CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaobjectarraylist
ol1ie310
ol1ie310

Reputation: 13

How To Return An ArrayList Of Objects

I have an ArrayList in a class called Room that contains the Character object. I want to be able to print off a description that will give a list of the Characters in a Room. I have made a toString method in the character class that will return the names of the characters but cant get it to work from the Room class. Im fairly new to programming and still getting use to arrays, any help would be appreciated!

Here is the addCharacter method that adds a character to the Room arraylist.

 public void addCharacter(Character c)
{
    assert c != null : "Room.addCharacter has null character";
    charInRoom++;
    charList.add(c); 
    System.out.println(charList);

    // TO DO
}

Here is the getLongDescription() class that I to use to print the list of characters in the room. (This is the method im having trouble with).

public String getLongDescription()
{
    return "You are " + description + ".\n" + getExitString() 
    + "\n" + charList[].Character.toString;  // TO EXTEND
}

And here is the toString method in the Character class. This method works.

public String toString()
{
    //If not null (the character has an item), character 
    //and item description will be printed.
    if(charItem != null){
        return charDescription +" having the item " + charItem.toString();
    }
    //Otherwise just print character description.
    else {
        return charDescription;
    }

}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 174

Answers (1)

LppEdd
LppEdd

Reputation: 21172

As you're using a List<Character>, and you already implemented your custom toString method, you can just call characters.toString().

public String getLongDescription() {
    return "You are " + description + ".\n" + getExitString() 
    + "\n" + characters; // toString implicitly called.
}

The ArrayList#toString method will simply call each element's toString.

public String toString() {
    Iterator<E> it = iterator();
    if (! it.hasNext())
        return "[]";
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.append('[');
    for (;;) {
        E e = it.next();                                 // Get the element
        sb.append(e == this ? "(this Collection)" : e);  // Implicit call to toString
        if (! it.hasNext())
            return sb.append(']').toString();
        sb.append(',').append(' ');
    }
}

Upvotes: 1

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