Thread: Card Program"War" Class help

Hello, I am having trouble with a few methods in one of my classes (Deck)

I have 2 classes; Deck & Cards

Two methods in Deck that I am unsure how to create is;

"add" which is suppose to (accepts a card as its parameter and adds it to the bottom). I am using an array and I am not sure how to figure out the bottom of the array after x amount of cards have been won(collected) because the player

"getSize" - Since I am using an array I either need to make a loop to count each individual element or create a counter. A counter would be more efficient in this scenario because it would locate the bottom of the array to help out with "add" method.
Thank you for your help!

Here is my whole class Deck

import java.util.Random; 
 
/* Deck.java Class
 * Holds number of cards and maintains order
 */
public class Deck {
 
	private final int TOTALCARDS = 52; //total amount of cards placed in the array
	private Card[] deck; // array to hold the cards
	public final int topdeck = 0; // top of the deck
 
	//makes a deck of cards with one of each card
	public Deck(){
		deck = new Card[52];
				int count=1;
		for (int s = 1; s<=4; s++) {
			for(int v = 2; v<=14; v++) {
				deck[count] = new Card(v,s);
				count++;
			}
		}
	}
 
	//Shuffling of the array
	public Shuffle()
	{
		Random generator = new Random();
		//Shuffles deck 500 times 
		for (int i = 0; i < 500; i++)
		{
			int RandomCard = generator.nextInt(i);
 
		Card temp;
		temp = deck[i];
		deck[i] = deck[RandomCard];
		deck[RandomCard] = temp;
		}
	}
 
		//pre-conditions: Deck of at least 1 card
		//post-conditions: Removes the first card from the top of the deck and returns it
		public Draw()
		{
			int temp = topdeck;
			topdeck++;
			return deck[temp];
		}
 
//		public Add(Card)
//				{
//				
//				}
 
//				public getSize()
//				{
//					return topdeck;
//				}
//	}

how to figure out the bottom of the array

You need to have an int variable that you keep pointing to the next available/empty slot in the array.

I understand that i need a counter to do that; however, I don't know where to set the counter so that it can determine that empty spot. Where exactly it should be pointing within the method, class, or main.

Sorry I am a bit new to classes

As you add items to the array, increment the counter. Start it at 0.
As you take items from the array, decrement the counter.

Are you taking items from the end of the array or from anywhere it the array?

If you take items from an array at any locations other than the end, you can't use a counter for the number of items in the array and use it as a control for indexing the array. I consider index=0 as the beginning of the array.
I don't know what you mean by top and bottom.

You should look at using an ArrayList which allows you to remove items from anywhere in the list of items.

I am not strongly familiar with ArrayList. As for what I mean as top and bottom I am looking at it as a playing deck of cards sitting on a table. 52 total. Where the top of the deck; if set on the table would be index=0 and for the bottom it would be the last index in the array that's open.

However the array, like you said is constantly changing. It will in the beginning of my game be divided into two separate decks of 26 elements. Would I make a variable counter at 26 and increment it or decremented it in main and have it passed to add

If the contents of the array is constantly changing, you will need to give the empty slots special values so you know that they are empty. When you want something from the array, you will have to scan in from one end or the other until you find what you are looking for.

You can say either end of an array is the top. But when programming, it starts at 0 and ends with the length of the array. I have no idea how you intend to get elements from the array.