Problems troubleshooting errors

I am still new to Java, and am trying to write a Guessing game program. I keep getting error messages that non-static methods can not be referenced by static context. Does anyone have any ideas how I can correct this issue?
Sorry about the lack of notes and documentation, I haven't gotten that far yet. Trying to get a workable program. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Code:

---


import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;


public class JFrameGuess extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
        private int uGuess;
        final int LENGTH = 500;
        final int HEIGHT = 200;
        final int LIMIT = 1000;
        private int selectedNum;
        JLabel gameBoard = new JLabel("I am thinking of a number between 1 and 1000.\n" +
                                                                                "Can you guess my number?");
        JTextField guess = new JTextField(4);
        JButton startGame = new JButton("Start Game");
        boolean winGame = false;
       
        public JFrameGuess()
                {
                        super("Program #5 - Number Guessing Game");
                        setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
                        add(gameBoard);
                        add(guess);
                        add(startGame);
                        setVisible(true);
                        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                        startGame.addActionListener(this);
                        Random ranNum = new Random();
                        selectedNum = ranNum.nextInt(LIMIT) + 1;
                        }
       
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
                {
                        uGuess = Integer.parseInt(guess.getText());
                }
       
        public static int getUserGuess()
        {
                return uGuess;
        }

        public static int getRandomNum()
                {
                        return selectedNum;
                }
       
                       
        public void compareValues(int newAnswer, int oldAnswer ,int comNumber, int count)
                {
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && newAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayWarmerLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && newAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayWarmerGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && oldAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayColderLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && oldAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayColderGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        else
                                displayWinner(newAnswer);
                }
       
        public void displayWarmerLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting WARMER. Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.RED);
                                add(startGame);
                                add(guess);
                                setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                                setVisible(true);
                                startGame.addActionListener(this);       
                }
        public void displayWarmerGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO HIGH!  But you are getting WARMER. Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.RED);
                                add(startGame);
                                add(guess);
                                setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                                setVisible(true);
                                startGame.addActionListener(this);       
                }
       
        public void displayColderLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting COLDER. Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                                add(startGame);
                                add(guess);
                                setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                                setVisible(true);
                                startGame.addActionListener(this);       
                }
                               
        public void displayColderGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO HIGH!  Ane you are getting COLDER. Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                                add(startGame);
                                add(guess);
                                setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                                setVisible(true);
                                startGame.addActionListener(this);       
                }
               
        public void displayWinner(int num)
                {
                        winGame = true;
                        setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
                       
                        setVisible(true);
                        setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                        JLabel winner = new JLabel("Congratulations " + num + " is the right number.\n" +
                                                                                                "Would you like to play again?");
                }

       
        public static void main(String[] args)
                {
                        int count = 1;
                        int newAnswer = 0;
                        int oldAnswer = 0;
                        int CompNum = getRandomNum();
                       
                        JFrameGuess GuessingGame = new JFrameGuess();
                       
                        oldAnswer = newAnswer;
                        newAnswer = getUserNumber();
                       
                        compareValues(newAnswer, oldAnswer, CompNum, count);
                }
}

---

Any method/block of code that has the static modifier must use static content. Take your compareValues method it is used inside static void main, but compareValues is non static (does not have the static modifier in its implementation).

I understand and see what you are talking about, but when I change my methods to static, my errror list on compile grows. It is even telling me that the preset methods like setColor, and setBackground can not be referenced. Any ideas what I am doing wrong or where the error is in my syntax?

Don't start making things static as that's going backwards and is counter to good OOP coding technique. The correct approach is to call non-static methods on your objects.

You have to decide:
1. better way - keep everything private and non-static and reference it from not-static context (not from main - use main only to initialize your main object).
2. worse way - keep everything static and do whatever you want.
You cannot mix-up static and normal variables and methods in a way you're doing it now.

