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Java Java Objects Delivering the MVP Applying a Discount Code

Matthew Dorber
Matthew Dorber
752 Points

Error - Cannot Find Symbol

I'm getting an error - cannot find symbol on one of my methods. I can't quite figure out why, unless i'm using the wrong method here?

Order.java
public class Order {
  private String itemName;
  private int priceInCents;
  private String discountCode;

  public Order(String itemName, int priceInCents) {
    this.itemName = itemName;
    this.priceInCents = priceInCents;
  }

  public String getItemName() {
    return itemName;
  }

  private String normalizeDiscountCode(String discountCode)
  {
    if (!(discountCode.isLetter() || discountCode.indexOf('$')))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid discount code.");
  return discountCode.toUpperCase();
}
  public int getPriceInCents() {
    return priceInCents;
  }

  public String getDiscountCode() {
    return discountCode;
  }

  public void applyDiscountCode(String discountCode) {
    this.discountCode = normalizeDiscountCode(discountCode);
  }
}
Example.java
public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // This is here just for example use cases.

    Order order = new Order(
            "Yoda PEZ Dispenser",
            600);

    // These are valid.  They are letters and the $ character only
    order.applyDiscountCode("abc");
    order.getDiscountCode(); // ABC

    order.applyDiscountCode("$ale");
    order.getDiscountCode(); // $ALE


    try {
      // This will throw an exception because it contains numbers
      order.applyDiscountCode("ABC123");
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
      System.out.println(iae.getMessage());  // Prints "Invalid discount code"
    }
    try {
      // This will throw as well, because it contains a symbol.
      order.applyDiscountCode("w@w");
    }catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
      System.out.println(iae.getMessage());  // Prints "Invalid discount code"
    }

  }
}

2 Answers

Christof Baumgartner
Christof Baumgartner
20,864 Points

Hi Matthew,

I think your problem is with the isLetter-Method. You can only call this on the Character-Class, like this:

Character.isLetter('c') //results to true
Matthew Dorber
Matthew Dorber
752 Points

Thanks Christof. So what option do I have here? The passed in argument is a String. Do I need to do something like convert the string parameter, or choose a char parameter inside the brackets and then pass that to the discountCode variable?