add a method called getTileCount that uses the for each loop you just learned to loop through the characters and increme

Question

So back to that ScrabblePlayer. I found that it's not enough to know if they just have a tile of a specific character. We need to know how many they actually have. Can you please add a method called getTileCount that uses the for each loop you just learned to loop through the characters and increment a counter if it matches? Return the count, please, thanks!
It keeps telling me i forgot to add a method that accepts a char, but it is telling me to return a count. 
Is it not asking for the number of tiles in your hand? Why does it need to accept a char?
Please help.
```ScrabblePlayer.java
public class ScrabblePlayer {
  private String mHand;
  public ScrabblePlayer() {
    mHand = "";
  }
  public String getHand() {
   return mHand;
  }
  public void addTile(char tile) {
    // Adds the tile to the hand of the player
    mHand += tile;
  }
  public boolean hasTile(char tile) {
   return mHand.indexOf(tile) > -1;
  }
public int getTileCount() {
    int count = 0;
    for (char tile: mHand.toCharArray()) {
    if (mHand.indexOf(tile) > -1) {
      count++;  
    }
    }
    return count; 
  }
}
```

Mario Blokland · Accepted Answer

Ok, I'll try to take the confusion of your mind a little bit :-)
java
for (char letter : mHand.toCharArray())

This is saying, hey, I have a String called mHand and I command you to iterate through each character of the String. In each iteration I want only one character at a time and put it in my variable which I named letter. Let's say the String is "test". The method toCharArray() will split the String into an array of characters like this: {'t', 'e', 's', 't'}. 
Now you will iterate through each letter of the char array and can access it as the name letter. 
java
for (char letter : mHand.toCharArray()) {
    System.out.println(letter); // 1st iteration will print 't', 2nd iteration 'e', 3rd iteration 's', 4th iteration 't'
}

Why does your method return 8 with the code you wrote? Well, when is the condition you wrote true?
java
if (mHand.indexOf(tile) > -1)

If mHand is equal to "test" and tile is equal to 't', then the condition is always true, in each iteration because the letter 't' is always in the String "test". You have to alter the condition to something that only returns true if the value of tile is equal to the current position in the char array. It would look something like this:
is 't' equal to 't'? If so, count++
is 't' equal to 'e'? If so, count++
is 't' equal to 's'? If so, count++
is 't' equal to 't'? If so, count++
count would hold the value of 2 in this case.

Mario Blokland · Answer

Hi @Kevin Gresmer (https://teamtreehouse.com/kevingresmer),
the method needs to accept a char argument (like the addTile and hasTile method) which you can compare to the string. After that you have to change your if condition to something that equals true, if the given argument was found in the string. If you use the name tile as the argument name then don't forget to change the variable name tile in your for loop otherwise you will have problems with the scope.

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Kevin Gresmer

Kevin Gresmer

add a method called getTileCount that uses the for each loop you just learned to loop through the characters and increme

2 Answers

Mario Blokland

Mario Blokland

Kevin Gresmer

Kevin Gresmer

Mario Blokland

Mario Blokland

Quinton Rivera

Quinton Rivera

Mario Blokland

Mario Blokland

Kevin Gresmer

Kevin Gresmer