Storing high score and sorting the array

A guessing game where the user must guess a number between 1 and 1000.

The program must contain a class called Game, which has only one public method. The method must
be called start(), and, when run it starts the game. The game continues until the user chooses to
quit, either at the end of a game by answering no to the question or by typing 'quit' instead of a
guess. After each game has been played, the program is to ask the user for a name and insert this
together with the number of guesses into a high score list. When a game is started the program
should print the entire high score list, which must be sorted with the least number of guesses first
and the most last. Note, the list must be kept as long as the game-object is alive!

Would I create a game object in the main class whenever the game is run, store the objects in an array, the sort the array and print it out?

The thing I need help with is that I am not sure how the program creates a new object on its own when the game is run.

Maybe there is another way, please help.

Thanks.

Your teacher will probably create the Game object and call the start() method himself (whether automated or not), unless he asked you to create a driver program for your Game class.

I thought I could write the Game class with a public method called start, then in the RunGame class, I would put Game.start in the main method. How would I store high scores? They must be sorted in terms of lowest amount of guesses and lowest game time. Would I use array to store the data, and sort it . what does it mean by "as long as the game object is alive"? It must only store the scores as long as the game is run, So I wouldnt need to store the results in a txt file??

Please help.

Thanks in advance

I think he's saying that you don't have to store the high scores in a file on the hdd, and use that to obtain the high scores from the last time the game was played. Just make sure that the object you use to hold the high scores doesn't go out of scope at the end of start() (or some other method). To do this you really just need to make sure that the object which holds the high score is a private member of your Game class.

Mr. Beans

Thanks.

I thought I could create the game constructor

Game(String playerName,int guesses,double timePlayed){

}
but how can I create set methods, e.g. setPlayerName(name inputed from scanner)

as private, would I ask for player name in the start method, calculate guesses and time in the start method which is public, then in the runGame class I code Game.start .

Is this a possible way to do it or am I going down the wrong path.

Also, how can an Array be sorted depending on 2 values, time and guesses?

Thanks a lot.

Why would you create a constructor which takes the amount of guesses as an argument? The amount of guesses would be determined by the Game class, and thus could not be accurately given to the game class before it's created.

I suggest you create a private method to get the high score, then call it from the start() method when you need to get the high score.

Here's some psuedo code

Code:

---

while (!quit)

numberGuesses = guessNumber()

// Map<Integer, String> map; is a private member variable
map.put( numberGuesses, getHighScoreName() )

---

That would be the basic layout of the start method I woudl create. Of course you would have to check for if the user quit, exceptions, etc.

I having trouble thinking how I would reset the variables, once the players info is stored , and where or how would I store it?

Also what exactly would the Game class hold then?

The start method can be the only public method in the game class- and the game must start when it is run? shouldn't the main class do that?

Sorry for all the questions, but you are really helping?

The main class will create the Game class then call the start() method? Just think of the start() method as your 'main' method.


Why don't you try creating a sample program and see how far you can get.