Thanks for the help, I think that I am heading in the right direction now. Program compiles correctly, but when I attempt to run, I enter in my first guess and the java platform freezes. Below is my current code:

Code:

---

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;


public class JFrameGuess extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
        final int LENGTH = 500;
        final int HEIGHT = 200;
        final int LIMIT = 1000;
        private int newAnswer = 0, oldAnswer, comNumber, count, selectedNum;
        JLabel gameBoard = new JLabel("I am thinking of a number between 1 and 1000." +
                                                                                        " Can you guess my number?");
                                                                                       
        JTextField guess = new JTextField(4);
        JButton startGame = new JButton("Start Game");
        JButton exit = new JButton("Exit");
        boolean winGame = false;
       
        public JFrameGuess()
                {
                        super("Program #5 - Number Guessing Game");
                        setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
                        add(gameBoard);
                        add(guess);
                        add(startGame);
                        add(exit);
                        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                        startGame.addActionListener(this);
                        exit.addActionListener(this);
                        Random ranNum = new Random();
                        selectedNum = ranNum.nextInt(LIMIT) + 1;
                }
       
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
                {
                        Object source = e.getSource();
                       
                        if(source == exit)
                                System.exit(0);
                        else
                                {
                                        oldAnswer = newAnswer;
                                        newAnswer = Integer.parseInt(guess.getText());
                                        int number = selectedNum;
                                        int times = count;
                                        compareValues(newAnswer, oldAnswer, number, times);
                                }
                }
       
        public void compareValues(int newAnswer, int oldAnswer ,int comNumber, int count)
                {
                        do
                        {
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && newAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayWarmerLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && newAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayWarmerGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && oldAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayColderLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && oldAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayColderGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        else
                                displayWinner(newAnswer);
                       
                        count++;
                        }while (newAnswer != selectedNum);
                }
       
        public void displayWarmerLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting WARMER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.RED);
                                       
                }
        public void displayWarmerGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO HIGH!  But you are getting WARMER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.RED);
                               
                }
       
        public void displayColderLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting COLDER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                                                }
                               
        public void displayColderGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                JLabel game = new JLabel(num + " is TOO HIGH!  Ane you are getting COLDER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                                                }
               
        public void displayWinner(int num)
                {
                        winGame = true;
                        setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
                       
                        JLabel winner = new JLabel("Congratulations " + num + " is the right number.  " +
                                                                                                "It took you " + count + " attempts to guess my number.  " +
                                                                                                "Would you like to play again?");
                }

       
        public static void main(String[] args)
                {
                                       
                        JFrameGuess GuessingGame = new JFrameGuess();
                        GuessingGame.setVisible(true);
                }
}

---

Yep, this will freeze your app:

Code:

---

do
{
  //....
} while (newAnswer != selectedNum);

---

You'd best get rid of this loop as it will lock the main Swing thread, the EDT. The code in the loop looks OK, but the do-while doesn't.

You can use Eclipse's debugger in order to find your error.

What am I missing? I tried a while loop and it didn't work either. So far I don't know if the background color and tests will work.

How about removing loop?

I removed the loop, but I can not figure out why the compareValues method doesn't seem to be working. Any ideas?

Code:

---

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;


public class JFrameGuess extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
        final int LENGTH = 600;
        final int HEIGHT = 200;
        final int LIMIT = 1000;
        private int newAnswer = 0, oldAnswer, comNumber, count = 1, selectedNum;
        JLabel gameBoard = new JLabel("I am thinking of a number between 1 and 1000." +
                                                                                        "  Can you guess my number?");
        JTextField guess = new JTextField(4);
        JButton startGame = new JButton("Start Game");
        JButton exit = new JButton("Exit");
        boolean winGame = false;
       
        public JFrameGuess()
                {
                        super("Program #5 - Number Guessing Game");
                        setSize(LENGTH, HEIGHT);
                        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
                        add(gameBoard);
                        add(guess);
                        add(startGame);
                        add(exit);
                        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                        startGame.addActionListener(this);
                        exit.addActionListener(this);
                        selectedNum = ((int)Math.random() * 100 + 1);
                }
       
