Thread: I don't know how to create this method, it eludes me, please help ASAP !!

Below is part Two the method I need help creating:

This method updates the sequence of stars according to the actual English word and the guess character.

public static String updateSecretWord(String secretWord, String englishWord, String guessedChar)
{

}
below is the example of how it should look like when I call it

updateSecretWord(“*****”, “Hello”, “h”) = h****
updateSecretWord(“h****”, “Hello”, “o”) = h***o
updateSecretWord(“he**o”, “Hello”, “e”) = he**o

Can you describe how you'd do it in plain language? Something like:

Find location of guessChar in englishWord and change that same location in secretWord from an asterisk to the guessChar.

Try to program that.

Could you please show me that in code, because I tried doing it, it didn't work =/

Show the code you tried, describe wha "didn't work," post any errors you want help with, and ask specific questions. We can't do it for you, but we can help you with code you've written.

I added code tags to your post. You can edit the post and see what I did so that you can do that in the future OR read this link to get that and other info useful for newcomers.

Looking at the code you posted:

There's no reason for a Scanner object in that method. Get rid of it. Get rid of the lines prior to the if() statement.

That's not how the charAt() method works. Read the String API. While there, look for another String method that might help you.

And it's interesting you found that example on the Internet HERE, posted by someone who said it wasn't working as designed and then apparently ignored the advice given in the rest of that post. You need to be more careful in using code you find on the Internet.

Okay so this is what I got :

//UpdateSecretWord Method
  public static String updateSecretWord(String secretWord, String englishWord, String guessedChar) 
  { 
    if(englishWord.toLowerCase().contains(guessedChar.toLowerCase()) )
    {
      int index = englishWord.indexOf(guessedChar); 
      StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(secretWord);
      sb.setCharAt(index, guessedChar); <---- the error is here it says: "Required: int, char     Found: int, java.lang.String." 
      System.out.println(sb);     
    }
    else
    {
      System.out.println("The guess you have entered does not match any letter in the word");
    }
    return secretWord;
  }

I'm pretty sure the variable guessedChar is the problem. It is a one letter string input from the user, if it helps you just so you know this program I'm doing is for a text based hangman game. How could I change it into a Char ?

Yes, the StringBuilder.setCharAt() method requires an ( int, char ) as parameters - you can read this yourself in the API. In your method, guessedChar is passed as a String, so you need to either:

1. pass guessedChar as a char
2. convert the String guessedChar to a char in the method
3. pass a different parameter to setCharAt(), like englishWord.charAt( index )

Option 3 might be considered more elegant by some, because it preserve's the original word's capitalization.

Our goal is to enable you to determine these options and corresponding solutions yourself, and that starts with practice for confidence and greater familiarity with the SE API, all your responsibility.

Keep coding!

Thank you ! I turned it into a char, because I need it to not keep the capitalization anyway. however I encountered another problem, if I enter the guessChar as the first letter of the said secretWord, then it says "String index out of range: -1." It works now though if I enter any other letter of said secretWord.

How could I fix this ?

The result -1 is returned when the character sought isn't found. Why might that be happening, especially on the first letter? You can fix that yourself.

Okay thanks a bunch! Gonna sleep for now so tired.