Word Scrambler game

[egriz10]

Hey guys, I'm working on a small word scrambler game. The game has a preset list of words to use. It randomly picks a words to use. Within that word, it randomly cycles through the letters to scramble up the word.

My problem is that when it scrambles the word, some letters will not come up, and some will be repeated. For example: umbrella will become aellraba.

A bit of help would be nice, or if there is a function that automatically scrambles the word?

Thank you :)

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Random;
     
    public class WordGame {
            public static void main(String[] args) {
                    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
                    Random rand = new Random();
                    Random rand2 = new Random();
                    String[] WordList1 = {"pirate", "dog", "adult", "aeroplane", "air", "aircraft carrier", "airforce", "airport", "album", "alphabet", "apple",
    "arm", "army", "baby", "backpack", "balloon", "chess board", "chief", "child", "chisel", "chocolates", "church", "circle", "circus", "clock", "clown",
    "coffee", "coffee-shop", "comet", "compact disc", "compass", "computer", "crystal", "cup", "cycle", "database", "desk", "diamond", "dress", "drill", "drink", "drum",
    "ears", "earth", "electricity", "fruit", "fungus", "horse", "meteor", "microscope", "milkshake", "mist", "money", "monster", "school", "sex", "ship",
    "skeleton", "slave", "snail", "software", "solid", "space", "shuttle", "star", "stomach", "sunglasses", "surveyor", "swimming pool", "tiger", "tunnel", "typewriter",
    "umbrella", "vacuum", "window", "woman", "worm"};
     
                    int Length1 = WordList1.length;
                    int Choice = rand.nextInt(Length1);
                    String WordChoice = WordList1[Choice];
                    System.out.println(WordChoice);
                    char mCharArray[] = WordChoice.toCharArray();
                   
                    int RandNumb = rand2.nextInt(mCharArray.length);
                    int RandNumb2 = rand2.nextInt(mCharArray.length);
                    int x = 0;
                    int x1 = RandNumb;
                    int x2;
                    while (x < mCharArray.length){
                    	System.out.print(mCharArray[x1]);
                    	x2 = x1;
                    
                    	if (x1 == x2){
                    		x1 = rand2.nextInt(mCharArray.length);
                    	}
                    	x = x + 1;
                  
                    }
                    
            }
     
    }

[KevinWorkman]

I can't really follow the logic of your scrambling algorithm. I would guess that the problem is that you aren't keeping track of the letters you've already used.

You could also convert the char array to a List and use Collections.sort(), I suppose.

[egriz10]

Well it's supposed to pick a random number between 0 and the length of the word, and if that letter was just already picked, to randomly pick another letter.

This is where I'm stuck.

[KevinWorkman]

That might be your problem- what if the letter was already picked, but it wasn't the most recent letter picked?

[egriz10]

That might be your problem- what if the letter was already picked, but it wasn't the most recent letter picked?

Yeah this is the problem I'm running into. It's able to make sure it doesn't repeat the letter that was just picked. However I can't think of a way to ensure it doesn't repeat any letter that was already picked.

Any thoughts?

[Junky]

If you do not have to write the code yourself then use Collections.shuffle.

If you have to write the code...

generate random number (this is for how many times to swap)
loop {
    generate random number index one
    generate random number index two
    swap letters at index one and two
}

There is a chance that the two indicies will be the same but who cares? Swap them anyway. Or you can add an if statement to only swap if they are not equal.

[egriz10]

Success!

Thank you for the help everybody :)

package WordGame;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.ArrayList;
     
public class WordGame {
            public static void main(String[] args) {
                    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
                    Random rand = new Random();
                    String[] WordList1 = {"pirate", "dog", "adult", "aeroplane", "air", "aircraft carrier", "airforce", "airport", "album", "alphabet", "apple",
    "arm", "army", "baby", "backpack", "balloon", "chess board", "chief", "child", "chisel", "chocolates", "church", "circle", "circus", "clock", "clown",
    "coffee", "coffee-shop", "comet", "compact disc", "compass", "computer", "crystal", "cup", "cycle", "database", "desk", "diamond", "dress", "drill", "drink", "drum",
    "ears", "earth", "electricity", "fruit", "fungus", "horse", "meteor", "microscope", "milkshake", "mist", "money", "monster", "school", "sex", "ship",
    "skeleton", "slave", "snail", "software", "solid", "space", "shuttle", "star", "stomach", "sunglasses", "surveyor", "swimming pool", "tiger", "tunnel", "typewriter",
    "umbrella", "vacuum", "window", "woman", "worm"};
                    String wordchoice;
                    int Length1 = WordList1.length;
                    int Choice = rand.nextInt(Length1);          
                    List listA = new ArrayList();
                    wordchoice = WordList1[Choice];
                    System.out.println(wordchoice);
                    for (int i =0; i < wordchoice.length(); i++){
                    	listA.add(wordchoice.charAt(i));
                    }
            	System.out.println(shuffler(listA));
            } 
            public static String shuffler(List a){
            	String word = "";
            	Collections.shuffle(a);
            	for (int j = 0; j < a.size(); j++){
            		word += a.get(j);
            	}
            	return(word);
            }
         
}

[DarrylBurke]

String concatenation in a loop creates a lot of new objects which are then to be garbage collected, slowing down the program. I recommend you use StringBuilder#append(...) instead of String += ... inside the for loop.

db