Thread: Help with Iterators

Welcome to the forum! Please read this topic to learn how to post code in code or highlight tags and other useful info for new members.

Rather than providing a link to your code, please post it correctly using code or highlight tags per the above link.

Originally Posted by ChristopherLowe

 public KenkenIterator iterator()
  {
    KenkenIterator temp;
    return temp;
  }

As it says, temp is never initialized. You could return self (since KenkenIterator implements Iterator)

 public KenkenIterator iterator()
  {
    return self;
  }

Just wanted to point out that in Java the keyword is "this" and not "self". Some other languages use "self" instead, but it wont work in Java.

These were the instructions I was given, I am trying to follow them.

"Start by writing the Cell class. Note that all of the other classes depend on it. Test your Cell class with a JUnitTestCase or by writing test code in a main method for your Cell class. Each Cell object will only contain information about its own value and will not contain any information about where it is located in the puzzle. For formatting, you can assume that all the cell values are a single digit.



Then, write the Constraint class. It depends on the Cell class. Its constructor is passed the data for the three attributes for this instance of Constraint. The “value” is the expected result of executing the “operator” on the Cell values in the Constraint’s Cell []. In the constructor method, you need to use a “variable length parameter list” signature for the last parameter (the array of Cell references). Research and study how to use that feature of the Java language.



Then, write the KenkenIterator class that implements Iterator as a private inner class in the Kenken.java file. Note that it needs to be written next because the Kenken and KenkenValidator classes depend on it. The KenkenIterator class has access to all the attributes of the Kenken class object that instantiates it. Its constructor method needs only to initialize the cursors needed by the hasNext method (to return true as long as there are still one dimensional arrays or constraints to be iterated) and the next method (to return the next one dimensional Cell array). Note that these methods must work correctly for any size Kenken puzzle. You must also implement a stub for a remove method even though we have no use for it in this application.



Then, write the iterator method in the Kenken class. Only, the KenkenValidator class depends on this method. The Kenken class uses an underlying two dimensional array of Cell object references and a one dimensional array of Constraint objects as its primary data structures. The API for the Kenken class does not expose that internal data structure. The overloaded constructor for the Kenken class takes a Scanner object that was instantiated to read a file containing the dimension of the puzzle (size), the number of constraints, the constraint attributes, and the size2 digits of the proposed solution to be validated. The Kenken class implements Iterable<Cell[]>. Its iterator method must instantiate and return an object of KenkenIterator class.


"

Thank you for all the help so far, will test it out.

This is my kenkenvalidator method and i am testing it. Everytime i run it, i get this error. "bad file name" even though i have the "puzzle01" file in my project folder.

This is my code for the other classes.

public class KenkenValidator
{
  private Kenken puzzle;
 
  /**
   * @param args - not used
   */
  public static void main( String [] args)
  {
    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.println("Please enter name of filepuzzle01 containing puzzle to verify");   
    KenkenValidator myValidator = new KenkenValidator(scan.nextLine());
    System.out.println(myValidator.isSolution() ? 
                "It is a valid solution" : "It is not a valid solution");
  }
 
  public KenkenValidator(String fileName)
  {
    Scanner file = null;
    try
    {
      file = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
      System.out.println("Bad file name");
      System.exit(0);
    }
 
    puzzle = new Kenken(file);
    System.out.println(puzzle);
  }
 
  public boolean isSolution()
  {
    return true;
    // code to iterate over the Cell arrays and check each one here
  }
}

public class Constraint extends Cell
{
  public Constraint(int value, char op, Cell[]...cage)
  {
  }
 
  public boolean isValid()
  {
    return true; 
  }
}

public class Cell 
{
  private int value; 
 
  public Cell()
  {
  }
 
  public void setValue(int v)
  {
    value = v;
  }
 
  public int getValue()
  {
    return value;
  }
 
  public String toString()
  {
    String temp = "hi";
    return temp;
  }
 
}

I feel like i am missing some fundamental things here as i keep running into problems. If any of you could get me on the right track, it would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the main kenken class i have so far.

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.io.*;
 
public class Kenken implements Iterable<Cell []>
{
  private final int SIZE;
  private Cell [][] puzzle;
  private Constraint [] constraints;
 
  /** Puzzle File Format:
    * 
    * ASCII text file with following data in each line:
    * 4  8 // size and number of constraints
    * // constraints
    * 4 + 2 0 0 0 1
    * 2 / 2 0 2 0 3
    * 1 - 2 1 0 1 1
    * 3 - 2 1 2 1 3
    * 5 + 2 2 0 3 0
    * 6 * 2 2 1 2 2
    * 2 / 2 3 1 3 2
    * 2 - 2 2 3 3 3
    * // solution
    * 3 1 4 2
    * 2 3 1 4
    * 4 2 3 1
    * 1 4 2 3
    * 
    */
 
  public Kenken(Scanner file) 
  {
    // read puzzle to be solved from a file Scanner
    Scanner line = new Scanner(file.nextLine());    // get size - first token on line 1
    SIZE = line.nextInt();
    puzzle = new Cell [SIZE][SIZE];                 // setup puzzle based on the SIZE
      for (int i = 0; i < puzzle.length; i++)
        for (int j = 0; j < puzzle.length; j++)
          puzzle[i][j] = new Cell();
 
    constraints = new Constraint[line.nextInt()];   // get number of constraints - second token on line 1
    file.nextLine();                                // get rid of comment line in file format
 
    int index = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < constraints.length; i++)    // process each constraint in the file
    {
      String s = file.nextLine();
      Scanner constraint = new Scanner(s);          // one constraint per line
      int value = constraint.nextInt();                  // the value
      char op = constraint.next().charAt(0);             // the operator
      if (op == 's')                                     // space substitution char is 's'
        op = ' ';
      int cells = constraint.nextInt();                  // the number of Cells in the cage
      Cell [] cage = new Cell[cells];
      for (int j = 0; j < cells; j++)  {                 // the pairs of ints for the Cell indices in puzzle
        int a = constraint.nextInt();
        int b = constraint.nextInt();
        cage[j] = puzzle[a][b];
      }
 
      constraints[index++] = new Constraint(value, op, cage);  // create the constraint from input data
    }
 
    // fill in puzzle array with solution to be tested
    file.nextLine();                                // get rid of comment line in file format
 
    for (int i = 0; i < puzzle.length; i++) {
      for (int j = 0; j < puzzle.length; j++) {
        puzzle[i][j].setValue(file.nextInt());
      }
    }
  }
 
  public String toString()
  {
    String s = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < puzzle.length; i++) 
      for (int j = 0; j < puzzle.length; j++)
        s += puzzle[i][j] + ((j != puzzle.length - 1) ? ", " : "\n");
    return s;
  }
 
  public class KenkenIterator implements Iterator<Cell []>
  {
   private Cell [][] puzzle;
   private int cursor; 
   private int cursorConstraint;
 
   public KenkenIterator()
   {
    cursor = cursorConstraint = 0;
   }
 
   public boolean hasNext()
   {
     return cursor < puzzle.length;
   }
 
   public Cell[] next()
   {
     Cell [] value = puzzle[cursor];
     cursor ++;
     return value;
   }
 
   public void remove()
   {
   }
  }
 
  public KenkenIterator iterator()
  {
    KenkenIterator temp = new KenkenIterator();
    return temp;
  }
}