Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Java Java Objects Creating the MVP Counting Scrabble Tiles

Omar Silva
Omar Silva
2,535 Points

Can't find the error here

Hey guys, I can't find the fault in my code. I loop through the array, make the equality test, increment the count and then return it, but it still won't work. My problem is in the getCountOfLetter method in the ScrabblePlayer.java file. Thanks in advance for the help!

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;
  }

  public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
    return tiles.indexOf(tile) != -1;
  }

  public int getCountOfLetter(char letter){
    int counter = 0;
    for (char looper : tiles.toCharArray()){
      if (letter == tiles.indexOf(looper)){
        counter++;
      }
    }
    return counter;
  }
}
Example.java
// This code is here for example purposes only
public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ScrabblePlayer player1 = new ScrabblePlayer();
    player1.addTile('d');
    player1.addTile('d');
    player1.addTile('p');
    player1.addTile('e');
    player1.addTile('l');
    player1.addTile('u');

    ScrabblePlayer player2 = new ScrabblePlayer();
    player2.addTile('z');
    player2.addTile('z');
    player2.addTile('y');
    player2.addTile('f');
    player2.addTile('u');
    player2.addTile('z');

    int count = 0;
    // This would set count to 1 because player1 has 1 'p' tile in her collection of tiles
    count = player1.getCountOfLetter('p');
    // This would set count to 2 because player1 has 2 'd'' tiles in her collection of tiles
    count = player1.getCountOfLetter('d');
    // This would set 0, because there isn't an 'a' tile in player1's tiles
    count = player1.getCountOfLetter('a');

    // This will return 3 because player2 has 3 'z' tiles in his collection of tiles
    count = player2.getCountOfLetter('z');
    // This will return 1 because player2 has 1 'f' tiles in his collection of tiles
    count = player2.getCountOfLetter('f');
  }
}

2 Answers

Abua KC
Abua KC
5,932 Points

In your If Statement, you have to check if your variable looper(char) and letter(char) are equal and hopefully your problem should be solved.

if( letter == looper) { counter++; } } return counter;

Omar Silva
Omar Silva
2,535 Points

Thanks Abua, it did solve it and I also understood what was going wrong.

james south
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
james south
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 33,271 Points

you need to make a small change to the conditional in your if statement. right now you are comparing two different types: a char (the value in the letter parameter) and an int (the return of the indexOf method).

Omar Silva
Omar Silva
2,535 Points

Thanks a lot for helping, James!