Thread: Need help getting things to loop correctly

First question: Why use a while() rather than a for() loop?

having trouble getting this to work for every input except A>B

What does this mean?

Try debugging your code by adding print outs of ALL the variables values as the loop executes.

where is the body of mainLoop?

I'm confuzed because of this comment:

}// end method mainLoop()

Seems the OP missed a couple of lines when he posted his code. Add }\n void mainLoop() {
after the call to mainLoop.

This solves something I think:

package GGG;
 
import java.util.Scanner; // used for console input (from the keyboard)
 
// Declare the class
public class toothpickPuzzle {
	// Fields that can be accessed anywhere in the class go here
	Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in); // used to read user input
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		// create an instance of this class
		toothpickPuzzle theSampleInstance = new toothpickPuzzle();
		// call a non-static method to do everything else
		theSampleInstance.mainLoop();
	}
 
	void mainLoop() {
		// Display identifying information
		System.out.println("Author: Eric Grunauer\n"
				+ "Program: #2 Toothpick Puzzle\n" 
				+ "T.A.: Rigel Gjomemo\n"
				+ "Date: September 10, 2010");
		System.out.println();
		System.out.println("Welcome to the Toothpick Puzzle.  Think of having 3 piles of toothpicks\n"
						+ "in front of you, where there are 24 toothpicks total:\n"
						+ " \n"
						+ "                Stack:    A    B    C\n"
						+ " Number of Toothpicks:    11    7    6\n"
						+ " \n"
						+ "The goal is to create 3 piles of 8 toothpicks in exactly 3 moves.  A move\n"
						+ "consists of moving toothpicks from one stack to a second stack, where the\n"
						+ "number of toothpicks moved is exactly the number that is in the destination\n"
						+ "stack.  In other words, to move from stack B (7 toothpicks) to stack C (6)\n"
						+ "as shown above, we would move 6 from B to C, leaving us with 1 in B and 12\n"
						+ "in stack C.");
		System.out.println();
		System.out.println();
		System.out.println("Here we go...");
		System.out.println();
		System.out.println();
 
		// declare variables used in the program
		Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
		// declare the variables to store the number of toothpicks in each stack
		int stackA = 11;
		int stackB = 7;
		int stackC = 6;
		int turnCounter = 0;
 
		// display original stack values
		System.out.println("           Stack:       A   B   C");
		System.out.printf("Number of Toothpicks:      %2d  %2d  %2d \n",
				stackA, stackB, stackC);
		System.out.println();
		System.out.print("Enter the stack from: ");
		char sourceStack = ' '; //
 
		// Get the user input, convert it all to upper case, and retrieve the
		// first character.
		// This first character should be 'A', 'B', or 'C', representing one of
		// the stacks.
		sourceStack = keyboard.next().toUpperCase().charAt(0);
		System.out.print("Enter the stack to: "); // repeat for the second stack
		char destinationStack = ' ';
		// Get destination stack letter
		destinationStack = keyboard.next().toUpperCase().charAt(0);
 
		int tries=3;
		// Now use "if" statements to change the values stored in variables
		// stackA, stackB, and stackC
		while (turnCounter < tries) {
 
			if (sourceStack == 'A' && destinationStack == 'C') {
				int numberToMove = stackC; // store how many should be moved
				stackA = stackA - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackC = stackC + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
			if (sourceStack == 'A' && destinationStack == 'B') {
				int numberToMove = stackB; // store how many should be moved
				stackA = stackA - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackB = stackB + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
 
			if (sourceStack == 'B' && destinationStack == 'A') {
				int numberToMove = stackA; // store how many should be moved
				stackB = stackB - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackA = stackA + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
			if (sourceStack == 'B' && destinationStack == 'C') {
				int numberToMove = stackC; // store how many should be moved
				stackB = stackB - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackC = stackC + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
			if (sourceStack == 'C' && destinationStack == 'B') {
				int numberToMove = stackB; // store how many should be moved
				stackC = stackC - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackB = stackB + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
			if (sourceStack == 'C' && destinationStack == 'A') {
				int numberToMove = stackA; // store how many should be moved
				stackC = stackC - numberToMove; // deduct from the source stack
				stackA = stackA + numberToMove; // move into the destination
				// stack
			}
			turnCounter++;
			System.out.println("Stacks A   B   C contain: ");
			System.out.printf("      %2d  %2d  %2d \n", stackA, stackB, stackC);
 
			if(turnCounter==tries){
				continue;
			}
 
			System.out.print("Enter the stack from: ");
			// Get the user input, convert it all to upper case, and retrieve the
			// first character.
			// This first character should be 'A', 'B', or 'C', representing one of
			// the stacks.
			sourceStack = keyboard.next().toUpperCase().charAt(0);
			System.out.print("Enter the stack to: "); // repeat for the second stack
			// Get destination stack letter
			destinationStack = keyboard.next().toUpperCase().charAt(0);	
 
 
		}
	}// end method mainLoop()
 
}// end

Are you trying to solve the OPs problem or are you trying to help the OP solve the problem?

If you're going to solve the problem at least explain what you did to find the problem and what you did to solve it.
Giving code doesn't really let the OP go thru the learning process. Will you be there the next time the OP doesn't know how to solve a problem?