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

Arcee Palabrica
Arcee Palabrica
8,100 Points

Counting Scrabble Tiles Can't figure out Challenge Task 2 of 2 on

Hi guys anyone who can help me out with this challenge... been stuck for quite a while on Task 2 of 2... this is what I did so far:

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 a = 0;
    for (char x : tiles.toCharArray()) {
          if (tiles.indexOf(letter) != -1) {
           a += 1;
       }          

     }
  return a; 
  }

}
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

andren
andren
28,558 Points

I'll give you some hints, if you want the solution outright then just ask me and I'll post it.

  1. The major benefit of a for each loop over other loops is that it pulls out each item in the list you give it and makes it available within the loop. In your for each loop you name that variable x. The first time the loop runs x will equal the first char in the tiles String, the second time it will equal the second char, and so on. If you use a for each loop and don't make use of the variable it creates, then that's a pretty good indication that you are doing something wrong.

  2. The solution to this task does not involve using the indexOf method. That method just tells you if a character exists within a String, it does not tell you how many unique appearances of that character there are.

  3. Most of your code is already correct. You pretty much only need to change the condition of your if statement.

  4. This is more a note about the task checker than your own code. The task expects you to increase your counter variable (a in your case) using the ++ operator not += 1. So you need to replace a += 1 with a++.

Arcee Palabrica
Arcee Palabrica
8,100 Points

andren Thanks for the clue man... keeping things simple really helps.. thanks for reminding me that... have a great day! thanks thanks again... :) got through the task now...

Hint: The char x you created for the loop stores each char in your CharArray one at a time each time it loops through.