Having trouble deciding where to put a while loop in my pig dice game program

Question

So I'm writing a program where two users take turns rolling a die. If the user rolls a 1 then their turn ends, if the user rolls 2-6 then I'm supposed to keep a running total of the points scored until the user either decides to roll again and risk his stored points for the round or to save it.

The problem I'm currently having now has to do with where I should place a while loop in my code so that the user can play for an undetermined amount of time. Ideally I would like to get out of the while loop whenever the user rolls a 1, but I'm also having trouble with how to update that number every time outside of the loop.

Any help would be much appreciated! Note: The game isn't finished yet, I'm trying to write through some of these problems before moving on, also the place where I'd like to put my while loop is in the takeTurn method.

Thanks again!

Here is my code:

import java.util.*;
public class PigDice {

// when a player reaches this number, they win
public static final int WINNING_SCORE = 50; 

public static final int DIE = 6; // sides on a die. 

public static void main( String[] args ) {
    Scanner keyboard = new Scanner( System.in );
    Random rand = new Random();

    String winner = playGame( keyboard, rand );
    System.out.println( winner + " wins!" );
}
public static String playGame( Scanner scanner, Random rand ) {

    int score1 = 0; // player 1's score 
    int score2 = 0; // player 2's score 

    // play till someone wins
    while ( score1 < WINNING_SCORE && score2 < WINNING_SCORE ) {
        score1 += takeTurn( scanner, rand, 1, score1 );
        System.out.println( "Player 1 score: " + score1 );
        System.out.println( "***************************" );
        if ( score1 < WINNING_SCORE ) {   
            score2 += takeTurn( scanner, rand, 2, score2 );
            System.out.println( "Player 2 score: " + score2 );
            System.out.println( "***************************" );
        }
    }
    if ( score1 >= WINNING_SCORE ) {
        return "Player 1";
    }
    else {
        return "Player 2";
    }
}

public static int takeTurn( Scanner scanner, Random rand, int player, int score ) {
    int random = rand.nextInt(DIE)+ 1;
    System.out.println("Player " + player + " rolls: " + random);
    int firstRoll = random;
    int roundTotal = 0;

    if ( random > 1) {
        System.out.println( "Player " + player + " total for this round: " + firstRoll);
        roundTotal += firstRoll;
        System.out.print("Roll again? (y or n) : ");
        String getAnswer = scanner.nextLine();
        System.out.println();
        if ( "y".equalsIgnoreCase(getAnswer)) {
            System.out.println("Player " + player + " rolls: " + random);

        }else if ( "n".equalsIgnoreCase(getAnswer)) {
            System.out.println("Player " + player + " score: " + roundTotal);
        } 
    }else {
        System.out.println("Player " + player + ": turn ends with no new points.");
        System.out.println("Player " + player + " score: " + score);
    }     


    return WINNING_SCORE;    
}

}

Thanks guys! I figured it out, and everything works! Thanks for your time!! — user3643284, May 20 '14 at 16:00

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

1

Hint: This may not be the purest solution, but (not many people are aware of that, probably for the best) Java loops can use labels:) With them you can just easily go wherever you like in your loop.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

Community

1
1

answered May 19 '14 at 15:59

TheMP

8,257
9
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Yeah.. using labels can get very messy, it gets hard to recognize the flow of the program. – Lex Webb May 19 '14 at 16:00

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '14 at 15:59

0

You should put your loop in the main class, in order to exit once a player rolls a one, simply return a string that says something like 'lost', check for that at the end of loop and then exit the program, or not.

answered May 19 '14 at 15:59

Lex Webb

2,772
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Sorry i should have mentioned that I'm not supposed to change anything in main, do you have another suggestion – user3643284 May 19 '14 at 17:28
In that case you can put the loop inside another method, which is called from your main, that calls the main game loop. – Lex Webb May 20 '14 at 08:35

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 20 '14 at 16:01

0

I added a do while loop into the body of my takeTurn method which allowed everything else to work out.

answered May 20 '14 at 16:01

user3643284

7
4

Having trouble deciding where to put a while loop in my pig dice game program

3 Answers3