Figuring out loop error

Question

So I'm having an infinite loop problem, but I simply cannot find out what/where it is. I have an arrayList called dailyPlanetStreet filled with objects of either class Goodguy Badguy Person or NormalGuy. In my removing mechanism below, if there is a normalguy/person on one side of the bad guy, i remove that person/normalguy. If there is a normalguy/person on both sides, i randomly remove either one. Also, everytime I remove one, I randomly move another person/normal guy from dailyplanetstreet to another arraylist called safety land.

Here is my current output:

normal guy
normal guy
person
badguy
normal guy
goodguy
normal guy
person
person
person
yo


normal guy
normal guy
person
badguy
goodguy
normal guy
person
person
person

Code:

import java.util.ArrayList;
public class GothamLikeAdventureTown 
    {
        static int y=5;
        static int x=3;

        static ArrayList<Person> dailyPlanetStreet=new ArrayList<Person>();
        static ArrayList<Person> safetyLand=new ArrayList<Person>();
        static ArrayList<Person> unfortunatelyFatallyWoundedPeople=new ArrayList<Person>();

        public static void rescue() {
            int goodpos=0;
            int randompos=(int)(Math.random()*dailyPlanetStreet.size());
            for (int counter1=0; counter1<dailyPlanetStreet.size(); counter1++){
                if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter1).name()!="Kent Clark") {counter1=goodpos;}
            }
            dailyPlanetStreet.add(randompos,dailyPlanetStreet.remove(goodpos));

        }
        public static void tosafety() {
            int outer=12;
            while (outer!=12){
            int randompos=(int)(Math.random()*dailyPlanetStreet.size());
            if ((dailyPlanetStreet.get(randompos).name()!="Clark Kent") &&  (dailyPlanetStreet.get(randompos).name()!="James Kalvin")) 
            {
                safetyLand.add(dailyPlanetStreet.remove(randompos));
                outer=12;
            } }
        }
        public static void  remove(int deletepos) {
            unfortunatelyFatallyWoundedPeople.add(dailyPlanetStreet.remove(deletepos)); 
        }

        public static void display(){
            System.out.println();
            System.out.println();
            for (int z=0; z<dailyPlanetStreet.size(); z++)
            {
                if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(z) instanceof BadGuy) System.out.println("badguy");
                else if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(z) instanceof GoodGuy) System.out.println("goodguy");
                else if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(z) instanceof NormalGuy) System.out.println("normal guy");
                else if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(z) instanceof Person) System.out.println("person");
            } 
        }

        public static void main(String args[])
            //code for putting in value of arraylist....

            display();


            while (dailyPlanetStreet.size()>2){
            for (int counter=0; counter<dailyPlanetStreet.size(); counter++){
                if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter).name()=="James Kalvin") 
                {
                    if ((counter==0) && (dailyPlanetStreet.get(1).name()=="Clark Kent")) {}
                    else if ((counter==0) && (dailyPlanetStreet.get(1).name()!="Clark Kent")) {System.out.println("yo"); remove(counter+1);display();rescue();} 
                    else if ((counter==dailyPlanetStreet.size()-1) && (dailyPlanetStreet.get(dailyPlanetStreet.size()-2).name()=="Clark Kent")) {System.out.println("yo");display(); tosafety();rescue();}
                    else if ((counter==dailyPlanetStreet.size()-1) && (dailyPlanetStreet.get(dailyPlanetStreet.size()-2).name()!="Clark Kent")) {System.out.println("yo");remove(counter-1);display();tosafety();rescue();}
                    else if  (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter+1).name()=="Clark Kent") {System.out.println("yo");remove(counter-1);display();tosafety();rescue();}
                    else if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter-1).name()=="Clark Kent") {System.out.println("yo");remove(counter+1);display(); tosafety();rescue();}
                    else if ((dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter-1).name()!="Clark Kent")&& (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter+1).name()!="Clark Kent")) 
                    {
                        if (((int)(Math.random()*2))==1) {System.out.println("yo");remove(counter+1); display();tosafety();rescue();}
                        else {System.out.println("yo");remove(counter-1); display(); tosafety();rescue();}
                    } 

                    }
                }
            System.out.println(dailyPlanetStreet.size());
            }


            System.out.println("hi");

            }   

    } 

Answer 1

One problem I can see is that you have the following method:

public static void rescue() {
  int goodpos=0;
  int randompos=(int)(Math.random()*dailyPlanetStreet.size());

  for (int counter1=0; counter1<dailyPlanetStreet.size(); counter1++){
    if (dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter1).name()!="Kent Clark") {counter1=goodpos;}
  }

  dailyPlanetStreet.add(randompos,dailyPlanetStreet.remove(goodpos));
}

In the above you're setting counter1 back to zero every time the name isn't "Kent Clark". You probably intended to use goodpos = counter1; inside the if clause. Also, don't use == or != to compare String values, rather use .equals().

Thus the above should be:

public static void rescue() {
  int goodPos = 0;
  int randomPos = (int)(Math.random() * dailyPlanetStreet.size());

  for (int counter1 = 0; counter1 < dailyPlanetStreet.size(); counter1++) {
    if (!"Kent Clark".equals(dailyPlanetStreet.get(counter1).name())) {
      goodPos = counter1;
    }
  }

  dailyPlanetStreet.add(randomPos, dailyPlanetStreet.remove(goodPos));
}

This finds the last non-Superman person on the street and moves it to a random position. If you wanted to find the first, you should use break to get out of the loop.

Also, since you're constantly checking whether an object's name is Clark Kent, use a helper method to DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) up your code and improve readability:

private boolean isClarkKent(Person person) {
  return "Kent Clark".equals(person.getName());
}