Java Newbie...just stuck on this

mickells35 · 08-11-2013 12:33pm #1

Hey folks,
I'm a Java newbie ..am just 8 weeks into Java 7 Programming 1...I'm trying to get a bit of code working that displays the lyrics to the 12 days of Cantona song...

This is what I have so far..

public class CantonaSong {

public static void main(String[] args) {
String[] xmasDays = { "second", "third", "fourth", "fifth", "sixth",
"seventh", "eighth", "ninth", "tenth", "eleventh", "twelfth" };
String fullname = " an Eric Cantona";
String name = " Cantona's";
int count = 2;

System.out
.println("On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,"
+ fullname);
for (String x : xmasDays) {

if (count == 5) {
System.out
.println("On the "
+ x
+ " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, FIIIIIIVVVEEE"
+ name + "," + name + ", and" + fullname);
}

else {

System.out.println("On the " + x
+ " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, "
+ count + "" + name + "," +(count-1)+ name + ", and" + fullname);
}

count++;

}

}
}

I'm a little stuck...if should print out after the 4rth day of christmas " 4 Cantona's, 3 Cantona's, 2 Cantona, and an Eric Cantona"..and the same all the way up..." 12 Cantona's, 11, 10 etc"

What am I missing?

Tar.Aldarion · 08-11-2013 1:18pm

Use

tags to format your post better. Even though it appears to be pretty bad

What is the output you are receiving? Is there an error?
Seems to me you are jsut hardcoding teh amount of times it will run so it will always give you a amax of 3 eric cantanas

[code]+ count + "" + name + "," +(count-1)+ name + ", and" + fullname);

Whereas you should design it to increment and print for all necessary times.
Why is there this count==5 business that will just be run once, while each other time the else will run.

mickells35 · 08-11-2013 1:24pm

Thanks for replying...I'm getting no error but am not getting the output I require..
Here is my output

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, an Eric Cantona
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 2 Cantona's, 1 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 3 Cantona's, 2 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 4 Cantona's, 3 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, FIIIIIIVVVEEE Cantona's, Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 6 Cantona's, 5 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 7 Cantona's, 6 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 8 Cantona's, 7 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 9 Cantona's, 8 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 10 Cantona's, 9 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 11 Cantona's, 10 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 12 Cantona's, 11 Cantona's, and an Eric Cantona

I need to add each previous result to the current one..e.g the last line should output:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 12 Cantona's, 11 Cantona's, 10 Cantona's, 9 Cantona's etc...and an Eric Cantona

henryporter · 08-11-2013 1:29pm

Have you looked at using a switch statement?

Tar.Aldarion · 08-11-2013 1:36pm

So if I take it correctly you want to print the first result and append it to the second result and so on. What you have to do is sit down and thing about the logic and flow that is needed to do this. Eg, you make the first string, now you store it, then on the second iteration what do you need to print, and where does your stored sting come in and so on.

I note that 5 is a special case but you can reduce that code by removing the else:

fiveCase ="";

//for loop etc
if (count == 5)
    {
        fiveCase ="FIIIIIIVVVEEE";
    }
System.out.println("On the "+ x+ " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, [b]+fiveCase[/b] "+ name + "," + name + ", and" + fullname);

//end of current iteration
fiveCase="";

This will mean that fiveCase will add nothing unless the count is actually 5.

mickells35 · 08-11-2013 1:36pm

switch would work but that would mean I'm coding the print statement 12 times...I want to code it as little as possible..I probably have to manipulate the count variable again somehow..

srsly78 · 08-11-2013 1:37pm

Use some kind of recursion. Did you cover this yet in course?

Make a simple function printCantona(int howmany), which prints the Nth bit, then calls printCantona( howmany - 1). Need some special handling for N = 1 and N = 5, otherwise do generic printout.

The_B_Man · 08-11-2013 1:40pm

Here's a very rough idea of what you need. First you need another loop.

You're hardcoding in how many Cantonas will be output in the System.out.println().

If I understand correctly, you need to perhaps store the "FIIIIIIIIIIVE" or "count" in a variable first. So with your if statement, have like "if count ==5, myString = "FIIIIVE", else myString = count"

then after, have a system.out.println, have "On the +x+ day of xmas, my true love gave to me, +myString+ cantonas,"
then after that, have a loop that goes "while count-- >1, print count + " cantonas,"
then after that. just print "and an Eric Cantona".

You'll have to refactor how you use your count variable though. Reset it to xmasDays.length on each loop of your for loop.

mickells35 · 08-11-2013 1:51pm

The uppercase FIIVVEE is there just because thats the way the fans sing it at Old Trafford ...dont worry about it guys..its just a little thing I was messing around with with the intention that I might learn something...I think an inner loop might do it..
either the higher up I go, I'm always always adding a Cantona..thus decrementing the count variable an extar time for each print statement

Thanks

witnessmenow · 08-11-2013 2:28pm

Build up your string using a for loop, and when you are finished println it

I havent tested this but the general idea should be ok, put this inside your current for loop, keep the count ++.

When you get this working as you want had a case for the FIIVEEEE


string outputText = "";

outputText  = "On the " + x + " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, ";

for(i=count; i > 1; i--)
{
    outputText  = outputText  + i + "" + name + ", ";
}

outputText  = outputText  + "and" + fullname;


System.out.println(outputText )

adm · 11-11-2013 8:44pm

This should work.

public class CantonaSong {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String[] xmasDays = { "first", "second", "third", "fourth", "fifth",
				"sixth", "seventh", "eighth", "ninth", "tenth", "eleventh",
				"twelfth" };

		int count = 0;
		String cantonas, printLine;

		for (String day : xmasDays) {

			printLine = "On the " + day
					+ " day of xmas my true love gave to me ";

			if (count > 0) {
				for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {

					// ternary just for succinctness
					cantonas = (count - (i - 1)) == 5 ? "FIIIIIIVVVEEE"
							: Integer.toString(count - (i - 1));

					printLine += cantonas + " Cantona's";

					// trailing comma for all except last item in loop
					if (i + 1 != count) {
						printLine += ",";
					}

					printLine += " ";

				}

				printLine += "and ";
			}
			printLine += "an Eric Cantona.";

			System.out.println(printLine);

			count++;

		}
	}
}

mickells35 · 12-11-2013 9:58am

To adm...thats great...thanks very much.

Java Newbie...just stuck on this

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