Infinite loop

Hey there,

still working on my first project, a simple dice game, as I mentioned already in another thread. So far everything worked fine the way I wanted it to work, but now I got stuck with an infinite loop I can't figure out.

In a game initializing class ("NewGame.java") I have this method:

Code:

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public static int newOpponents(String playersName) {
                Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
                int numberOfOpponents = 0;
               
                do {
                        System.out.println();
                        System.out.print("Hello " + playersName + ". How many people do you want to play with (max. 5)? ");
                        try {
                        numberOfOpponents = input.nextInt();
                        } catch (InputMismatchException wrongInput) {
                                numberOfOpponents = 999;
                        }
                } while ((numberOfOpponents < 1) || (numberOfOpponents > 5));
                return numberOfOpponents;
        }

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From main(), I call it via

Code:

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numberOfOpponents = NewGame.newOpponents(player1.getPlayersName());

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It works fine as long as I type in numbers. But if I type in any letter, I get caught in an infinite loop that just executes the

Code:

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System.out.print("Hello " + playersName + ". How many people do you want to play with (max. 5)? ");

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statement. It doesn't seem to reach the try/catch anymore. Any ideas why that is?

Quote:

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It doesn't seem to reach the try/catch anymore

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How do you know?
For debugging you need to add a println() statement in the catch block to see if it is executing.

Okay, I changed the condition to

Code:

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while (!((numberOfOpponents >= 1) || (numberOfOpponents <= 5)));

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and now it works as I want it to. But still I don't get what the problem was. Why didn't the whole construction execute try/catch anymore after typing in a letter?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

How do you know?
For debugging you need to add a println() statement in the catch block to see if it is executing.

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Right. I'll try that.

?
if you enter a letter then numberofoponents is 999
999> then 5 so it just asks it again

Okay, after typing in a letter, numberOfOpponents is correctly set to "999", and the try/catch statement seems to still get executed. But why is there an infinite loop? Try/catch doesn't take any user input anymore, it just keeps on printing the question and "999". I don't see the problem.

@dinosoep - Yes, that's what he is supposed to do. But the problem is that the question output is printed over and over again without any chance to make a new input. If I type in a number higher than 5, everything works fine. If I type in a letter, which also results in a number higher than 5, it doesn't. But why? And why does it work after changing the condition as shown above?

Quote:

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Why didn't the whole construction execute try/catch anymore after typing in a letter?

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The catch block was being executed, but your code didn't tell you that is was and your incorrect conditions keep the loop going.

Quote:

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I don't see the problem.

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You also must see that the data in the Scanner's buffer is not being removed. Every time you call nextInt() the bad data is still there and an exception is thrown. You need to remove the bad data by calling either next or nextLine depending on how you are allowing the user to enter data.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

You also must see that the data in the Scanner's buffer is not being removed. Every time you call nextInt() the bad data is still there and an exception is thrown. You need to remove the bad data by calling either next or nextLine depending on how you are allowing the user to enter data.

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Yep, that actually was the problem. I didn't know that. Now it works perfectly fine. Thanks a lot! :-)