I am stuck on the ScarbblePlayer class. I created the getCountOfLetter method and can not get it to return the right #.

Question

How do i get it to increment with each letter?

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 tileCount = 0;
    for (char item : tiles.toCharArray()) {
      int count = 1;
      if (tiles.indexOf(item) == letter) {
        count++;
      }
      tileCount += count; 
    }// End of for
    return tileCount;
  }// End of method
}

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');
  }
}

Answer 1 · 2019-01-21T08:04:27Z

January 21, 2019 8:04am

The error lies in your for loop. After the first execution of the loop, the value of tileCount will be 1 because you are adding your count to tileCount in every iteration. Right now you are incrementing count and adding the count value to tileCount. However, this means that when count = 3 you will be adding 3 to your tileCount even though you have only found 2 letters. Look at the comments in the code below:

public int getCountOfLetter(char letter) {
    int tileCount = 0; // This is the value that you wish to increment inside the loop
    for (char item : tiles.toCharArray()) {
      int count = 1; // This variable isn't really necessary because you can use 
                           //tileCount in your loop as long as you declare it 
                           //outside of the loop.
      if (tiles.indexOf(item) == letter) {
        count++; // This should be changed into tileCount as 
                       //tileCount is the variable you wish to increment.
      }
      tileCount += count;  // Before you have found any matching
                                       //letters, this will be set to one. 
                                      //It will add one for every iteration because count 
                                      //is set to 1 and you add count to tileCount every 
                                      //loop. 
    }// End of for
    return tileCount;
  }// End of method

I hope this clarified things :) This is my first time answering a question so if anything is unclear, tell me and I will try to make it clearer!

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

rodnel lighty

rodnel lighty

I am stuck on the ScarbblePlayer class. I created the getCountOfLetter method and can not get it to return the right #.

1 Answer

Sondre Dahl

Sondre Dahl

rodnel lighty

rodnel lighty

Sondre Dahl

Sondre Dahl