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Java Java Objects Creating the MVP Scrabble Tiles

Posted by James Kane
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
James Kane
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 3,070 Points

Hey could anyone give me some guidance im really not sure where i going wrong?

any help much appreciated :)

ScrabblePlayer.java 
public class ScrabblePlayer {
  // A String representing all of the tiles that this player has
  private String tiles;

  public ScrabblePlayer() {
    tiles = "";
  }

  public String getTiles() {
    return tiles;
  }

  public void addTile(char tile) {
    tiles += tile;
    // TODO: Add the tile to tiles

  }

  public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
    // TODO: Determine if user has the tile passed in
    boolean inTiles = tiles.indexOf(tile) != -1; 
    boolean notInTiles = tiles.indexOf(tile) != 1;
    if (inTiles) {
      return true;
      else if (notInTiles) {
        return false;
      }
    }
  }
isaac schwartzman
isaac schwartzman
963 Points
isaac schwartzman
isaac schwartzman
963 Points

Hey James, what part do you need help with?

1 Answer

Caleb Kemp
Caleb Kemp
12,755 Points
Caleb Kemp
Caleb Kemp
12,755 Points

Okay, I think it was pretty obvious that you were having trouble with step 2. I solved it very quickly using an "if" statement, however, I'm sure as you've noticed, the directions specify no "if" statements allowed. At first I thought, this is so stupid, in order to determine if something is true or false, you have to use an if statement somewhere. So, I figured, I guess I'll have to use a method with an "if" statement built in. Seeing how you used the "indexOf" method, I thought I would try that first. By pairing that with the "charAt", ".equals", and "Character.toString()" methods, I got it to work. However, I wasn't satisfied with the solution. Sure it worked great, provided it could find a character, but it would create a syntax error if it didn't find the char (index == -1). So, despite that passing the code challenge I decided to look for something else. I finally settled on this solution.

public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
    return (tiles.indexOf(tile) >= 0);
  }

Essentially the way this works, is, if index == -1, (char not found), it will return false, if it found the char (index will be 0 or greater), return true. Hope it helps