months if the day is the last of the month. Would I work with that within the methods, or would that be held in the constructor?

Thanks.

Don't use == for comparing Strings or other reference types for equality of content, use the .equals(...) method instead.

What I'm having a hard time doing is figuring out how to switch months if the day is the last of the month.

Don't forget to cater for the last day of the year.

db

Alright, thanks for the reply. Here's a question I have regarding the setup of the constructor.

public Date (String month, int day, int year) {
    if (month=="January"||month=="February"||month=="March"||month=="April"||month=="May"||month=="June"||month=="July"||month=="August"||month=="September"||month=="October"
          ||month=="November"||month=="December") {
    this.month = month;
    }
    else { //how to handle a bad input? 
    }

What I want this to do is make sure that the date entered is properly spelled - otherwise it shouldn't accept it. The code currently compiles, however when I create a new date (below)

Date d = new Date("January",2,2010)

When I ask the "getDate()" method the code returns "Null" 2, 2010.
I can't see what I might be doing wrong... any tips?

:headdesk:

Doesn't make a difference which forum you go to if you don't take the advice offered and continue to compare Strings using == instead of equals(...).

db

Darryl is correct that you should use equals rather than == when comparing strings, this will solve your latter question. Your original question could be addressed in a number of ways. For example you could maintain a lookup table, where you can check the day of the month and move up or down a list depending upon whether that number is greater than or less than a certain day.

Alright, I got that fixed. Everything up in the constructor works correctly now.

However, the problem I'm having now it the "nextWeek()" method. My "tomorrow()" method works completely fine - I got that working. I know that "nextWeek()" is basically "tomorrow()" repeated 7 times - I also know that i can use a "for" loop to do that. However, I have literally no experience with the 'for' loop and I was wondering how i would go about setting up a "for" loop in the "nextWeek()" mmethod.

Thanks.

See The for Statement (The Java™ Tutorials > Learning the Java Language > Language Basics) for the basics

Little bump here. I posted this thread over on a different forums...

Creating a test class - Java Forums

Got any insight?

Originally Posted by Darryl.Burke

:headdesk:

got a nice laugh on that. thanks. lolz.