Thread: Refining some simple "Hangman" code

Hello, I am very new here (and to Java as a whole), so I apologize if I've made a mistake.

Basically, I'm asking for some advice on how I can make this code so that it is all within the same class, rather than working as 2 separate classes. This is a simple text-based hangman game. As of now, I have 2 separate files, one containing my main class, and one with the game class (containing all of the rules). Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, I'm not sure how to explain it better.


Here is the game class:

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class game 
{
    Scanner keyboard = new Scanner (System.in);
    public String secretWord;
    public String disguisedWord = "";
    public String guessedLetters = "";
    private int numberOfGuesses = 0;
    private int numberOfWrongGuesses = 0;
 
    public void setSecretWord(String secretWord)
    {
        this.secretWord = secretWord;
        for(int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++)
        {
            this.disguisedWord += "?";
        }
 
    }
    public boolean makeGuess(char guess)
    {
        guessedLetters += guess;
        String tempString = "";
        numberOfGuesses ++;
        for(int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++)
        {
            if(guess == secretWord.charAt(i))
                tempString += guess;
            else
                tempString += disguisedWord.charAt(i);
 
        }
        if(!tempString.equalsIgnoreCase(disguisedWord))
        {
            disguisedWord = tempString;
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            numberOfWrongGuesses++;
            return false;
        }        
    }
 
    public String getDisguisedWord()
    {
        System.out.print("The disguisedWord is ");
        return disguisedWord;
    }
 
    public String getSecretWord()
    {
        return secretWord;
    }
 
 
    public void guessResponse()
    {
        if(numberOfGuesses > 0)
        {
 
            System.out.print("Guesses made " + numberOfGuesses
                    + " times.");
            System.out.print(" with " + numberOfWrongGuesses
                    + " wrong");
            System.out.println("(" + guessedLetters
                    + ")");
        }
        System.out.println("Guess a letter: ");
    }
 
    public boolean isFound()
    {
        if (secretWord.equalsIgnoreCase(disguisedWord))
        {
            System.out.println("Congratulations, you found the secret word: " + disguisedWord);
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

...and the main class:

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class Hangman 
{ 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner (System.in);
        game hangman = new game();
        System.out.println("Lets play Hang Man");
        System.out.println("Enter secret word");
        String secretWord = keyboard.next();
        hangman.setSecretWord(secretWord);
        System.out.println();
        while(hangman.isFound() == false)
        {
            System.out.println(hangman.getDisguisedWord());
            hangman.guessResponse();
            String guess = keyboard.next();
            hangman.makeGuess(guess.charAt(0));
            System.out.println();
 
        }
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Thanks for playing Hangman.");
 
    }
}

My instructor suggested using a main method that looks more like the following, but I just don't have the capacity to understand how to make it work with what I've got.

public static void main(String[] args) {
Hangman game = new Hangman();
game.initialize("Happiness");
System.out.println("Lets play a round of hangman.");
game.playGame();
}

Thanks!

One of the better first posts I've seen. Thanks for taking the time to figure out how it should be done.

Can you explain WHY you want to combine the 2 classes into one? Is the instructor requiring it? Is the desired result a single class in a single file, or could the result be a single file containing more than 1 class?

Hi Greg,
In my mind this was easier done with 2 separate files and classes as I did. However the instructor clearly stated that I should submit only a single Java file named Hangman.java. I think this would suggest having only a single class in a single file.

Okay. It's important to understand the requirement, but the instructor's requirement could be met by a single file with multiple classes which would present the simples conversion from what you have. It's simple and would look like this:

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class Hangman 
{ 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner (System.in);
        Game hangman = new Game();
        System.out.println("Lets play Hang Man");
        System.out.println("Enter secret word");
        String secretWord = keyboard.next();
        hangman.setSecretWord(secretWord);
        System.out.println();
        while(hangman.isFound() == false)
        {
            System.out.println(hangman.getDisguisedWord());
            hangman.guessResponse();
            String guess = keyboard.next();
            hangman.makeGuess(guess.charAt(0));
            System.out.println();
 
        }
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Thanks for playing Hangman.");
 
    }
}
 
class Game 
{
    Scanner keyboard = new Scanner (System.in);
    public String secretWord;
    public String disguisedWord = "";
    public String guessedLetters = "";
    private int numberOfGuesses = 0;
    private int numberOfWrongGuesses = 0;
 
    public void setSecretWord(String secretWord)
    {
        this.secretWord = secretWord;
        for(int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++)
        {
            this.disguisedWord += "?";
        }
 
    }
    public boolean makeGuess(char guess)
    {
        guessedLetters += guess;
        String tempString = "";
        numberOfGuesses ++;
        for(int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++)
        {
            if(guess == secretWord.charAt(i))
                tempString += guess;
            else
                tempString += disguisedWord.charAt(i);
 
        }
        if(!tempString.equalsIgnoreCase(disguisedWord))
        {
            disguisedWord = tempString;
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            numberOfWrongGuesses++;
            return false;
        }        
    }
 
    public String getDisguisedWord()
    {
        System.out.print("The disguisedWord is ");
        return disguisedWord;
    }
 
    public String getSecretWord()
    {
        return secretWord;
    }
 
 
    public void guessResponse()
    {
        if(numberOfGuesses > 0)
        {
 
            System.out.print("Guesses made " + numberOfGuesses
                                 + " times.");
            System.out.print(" with " + numberOfWrongGuesses
                                 + " wrong");
            System.out.println("(" + guessedLetters
                                   + ")");
        }
        System.out.println("Guess a letter: ");
    }
 
    public boolean isFound()
    {
        if (secretWord.equalsIgnoreCase(disguisedWord))
        {
            System.out.println("Congratulations, you found the secret word: " + disguisedWord);
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

If you MUST reduce it to a single class, I think you should be able to figure that out from the code I've posted. If you still can't, come back.

I didn't know putting 2 classes in a single file was that simple - I guess it just hasn't really been shown in the textbook yet. Since it is a fully online course, the instructions can be hard to interpret, and the only requirement (other than saying what the code should do) was that it should be submitted in one file - so I'd imagine this should be fine. Thanks a lot.

Originally Posted by Norm

Why not simply move the main() method into the Game class and get rid of the Hangman class? Then it could make sense to rename the Game class to Hangman.

I tried pasting the main() method to the beginning of the Game class file and swapped the names around, and it seems to be working as intended. Thanks for the suggestion.