CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaarraylistruntime-error
user147219
user147219

Reputation: 375

Java program iterating more than needed?

I'm not sure if I asked the right question but that's as close as I could think of. Anyway, I'm trying to make a simplified version of Solitaire known as Elevens. Everything seemed to be fine at compilation stage, but when it ran through, it didn't work as intended. Below are the methods of my Deck and DeckTester classes that pertain to the question:

Note: I left out the headers and stuff

Deck class constructor and one of the methods:

public Deck(String[] suits, String[] ranks, int[] values){
    ArrayList<Card> cardslist = new ArrayList<Card>();
    for(String suit: suits){
        for(String rank: ranks){
            for(int value: values){
                cardslist.add(new Card(suit, rank, value));
            }
        }
    }
    size=cardslist.size();
    cards=cardslist;
}

public List<Card> getDeck(){
    return cards;
}

DeckTester main method:

public static void main(String[] args){
    String[] suitsA={"Clubs", "Diamonds", "Hearts", "Spades"};
    String[] ranksA={"Ace", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five", "Six", "Seven", "Eight", "Nine", "Ten", "Jack", "Queen", "King"};
    int[] valuesA={1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13};
    String[] suitsB={"Lions", "Giraffes", "Wolves"};
    String[] ranksB={"One", "Two", "Three"};
    int[] valuesB={1, 2, 3};
    Deck a = new Deck(suitsA, ranksA, valuesA);
    Deck b = new Deck(suitsB, ranksB, valuesB);
    System.out.println(a.getDeck());
    System.out.println(b.getDeck());
}

This is producing a result of an array like {Ace of Clubs (point value: 1)...Ace of Clubs (point value: 13), Two of Clubs (point value: 1), etc}

I would like it to produce like a standard deck of cards.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 62

Answers (2)

Vaibhav Aggarwal
Vaibhav Aggarwal

Reputation: 1411

You have three nested for loops, therefore you will make suits*ranks*values many cards, while you only want to make suits*ranks many cards. Therefore:

public Deck(String[] suits, String[] ranks, int[] values){
    ArrayList<Card> cardslist = new ArrayList<Card>();
    for(String suit: suits) {
        for(int i = 0; i < ranks.length; i++) {
            cardslist.add(new Card(suit, ranks[i], values[i]));
        }
    }
    size=cardslist.size();
    cards=cardslist;
}

public List<Card> getDeck(){
    return cards;
}

Keep in mind that you will have to make the ranks and values correspond in order when you pass them in to assign them correctly and make sure their lengths are the same. You will probably want to add guards for that.

Hope this helps!

Upvotes: 1

JC97
JC97

Reputation: 1620

To make a deck of cards (52 cards) you have 4 "suits" and 13 "ranks" for each suit. 4 * 13 = 52. But you make for each "normal card" an extra loop with each point values? You could use an enum for suit and an enum for ranks and use a switch statment (or if if you prefer that) to assign a value to the cards. You don't need an extra loop. You don't need to make an enum. Since you use strings it's perfectly possible to do it that way. But you shouldn't assign values like you're doing now. You could place the check for the value in the constructor of the card for example.

Upvotes: 0

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