how can you generate multiple random numbers in a changing range?

Asked Feb 06 '16 at 00:54

Active Feb 06 '16 at 00:56

Viewed 20 times

Noob here. I've tried using the other answers for random numbers, but they don't seem to accomplish what I'm trying to do.

So... I'm trying to make a method that catches a random fish in a pond. It will catch multiple fish in a row that are stored in an array, and I basically want it to avoid catching null, and still catch a fish every time it is run. Here's the method.

public String catchAFish(){ 
  int x = (int)(numFish * Math.random());
  pond[x] = pond[numFish+1];
  pond[numFish+1] = null;
  numFish--;
  return ("You have caught "+pond[x]);
}

The last fish in the array moves into the spot of the fish that was caught. I tried a function in a for loop before, and it accomplished the same thing. The problem is that the number of possible fish to catch changes whenever a fish is caught, so I can't just set a range of "0-10".

edited Feb 06 '16 at 00:56

asked Feb 06 '16 at 00:54

morr0564

Keep a count of found fishes and substract at the end. – Jean-François Savard Feb 06 '16 at 00:56
1

that's why numFish--; is there. Its intended to track the number of fish in the pond, so that the random int can be recalculated with each run. Unless you mean something else? – morr0564 Feb 06 '16 at 00:58
This why you do not use raw arrays, `ArrayList` does not have that problem. – Feb 06 '16 at 00:59
`System.out.println(fish[rand.nextInt(numFish--)]);` - throw this in a for loop with `numFish > 0` as the condition. – ChiefTwoPencils Feb 06 '16 at 01:16
You appear to want to use a shuffle so you can select multiple times without getting any duplicates. – Peter Lawrey Feb 06 '16 at 01:21

how can you generate multiple random numbers in a changing range?

0 Answers0