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JavaScript

Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner
5,839 Points
Posted by Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner
5,839 Points

I did it slightly differently. The quiz program works great, but did I forgo "best practices" here?

Let me add my code here. Forgive me, I'm unfamiliar with the markup that actually puts this in a "code box" for clearer reading.

var correct = 0; //logs the number of correct answers

var answer = prompt("How many legs do spiders have? Answer in a number.");

if (parseInt(answer) === 8 ) { //conditional adds 1 to correct answer counter correct += 1; }

answer = prompt("Who discovered the theory of relativity?");

if (answer.toUpperCase() === "ALBERT EINSTEIN" ) { correct += 1; }

answer = prompt("Who was the first president of the United States?");

if (answer.toUpperCase() === "GEORGE WASHINGTON" ) { correct += 1; }

answer = prompt("Who was the famous cofounder of Apple?");

if (answer.toUpperCase() === "STEVE JOBS" ) { correct += 1; }

answer = prompt("Which state's capital is Austin?");

if (answer.toUpperCase() === "TEXAS" ) { correct += 1; }

if (correct === 5) { document.write("<h2>Congratulations! You got all 5 questions right! You win the GOLD CROWN</h2>"); } else if (correct >= 3 && correct < 5 ) { document.write("<h2>Congratulations! You got " + correct + " questions right! You win the SILVER CROWN</h2>");

} else if (correct >= 1 && correct < 2) { document.write("<h2>Congratulations! You got " + correct + " questions right! You win the BRONZE CROWN</h2>");

} else { document.write("<h2>You got no questions right. Sorry, no crown for you.</h2>");

}

So, everything works great, but instead of having a different answer variable for each question, I just reassigned the answer variable. Is that a bad thing to do?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

That seems acceptable for the circumstances.

Since each answer is only used on the following line and then never again, it makes sense to re-use the variable. It would also be possible to refactor the code so it doesn't need an answer variable at all.

And instructions for code formatting can be found in the Markdown Cheatsheet pop-up below the "Add an Answer" area. :arrow_heading_down:

Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner
5,839 Points
Richard Skinner
Richard Skinner
5,839 Points

Thanks a lot for your help here. When you say refactor the code where variables are not needed, what do you mean?

The only thing I could immediately think of is putting the prompt function into the conditional test.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,007 Points

Sure, one way would be to use the prompt directly in the if statement. But I was thinking about creating a function to handle the question asking and answer checking that would return 1 for a correct answer and 0 otherwise. Then a good bit of the program becomes more compact and "DRY":

var ask = (question, answer) => prompt(question).toUpperCase() == answer ? 1 : 0;

var correct = ask("How many legs do spiders have? Answer in a number.", "8");
correct += ask("Who discovered the theory of relativity?", "ALBERT EINSTEIN");
correct += ask("Who was the first president of the United States?", "GEORGE WASHINGTON" );
// ...etc...