I am super confused

Ruud - I tried the code you have for hasTitle() method again and it passes. Here's the complete code:

public class ScrabblePlayer {
    private String mHand;

    public ScrabblePlayer() {
        mHand = "";
    }

    public String getHand() {
       return mHand;
    }

    public void addTile(char tile) {
        mHand += tile;

    }

    public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
      if(mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0) { 
        return true; 
      } 
      return false;
    }
}

Is this exactly what you have, including the code for the other methods?

You can use the indexOf() method of the String class. Pass in a character, in this case tile, to the method and it returns -1 if the string does not contain the character and if it does contain the character it returns its index within the string.

So call indexOf on mHand and pass in tile as an argument. Use an if statement and based on what indexOf() returns decide whether hasTitle() should return true or false.

Hi Shubham Modi,

First of all, sorry if my comment feels like a thread hijacking. I’m facing the same exercise problem. The clear explanation given by Kourosh Raeen, should fix your problem. In my case I did the following:

public boolean hasTile(char tile) { if(mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0) { return true; } return false; }

The only problem is I’m getting an error stating: “Hmmm, remember that the indexOf method on strings returns -1 if the char is missing, or greater than that if it is there. 0 is greater than -1”. The use of the >=-characters should prohibit this error from ocurring in the first place? Maybe Kourosh Raeen, or sombody els can explain this error? All other option's I did resulted in above error.

Hi Kourosh Raeen,

I tested my code again while using >= and the result is the same, the error remains. Strange that my code passed in your workspace! I tried some other coding examples from these urls: https://teamtreehouse.com/community/bummer-hmmm-remember-that-the-indexof-method-on-strings-returns-1-if-the-char-is-missing-or-greater-than-that-if-it

https://teamtreehouse.com/community/java-objects-strings-and-char-objective-i-cant-seem-to-get-the-hastile-method-to-work

All the mentioned coding examples are giving the same error in my workspace. I’m out of ideas :-)

My code is the same example as posted before:

public boolean hasTile(char tile) { if(mHand.indexOf(tile) >= 0) { return true; } return false;
}

Is it possible that I need to explicit check on -1 ?

Kourosh Raeen,

The problem is fixed. The code ran this time! My problem was in the code of the first exercise. Instead of "mHand += tile;" I had the code "String = addToHand String.valueOf(tile); mHand = addToHand; "

The funny thing is, the code did except my input but the problem lies in my interpretation of the exercise. In the first excersices I thought that to add up something means putting in, but no it means counting up! I mixed up the meaning of the word, whoops. Thank you for posting your answer, now I finally know where I went wrong :-) !!

Can you please the full code? i am completely near but still it doesnt accept. i dont know whats wrong.

Can you please the full code? i am completely near but still it doesnt accept. i dont know whats wrong.

Can you please the full code? i am completely near but still it doesnt accept. i dont know whats wrong.

here is another example of using indexOf

public class ConferenceRegistrationAssistant {

  public int getLineFor(String lastName) {
    /* If the last name is between A thru M send them to line 1
       Otherwise send them to line 2 */
    int line = 0;
    String ABC = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    if(ABC.indexOf(lastName.charAt(0)) <= 12){
      line = 1;
    }else{
      line = 2;   
    }
    return line; 
  }
}