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
                {
                        Object source = e.getSource();
                       
                        if(source == startGame)
                                {
                                                oldAnswer = newAnswer;
                                                newAnswer = Integer.parseInt(guess.getText());
                                                int number = selectedNum;
                                                int times = count;
                                                compareValues(newAnswer, oldAnswer, number, times);
                                }
                               
                        else
                                System.exit(0);
                               
                }
       
        public void compareValues(int newAnswer, int oldAnswer ,int comNumber, int count)
                {
               
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && newAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayWarmerLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && newAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayWarmerGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && oldAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayColderLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && oldAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayColderGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        else if (newAnswer == selectedNum)
                                displayWinner(newAnswer);                       
                       
                        count++;
                       
                }
       
        public void displayWarmerLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                gameBoard.setText(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting WARMER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                gameBoard.setBackground(Color.RED);
                                       
                }
        public void displayWarmerGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                gameBoard.setText(num + " is TOO HIGH!  But you are getting WARMER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                gameBoard.setBackground(Color.RED);
                               
                }
       
        public void displayColderLessThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                gameBoard.setText(num + " is TOO LOW!  But you are getting COLDER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                gameBoard.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                }
                               
        public void displayColderGreaterThan(int num, int count)
                {
                                gameBoard.setText(num + " is TOO HIGH!  Ane you are getting COLDER." +
                                                                                                        "  Enter guess number " + (count + 1));
                                gameBoard.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
                }
               
        public void displayWinner(int num)
                {
                        gameBoard.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
                       
                        gameBoard.setText("Congratulations " + num + " is the right number.\n" +
                                                                        "It took you " + count + " attempts to guess my number.\n" +
                                                                        "Would you like to play again?");
                        winGame = true;
                }

       
        public static void main(String[] args)
                {
                                       
                        JFrameGuess GuessingGame = new JFrameGuess();
                        GuessingGame.setVisible(true);
                }
}

---

"it doesn't work" provides zero information.

Since you didn't provide any relevant information I will guess that the "warmer/colder" messages are not being displayed. Try repainting.

nope his logic inside those if statements never equate to true in the compareValues method

problem originates inside actionPerformed():

Code:

---

oldAnswer=newAnswer;

---

and newAnswer is compared to oldAnswer for greater or less than

Code:

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public void compareValues(int newAnswer, int oldAnswer ,int comNumber, int count)
                {
               
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && newAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayWarmerLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && newAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayWarmerGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer < oldAnswer && oldAnswer < comNumber)
                                displayColderLessThan(newAnswer, count);
                        if(newAnswer > oldAnswer && oldAnswer > comNumber)
                                displayColderGreaterThan(newAnswer, count);
                        else if (newAnswer == selectedNum)
                                displayWinner(newAnswer);                       
                       
                        count++;
                       
                }

---

Code:

---

oldAnswer=newAnswer;

---

On the very next line newAnswer gets a different value from the textfield.

:o yup you are right, still think those if statements don't equate to true, because I made one of them absolutely be true and one of those displayWarmer methods ran

I put that logic in a stand alone if statement at the end of the compareValues method as follows:

Code:

---

if(winGame == false)
                                {
                                        oldAnswer = newAnswer;
                                        count++;
                                }

---

I still can not get the red or blue background to display. The program runs, input first guess, and nothing happens. If I wasn't already bald, I would be pulling my hair out now!

try this in the constructor

Code:

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gameBoard.setOpaque(true);

---

Against my better judgement I ran your code and turns out you always have 1 as the secret number. Math.random generates a number from 0 to 1. So 0.00000009 is a valid random number. You then convert that to an int so it become 0. Multiply by 100 = 0. Add 1 = 1.

I see in your previous code you were using the Random class. Why did you stop and use Math.random instead?

I was grasping at straws as to what the issue was. Like I said I am still new to Java, learning along the way. Thanks to all of you for the help so far.