HELP!Going MAD with ARRAYS and random numbers

Answers given here:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=656830

We don't know what kind of class RanGen is (it's not part of the core API), but it's a good bet that it returns a different type than an int. You'll need to assign the returned value to the correct type of variable.

The Java Tutorial - Trail: Learning the Java Language (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html)

Thanks a lot Norm you were absolutely right about the error. What do you suggest about the input considering the fact that I have to check digit by digit? It has been suggested to me that I should store this in a string and then convert each character into an integer and finally check digit by digit. Do you think that this is the right way to go? Thank you for the help.

The data has to be taken in one go(whole number) so Im currently storing it into a string -(1234).Then I was told to convert the string (1234) by reading each character and converting each character into an int so then I can check each digit in the input number against each digit (element) in the Random Array and if there is a match -same number in the same place then award a point. I hope that this makes any sense to you it almost does make sense to me.Almost.:) Thanks Norm

I love how 99% of people at code forums never give people answers. Instead they type up paragraphs of useless bs that dosnt really help much, or say things like "why would you want to do that". If you dont feel like giving a concrete answer to help someone, then dont bother to post at all. I coded this up real quick and it does what you where asking. I hope you can understand it and realize what you where doing wrong in your code.

A lot of people can find the answer to their own question by getting pushed in the right direction. With very obvious school assignments (like this post) it's not a good idea to "spoonfeed" the answer to the OP. And especially not by saying "I hope you understand it"... What if the OP doesn't? It would have been better for the OP to figure it out by him/her self, that way people really learn something about programming. I hope you understand that.

A lot of people can find the answer to their own question by getting pushed in the right direction. With very obvious school assignments (like this post) it's not a good idea to "spoonfeed" the answer to the OP. And especially not by saying "I hope you understand it"... What if the OP doesn't? It would have been better for the OP to figure it out by him/her self, that way people really learn something about programming. I hope you understand that.

Sometimes people get stuck with code and they do need some help and advice.
It helps when you communicate the problem with other people and to learn more about it and programming in general. I wasn't asking for a complete solution but it helps when you see snippets of code to see how to approach a problem. So i can only PUSH you in one direction buddy

""and if you NEED to have the user enter the 4 numbers in a row like 1234 in one shot as a string, then you could use the substring method in string to chop that one string into 4 different strings, and turn each new string into an Int with Integer.parseInt();""

Here's another snippet for you:

public class InputExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {

String input = "10 12 35 94 55";
String[] chopItUp = input.split(" ");
int[] numbers = new int[chopItUp.length];

for(int i = 0; i < chopItUp.length; i++) {
try {
numbers[i] = Integer.parseInt(chopItUp[i]);
}
catch(Exception e) {}
}

System.out.print("Number array: ["+numbers[0]);
for(int i = 1; i < chopItUp.length; i++) {
System.out.print(","+numbers[i]);
}
System.out.print("]");
}
}

So i can only PUSH you in one direction buddy

Here's a last "snippet" to get you you started. Just no more pushing, ok?

import java.util.*;

public class Assignment {

// ...
public static void main(String[] args) {

boolean quit = false;

while(!quit) {
int[] randomList = getNewRandomArray();
System.out.println("\nNew random list generated. ("+arrayToString(randomList)+")");
boolean good = false;

while(!good && !quit) {
int[] userList = getNewUserArray();
int compare = compareLists(randomList, userList);
if(compare == 4) {
good = true;
System.out.println("\nYou got it! Press a key to play again, 'q' to quit.");
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String line = scan.nextLine();
if(line.equalsIgnoreCase("q")) {
quit = true;
}
}
else {
System.out.println(compare+" points for attempt: "+arrayToString(userList));
}
}
}
}

// ...
private static String arrayToString(int[] a) {
String str = "";
for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
str += ""+a[i];
}
return str;
}

// ...
private static int[] getNewRandomArray() {
int[] randArr = new int[4];
for ( int i = 0 ; i < randArr.length ; i++ ) {
randArr[i] = (int)(Math.random()*3)+1;
}
return randArr;
}

// ...
private static int[] getNewUserArray() {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
int[] userArr = new int[4];
boolean wrongInput = true;

while(wrongInput) {
System.out.print("\nEnter four numbers from 1-3: ");
try {
String line = scan.nextLine();
userArr = convertStringToArray(line);
if(userArr != null) wrongInput = false;
else {
System.out.println("\nWrong input, try again.\n");
}
}
catch(Exception e) {}
}
return userArr;
}

// ...
private static int[] convertStringToArray(String input) {
if(input.length() == 4) {
char[] chars = input.toCharArray();
int[] numbers = new int[chars.length];
for(int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
try {
numbers[i] = Integer.parseInt(""+chars[i]);
}
catch(Exception e) { return null; }
}
for(int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
if(numbers[i] < 0 || numbers[i] > 3) return null;
}
return numbers;
}
return null;
}

// ...
private static int compareLists(int[] random, int[] user) {
int score = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < user.length; i++) {
if(random[i] == user[i]) score++;
}
return score;
}
}

Sorry pal, I guess I overreacted. I thought you were against giving people complete solutions? What happened to you? Youve changed man Thanks for the snippets though, really helpful. By the way, hows the weather in Holland these days? Hows good ol VanBasten?

No prob. I overreacted a bit as well.
Today the weather is perfect! And our "boys" played a moderate 2-2 against Germany with Van Basten recently. But I have confidence in him!

Good luck.