Thread: JAVA HANGMAN PROGRAM

THIS IS THE QUESTION:
The player must then guess a letter (ch, say). If ch is not in the word, the player is
one step closer to being hanged. If ch is in the word, the string of *s is displayed
with the letter ch replacing a * wherever it occurs in the word. For instance, if the
player guesses e, the string is displayed as follows:
* e * * e * *
This procedure is repeated until the player guesses the word or he is hanged,
whichever comes first. The player gets hanged if he makes a predetermined
number (7, say) of unsuccessful guesses. Each time the player makes a guess, the
computer will inform him of the word obtained so far and the number of wrong
guesses he can still make before being hanged. A sample run might look like this
(the underlined letters are typed by the player):
Try to guess my secret word
Countdown to hang: 7
* * * * * * *
Guess a letter: n
Sorry, try again
* * * * * * *
Countdown to hang: 6
Guess a letter: s
s * * * * * s
Countdown to hang: 6
Guess a letter: r
s * * r * * s
Countdown to hang: 6
Guess a letter: a
Sorry, try again
s * * r * * s
Countdown to hang: 5
Guess a letter: e
s e * r e * s
Countdown to hang: 5
Guess a letter: d
Sorry, try again
s e * r e * s
Countdown to hang: 4
Guess a letter: t
s e * r e t s
Countdown to hang: 4
Guess a letter: c
s e c r e t s
Countdown to hang: 4
You've got it!!
Write the program so that the computer chooses a word at random from a list of words stored in a file.



THIS IS MY SOLUTION:

 
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class Test {
	public static void main (String[] args) throws IOException { 
	Scanner in = new Scanner(new FileReader("list.txt"));
	//Declares variables
	String word= " ";
    int misses = 0;
    int exposed = 0 ;
    String word= " ";
    int countdown = 7;
    char guess;
    boolean correctGuess= false;
    //char [] display = new char [10];
 
    for (int i = 0; i < display.length; i++)
    {
    	display[i] = "*";
    }
 
 
     System.out.printf("Try to guess my secret word");
     //System.out.printf("Countdown to hang: 7");
	 while (exposed  < word.length())
	 {
		 System.out.printf ("Countdown to hang: ", countdown - misses);
		 System.out.printf ("Enter a guess ");
		 guess = in.read();
 
 
 
	//Checks to see if letter guessed is correct
	//Correct guess is true
	 for (int i= 0; i < word.length(); i ++)
	 {
 
		 if (guess == word[i])
		 {
			 display [i] = word [i];
			 exposed ++;
			 correctGuess = true;
		 }
 
	 }
 
	 //Correct guess is false
	 if (!correctGuess)
	 {
		 misses++;
		 countdown--;
		 System.out.printf ("Sorry try again\n");
	 }
 
	}//end while
 
	System.out.printf ("You've got it!");
        in.close();
}	
}

MY PROBLEMS:
I have problems declaring arrays>> how do i declare display and how to i declare word?
I have problems reading a single character from a file>>>>how do i read the guess entered correctly?


Please help me.

Sigh, I retried the entire code but I am uncertain about the section of checking for a match and getting the random word is still confusing.

 
 
import java.util.*;
 
public class Test3 {
    public static void main( String[] args){ 
    	Random r;
    	//int GetData get;
    	String [] words ={" marsh","swamp" ,"mountain", "pensinsula"};
    	String word;// to hold the chosen word
    	boolean finished = false;
    	int badGuessCount = 0;//tracks number of guesses
    	boolean [] foundLetters;// boolean array to track which letters have been found
    	String  entryWord = " ";//user guesses
 
 
    	//Gets random word
 
 
 
 
 
    	//get = new getData();
 
 
    	//Start of game: 
    	//choose a word from the list of words
    	word = words[r.nextInt(words.length)];
    	//create a boolean array the size of the word
    	foundLetters = new boolean [word.length()];
 
    	while(!finished)
    	{
    		//Shows words
    		boolean goodGuess=false;
    		char ch = entryWord.charAt(0);
    		for (int i = 0; i< word.length(); i++)
    		{
    			if (foundLetters[i] == true)
    			{
    				System.out.printf(word.charAt(i) +" " );
    			}
    			else if (word.charAt(i) == ch)
    			{
    				System.out.printf(word.charAt(i) +" " );
    				foundLetters[i] = true;
    				goodGuess= true;	
    			}
    			else
    			{
    				System.out.printf("*");
    			}			
    		}//end for loop
 
 
 
    		//Gets guess
    		System.out.println("What is your guess");
    		System.out.println("You have " + (7-badGuessCount) + " guesses left");
    		System.out.println("Enteryour guess");
 
    		//Checks guess
    		 char temp=' ';
    		 int len =word.length();
    		 int foundPos = -2;
             int foundCount = 0; //How many matches did we find
             while((foundPos = word.indexOf(entryWord.charAt(0), foundPos + 1)) != -1)
             {
                 temp[foundPos] = entryWord.charAt(0); //Update the temp array from * to the correct character
                 foundCount++;
                 len--; //Decrease overall counter
             }
    		if (badGuessCount==7)
            {
                System.out.println("Sorry, but you lost.");
                System.out.println("The word was: "+word);
                finished=true;
            }
 
    	}//end while 	
 
    }
}

The more I try to get the whole logic of the program, some places I am still confused.