Question

I am trying to make a word guessing game on java, where there are four letters and you have 10 guesses to try and guess the letter combination. When I try to play, it says every combination of letters I enter is correct.

For example:

"You have 10 guesses left.
Enter your guess:
wxyz
There are 4 correct letter placements.
Congrats!"

I emailed my professor and she said one of my methods is wrong because I'm only checking for specific instances of w x y and z instead of any combination of letters. I'm not sure how to fix it so that it checks for every combination.

Here is my code for the method:

public int play(String str){
int w = 0;
int x = 0;
int y = 0;
int z = 0;
  
char lett;
int total;
  
remainingGuesses = remainingGuesses - 1;
  
for(int wx = 0; wx < str.length(); wx++) {
lett = str.charAt(wx);
  
if(lett == 'w' || lett == 'W') {w = 1;}
if(lett == 'x'|| lett == 'X') {x = 1;}
if(lett == 'y'|| lett == 'Y') {y = 1;}
if(lett == 'z'|| lett == 'Z') {z = 1;}
  
}
total = w + x + y + z;
wordFound = true;

return total;
}

Could someone give me the correct code, or at least a hint?

Reposting because the first expert who answered misunderstood my question. I'm looking for code that checks for every combination of the four letters, NOT for specific instances.

To the expert who commented: the word is randomly generated, so I can't provide a specific instance of a case that's correct or incorrect. Do you want the entire code?

Answer 1

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class WordGuess {
  
private static final String FILE = "words.txt";
  
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
  
// read all words from file
ArrayList<String> words = readWords(FILE);
  
// get the length of the list
int nWords = words.size();
  
// generate a random number between 0 and nWords to pick a random word
Random rand = new Random();
int pick = 0 + rand.nextInt(nWords);
while(pick < 0 || pick > nWords)
{
pick = 0 + rand.nextInt(nWords);
}
  
// get the word of the game
String quesWord = words.get(pick).toLowerCase();
ArrayList<String> userWord = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
userWord.add("-");
}
  
// prompt user until all the 4 blanks are covered
int guesses = 0;
do
{
System.out.println("Word status: " + getWord(userWord));
System.out.print("Enter a character (a-z): ");
char inp = Character.toLowerCase(sc.nextLine().charAt(0));
  
// loop to constantly prompt user if any other character is encountered
while(inp < 'a' || inp > 'z')
{
System.out.print("Invalid input!\n\nEnter a character (a-z): ");
inp = Character.toLowerCase(sc.nextLine().charAt(0));
}
  
// if the input guess is wrong
if(!quesWord.contains(inp + ""))
{
guesses++;
System.out.println("Wrong guess!\nGuesses: " + guesses + " (Max - 10 guesses)" + "\n");
}
else
{
// correct guess
guesses++;
System.out.println("You made a correct guess!\nGuesses: " + guesses + " (Max - 10 guesses)" + "\n");
  
// get the position of the character in the original word
int actualPosition = quesWord.indexOf(inp);
  
// now, set the character at the above index of the userWord list
userWord.set(actualPosition, inp + "");
}
  
// if the user word is complete or user excdeeded the number of guesses limit (10 guesses)
if(!userWord.contains("-") || guesses == 10)
{
if(!userWord.contains("-"))
System.out.println("You completed the game in " + guesses + " guesses!\n"
+ "Thank you for playing the game\n"
+ "Goodbye!\n");
else
System.out.println("You failed to complete the game in " + guesses + " guesses\n"
+ "Better luck next time.\nGoodbye!\n");
System.exit(0);
}
}while(!userWord.contains("-") || guesses <= 10);
}
  
// method to read input file and load all the words in the list
private static ArrayList<String> readWords(String file)
{
ArrayList<String> words = new ArrayList<>();
Scanner fileReader;
  
try
{
fileReader = new Scanner(new File(file));
while(fileReader.hasNextLine())
{
words.add(fileReader.nextLine().trim());
}
fileReader.close();
}catch(FileNotFoundException fnfe){
System.out.println("Couldn't find " + file);
}
return words;
}
  
// retrun the contents of the list as a string
private static String getWord(ArrayList<String> list)
{
String res = "";
for(String s : list)
{
res += s;
}
return res;
}
}

**************************************************************** SCREENSHOT ***********************************************************

INPUT FILE

CONSOLE OUTPUT