My first bigger Console Project "Blackjack" - please give me feedback :)

Question

Hi guys,

I recently finished the MVP for the blackjack game in console written in C#. It took me many hours to make this game work in it's very basics.

I tried to use the learned stuff (OOP) as much as I can and I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.

I see now why OOP is so nice to program because you can visualize the classes in your brain. Anyway the Board class could use some rework because it get's really messy at the end :D

Please give me feedback but also don't forget that I'm a complete beginner. It was very funny to make this and I learned a ton.

Here is the link to the Project: https://github.com/dhuber666/BlackjackConsole

Answer 1 · 2017-09-15T19:08:09Z

September 15, 2017 7:08pm

Dominik,

Wow! Awesome job taking what you've learned and building an application.

Here are some things to consider:

1) I'd add a .gitignore file to the root of your repo in order to configure git to ignore files that you don't need to be committing to your repo. For an example of a .gitignore file to use for Visual Studio, see https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/master/VisualStudio.gitignore.

2) While code styling is a personal preference sort of thing, I'd remove all of the extraneous extra whitespace (i.e. multiple, concurrent blank lines) from your code.

3) In this method, you have a number of places where you've used "magic numbers" (i.e. literal numeric values).

public int DealerTurn()
{
    TheDealer.DisplayHand();

    while(TheDealer.ComputeValue() < 17)
    {
        TheDealer.DealCardToDealer();
    }

    if(TheDealer.ComputeValue() == 17)
    {
        return 17;
    } else if (TheDealer.ComputeValue() > 21) 
    {
        return 0;
    } else if (TheDealer.ComputeValue() > 17 && TheDealer.ComputeValue() <= 21)
    {
        return TheDealer.ComputeValue();
    }

    return TheDealer.ComputeValue();
}

While this works, you can make your code easier to read and maintain by replacing these literal values with constants. You can then give your constants names that help convey what these numbers mean in your specific context.

For example, create a constant in the Board class:

private const int MaxHandValue = 21;

You could use the public access modifier if the constant value is used outside of the Board class. Then update the DealerTurn method like this:

public int DealerTurn()
{
    TheDealer.DisplayHand();

    while(TheDealer.ComputeValue() < 17)
    {
        TheDealer.DealCardToDealer();
    }

    if(TheDealer.ComputeValue() == 17)
    {
        return 17;
    } else if (TheDealer.ComputeValue() > MaxHandValue) 
    {
        return 0;
    } else if (TheDealer.ComputeValue() > 17 && TheDealer.ComputeValue() <= MaxHandValue)
    {
        return TheDealer.ComputeValue();
    }

    return TheDealer.ComputeValue();
}

I'll leave it as an exercise for you to replace the "17" literal values with a constant (or more than one constant if "17" can have multiple meanings).

4) What are the case 2 and case 3 switch cases doing in this method?

public void NextAction(int choice, Player player)
{
    switch (choice)
    {
        case 1:
            DealCardTurn(player);
            break;
        case 2:
            break;
        case 3:
            break;

        default:
            break;
    }
}

Adding a code comment to explain this code might be helpful.

5) I like your use of an enum for the card color!

public enum CardColor
{
    Club = 0,
    Diamond = 1,
    Hearth = 2,
    Spade = 3
}

Again, great job! I look forward to seeing your next learning project.

Thanks ~James

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Dominik Huber

Dominik Huber

My first bigger Console Project "Blackjack" - please give me feedback :)

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James Churchill

James Churchill