Need help with hangman game

[kurt]

Hi, this is my first time posting in this forum. I currently need some help with my assignment. I'm required to design a hangman game that has an interface menu, where I can choose a new game. Upon choosing to play, the game will load the lines from a text file and split them up into words and hints and randomized. A hint of the word will be displayed and spaces will be displayed to show the number of letters:

HINT: fruit

_ _ _ _ _

I'll be required to make a guess by entering a letter. If the wrong letter is chosen, it will display and a hangman figure:

Wrong Letters: k
If more letters entered by user are wrong, it will continue to accumulate:
Wrong Letters: ka
If the correct letter is entered, it will display the letter on one of the spaces in the word:

_ _ p _ _

But right now my problem is finding out how to convert string to character from input, and to compare the character with the characters in the word. I have currently written my code to the part of entering a letter to make a guess. If anyone knows how I should go about next, I would really aprreciate it, thx!

This is the game code:

import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Hangman {
	private final int MAX_WORDS = 15;
    private String[] wordAns;
	private String[] wordHint;
	private static String word;
	private static String guess;
    	
    public void newGame() {
    	Scanner myScanner = null;
    	String aLine = null;
		int i = 0;
    	wordAns = new String[MAX_WORDS];
    	wordHint = new String[MAX_WORDS];
    	
    	try {
    		myScanner = new Scanner (new File("words.txt"));
    		
    		// Loop until all words have been read from the file
    		while (myScanner.hasNextLine()) {
    			// read a line from file
    			aLine = myScanner.nextLine();
    			
    			// Split the data into two parts as words and hints
    			String[] data = aLine.split(";");
    			
    			wordAns[i] = data[0];
    			wordHint[i] = data[1];
    			i++;
    		}
   			
   			// Randomize and display a hint from the data
   			Random generator = new Random();
			int num = generator.nextInt(i);
			System.out.print ("HINT: " + wordHint[num] + "\n\n");
    		
    		             word = wordAns[num];
    		             char[] temp = word.toCharArray();
    		             for (int j = 0; j < word.length(); j++ ) {
     			       System.out.print ("_\t");
  			}
  			
  			System.out.println ("\n\n");
  			System.out.println ("Make your guess [A-Z]: ");
  			guess = myScanner.nextLine();
  			char guessLetter = guess.charAt(0);

                                      [B]// Code yet to be completed...[/B]
  		}
    	
    	catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
     		System.out.println ("Game data file is not found!");
     	}
     	catch (IOException e) {
     		System.out.println ("Error reading game data!");
     	}
     	finally {
			if (myScanner != null) myScanner.close();
     	}
    }
    
}

This is the code for the main menu:

import java.util.*;

public class HangmanGame {
	// define static variables
	private static Hangman myGame;
	
    public static void main(String[] args) {
    	boolean quitFlag = false;
    	int option;
    	Scanner console = new Scanner (System.in);
    	
    	do {
    		// display user interface menu
    		System.out.println ("-------------------------");
    		System.out.println (" WELCOME TO PLAY HANGMAN");
    		System.out.println ("-------------------------");
    		System.out.println ("1.\t" + "Play NEW Game");
    		System.out.println ("2.\t" + "Quit");
    		System.out.println ("-------------------------");
    		System.out.print ("Choose an option (1 or 2): ");
    		
    		// read user's entry from option
    		option = console.nextInt();
    		
    		// Start a new game
    		if (option == 1) {
    			myGame = new Hangman();
    			myGame.newGame();
    		}
    		// Quits menu and exits program
    		else if (option == 2) {
    			quitFlag = true;
    		}
    	} while (!quitFlag);
    	System.out.println ("Game Over! Thanks for playing!");	
    }
}

This is the words.txt file:

apple;fruit
orange;fruit
mango;fruit
motorcycle;vehicle
lorry;vehicle
sofa;furniture
table;furniture
chair;furniture
spoon;eating utensil
fork;eating utensil
blue;colour
brown;colour
yellow;colour
tiger;animal
elephant;animal

[Singing Boyo]

Try converting the input String to a char array us the toCharArray() method, and then taking the first Character from the array. Something like this...

char guessed = guessString.toCharArray[0];

As for checking if it contains the char, you could use a for loop from 0 up to AnswerString.length() - 1, and an if statement testing whether AnswerString.charAt(i) = guessed.
e.g

public boolean containsChar(char guessed){
     for(i=0; i<AnswerString.length; i++){
          if(AnswerString.charAt(i) == guessed){
               return true;
          }
     }
     return false;
}

[kurt]

Hi, thx for the reply. I have successfully converted string to char from the input of letter, but I'm still having problems with the comparing of character from the input and the characters from the hidden word. I got an error "Cannot find symbol method charAt(int) at the for loop.

public class Hangman {
	private final int MAX_WORDS = 15;
    private String[] wordAns;
	private String[] wordHint;
	private static String word;
	private static String guess;
	private static char guessed;
    	
    public void newGame() {
    	Scanner myScanner = null;
    	String aLine = null;
		int i = 0;
    	wordAns = new String[MAX_WORDS];
    	wordHint = new String[MAX_WORDS];
    	
    	try {
    		myScanner = new Scanner (new File("words.txt"));
    		
    		// Loop until all words have been read from the file
    		while (myScanner.hasNextLine()) {
    			// read a line from file
    			aLine = myScanner.nextLine();
    			
    			// Split the data into two parts as words and hints
    			String[] data = aLine.split(";");
    			
    			wordAns[i] = data[0];
    			wordHint[i] = data[1];
    			i++;
    		}
   			
   			// Randomize and display a hint from the data
   			Random generator = new Random();
			int num = generator.nextInt(i);
			System.out.print ("HINT: " + wordHint[num] + "\n\n");
    		
    		            word = wordAns[num];
    		            char[] temp = word.toCharArray();
    		            for (int j = 0; j < word.length(); j++ ) {
     			      System.out.print ("_\t");
  		            }
  		            System.out.println ("\n\n");
  			
  			// gets input from user, converts string to char
  			System.out.println ("Make your guess [A-Z]: ");
  			Scanner console = new Scanner (System.in);
  			guess = console.nextLine();
  			char[] guessed = guess.toCharArray();
  			
  			for(int m =0; m < temp.length; m++){
          		if(temp.charAt(m) == guessed){
               		System.out.println ("True!");
          		}
     		}
     		System.out.println ("False!");
    		
  			// char guessLetter = guess.charAt(0);
  		}

[CJSLMAN]

Cannot find symbol method charAt(int) at the for loop.

Because temp is a char array, not a string. charAt() is a String method.

Luck,
CJSL

[Singing Boyo]

yes... should be if(temp[i] == guessed)

also, your loop will repeatedly print true... you may want to break the loop after determining that the specified character is contained within the correct answer.