Help with a word guessing game.

[The_Round_One]

I have a problem with one of my projects I'm working on. It's kind of like wheel of fortune. It's a basic 2 player game. One player submits a word or words. Then the other player guesses either a character or the whole word. I'll post what code I have so far and at the end describe my problems.

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

public class wof   // wof stands for wheel of fortune
{

   public static final long TIME_LIMIT = 10000L; // that is, 10 seconds

   public static final char MASK = '#'; // to mask out chars that are
					// not to be seen by the player

public static void main(String[] args)
{

      int i;
      String clear;
      String begin;
      String puzzle_answer;
      String presentation;
      String guess;

      // keyboard stream 

      Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);

      // to start, clear the screen using the "clear_screen"
      // method defined below.

      System.out.println("hit any key to continue");
      begin = sc.nextLine();
      clear_screen();

      // get the puzzle answer from the first user (the "host").

      System.out.println("Host please enter the word for the player");
      puzzle_answer = sc.nextLine();

      // clear the screen so the second user (the player)
      // does not see the answer.

      clear_screen(); 

      // construct the presentation string, that is, the
      // answer string with all chars but 'r', 's', 't',
      // 'l', 'n', 'e' and whitespace masked out.

            puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('R',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('S',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('T',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('L',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('N',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('E',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('r',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('s',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('t',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('l',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('n',MASK);
	    puzzle_answer = puzzle_answer.replace('e',MASK);

	    


      // display the presentation string and give the
      // player 10 seconds to look at it.  (Use the
      // "pause" method below to pause the program
      // for the 10 seconds.)

      System.out.println(puzzle_answer);
      pause(TIME_LIMIT);

      // Now, clear the screen again and get the player's guess.

      clear_screen();
      guess = sc.nextLine();
      // compare the guess to the puzzle answer.

      if(guess.equalsIgnoreCase(puzzle_answer))

         System.out.println("You win $100,000!");

      else
      {
         System.out.println("The answer was: " + puzzle_answer + '.');
         System.out.println("Sorry, you'll have to settle " +
			    "for the rice-a-roni.");
      }

} // end main

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

public static void clear_screen()
{

   //  This method clears the screen

      System.out.print("\033c");

} // end clear_screen

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

public static void pause(long duration)
{

   //  This method implements a pause of "duration"
   //  milliseconds

       try
       {
          Thread.sleep(duration);
       }
       catch (InterruptedException ie)
       {
          // do nothing
       }

} // end pause

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

}

My first problem is that it replaces the answer user one enters with the one with the letters replaced by "#". I know that it has something to do with puzzle_answer being used to be the one displayed with the "#". Presentation was the one that was supposed to be used for that. When I tried to get "puzzle_answer" string to be the same as "presentation" string it showed up with an error. Also how would I get it so the user guesses individual characters. Sorry for the book and thank you for any assistance. Maybe even one or two of you users may even recognize this.

[Webuser]

First put your code in code tags. It is unclear :(
Secondly the forum has games thread. It is quite good as for yours :)

You can simply organize the answers code by putting down answers in array manner :)
Check the regular expression classes to organize a simple word analyzing watch the link Reg Exp

[The_Round_One]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't looking for an answers array. I was looking for a way one player to enter a word and the other player guesses it with only a limited amount of letters displayed. I figured out what I had to do to get this. If you or anyone that stumbles across this thread wants to see the code just leave a message. Also what are tags? I leave comments with the " // " on my code to display a small description in comments. I don't regularly post in forums so if it's some forum thing could you please explain.

[curmudgeon]

Tags are ways to let the forum software know that you are posting code. You place the tag

[code]

on top of your code block and

[/code]

below your code block. This will change the appearance of posted code from this:
public class ColourSlidersTest {
private static void createAndShowUI() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ColourSlidersTest");
frame.getContentPane().add(new ColourSlidersGUI().getMainPanel());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOS E);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowUI();
}
});
}
}


to this:

public class ColourSlidersTest {
  private static void createAndShowUI() {
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("ColourSlidersTest");
    frame.getContentPane().add(new ColourSlidersGUI().getMainPanel());
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        createAndShowUI();
      }
    });
  }
}

and the latter is much easier to read, don't you think?

[Eranga]

You can simply organize the answers code by putting down answers in array manner :)
Check the regular expression classes to organize a simple word analyzing watch the link Reg Exp

I agreed with you. That's the most suitable way. While keeping the answers in an array, you can compare user inputs in many ways, still the fastest manipulations take place.

[The_Round_One]

I know it's a bit late but thanks for explaining the tags for me curmudgeon. Yes it is much easier to read.

[Eranga]

No worries. Please try to do that next time onwards. Good luck :)