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Java Java Objects Creating the MVP Counting Scrabble Tiles

Jordan Dill
Jordan Dill
1,649 Points

The code works but I don't understand why.

I tried for awhile to get it without looking up any help. I looked up what exercise to see what issues others where having. Looking at their code clarified some things for me but I really don't understand what the for loop and if statement are exactly doing. Any explanation would be helpful.

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()) {
     tileCount = 1;
     if(tiles.indexOf(item) == letter) {
      tileCount++;
     }
   }
   return tileCount;
  }
}
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');
  }
}

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,644 Points

I wouldn't expect this code to work. So I tried pasting it into the challenge and got this: "Bummer: Hmmm, the tiles were "krzyziznki" and I passed in 'i' expected 2, but I got 1"

There are two issues I noticed that gave me that expectation:

  • the tileCount is set to 1 before any matches are found
  • the letter is being compared to the item's index instead of directly to each item

Otherwise, you're pretty close and once you fix those issues it should pass.