help with a few basic methods

[dawnMist]

Hello, I got another class assignment this week and I´m trying to make it work.
It is a little application that should establish or disjoin dancing couples and create dancing lessons.

public class Dancer
{
    private Dancer partner;
    private boolean female;
    private int number;

    /**
     * @param number Dancer's number
     * @param isFemale Dancer's genre
     */
    public Dancer(int number, boolean isFemale) {
        this.number = number;
        female = isFemale;
    }
    
    /**
     * @return true if the dancer has a partner
     */
    public boolean hasPartner() {
        return partner != null;
    }
    
    /**
     * @return true if the dancer is female
     */
    public boolean isFemale() {
        return female;
    }    

    /**
     * @return true if the dancer is male
     */
    public boolean isMale() {
        return !female;
    }  
    
    /**
     * @return dancer's number
     */
    public int getNumber() {
        return number;
    }

    /**
     * Breaks the dancing pair, i.e. unsets partner of this dancer and vice versa.
     * 
     * @return false if this dancer had no partner.
     */
    public boolean unsetPartner() {
        if (!hasPartner()) return false;
        partner.partner = null;
        partner = null;
        return true;
    }
}

public class DancerException extends Exception
{
    public DancerException() {
        super();
    }
    
    public DancerException(String message) {
        super(message);
    }
}

Now I am suppossed to write method setPartner, here is what I have so far and I really ain´t sure about it:

    /**
    * Creates dancing pair. This method assignes the given dancer as a partner 
    * of this dancer and vice versa.
    * 
    * @param partner Person to be assigned as our partner in dancing pair
    * @throws NullPointerException if the partner parametr is null
    * @throws DancingException if either this dancer or the given partner are alredy in a pair 
    *        (they already have a partner)
    * @throws DancingException if this dancer and the given partner are of the same genre
    */  
    
    public void setPartner(Dancer partner) throws NullPointerException, DancerException {
        if(partner == null) throw new NullPointerException("partner");
        
        try {
            this.partner = partner;
            partner.partner = partner;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            if(partner != null )throw new DancerException("Dancer already has a partern.");
            if(partner.female == partner.partner.female) throw new DancerException("Dancers have the same gender.");
        }

}

Finally I should create a class for dancing lessons that consist of dancers.

public class DancingLesson
{
    private Dancer[] dancers;
    
    public DancingLesson(Dancer[] dancers) {
        if(dancers == null) throw new NullPointerException("dancers");
        this.dancers = new Dancer[dancers.length];
        for(int i = 0; i < dancers.length; i++) {
            if(dancers[i] == null) throw new NullPointerException("dancers [" + i + "]");
            else this.dancers[i] = dancers[i];
        }
    }
    
    public Dancer getDancer(int number) {
        Dancer result = null;
        for(int i = 0; i < this.dancers.length; i++) {
            if(this.dancers[i].getNumber() == number) result = dancers[i];
        }
        return result;
    }
    
    public boolean pair(int ladie, int gentleman) {
        // if they are the same gender
        if(getDancer(ladie).isMale() == getDancer(gentleman).isMale()) return false;
        
        // if the number does not exist
        for(int i = 0; i < dancers.length; i++) {
            if( (ladie != dancers[i].getNumber()) && (gentleman != dancers[i].getNumber()) ) return false;
        }
        
        // if one of them already has a pair
        if( (getDancer(ladie).hasPartner() == true) || (getDancer(ladie).hasPartner() == true) ) return false;
        
        setPartner(getDancer(ladie));        
        return true;
    
    public boolean disjoin(int dancer) {
        // TODO
    }
}

The problem is line 34 - the compiler says "cannot find symbol - method setPartner(Dancer)" although the method is in the same package.

Thank you for any tips or advice.

[Tolls]

There is no setPartner method in the DancingLesson class.

[dawnMist]

That should not be a problem considering they are in the same package, am I right?

[Tolls]

No.
Java does not work like that.
You either have to give it an object to work against (eg someList.get(0)), or, for a static method, a class (eg Math.random()).
Inside a method, a call without an associated object is treated as calling a method on 'this' (ie the current object).

So in your case that call to setPartner is translated as this.setPartner().
And 'this' (ie the DancingLesson object) has no setPartner method.

[dawnMist]

I tried to create an object to work against:

    public boolean pair(int ladie, int gentleman) {
        Dancer man = new Dancer(gentleman, false);
        Dancer woman = new Dancer(ladie, true);
        
        // if they are the same gender
        if(getDancer(ladie).isMale() == getDancer(gentleman).isMale()) return false;
        
        // if the number does not exist
        for(int i = 0; i < dancers.length; i++) {
            if( (ladie != dancers[i].getNumber()) && (gentleman != dancers[i].getNumber()) ) return false;
            if(ladie == dancers[i].getNumber()) woman = dancers[i];
            if(gentleman == dancers[i].getNumber()) man = dancers[i];
        }
        
        // if one of them already has a pair
        if( (getDancer(ladie).hasPartner() == true) || (getDancer(ladie).hasPartner() == true) ) return false;
        
        setPartner(man);

        return true;
    }

Still the same error, what am I doing wrong?

[Tolls]

setPartner(man);

Here you are not using any object to call this method, so the compiler assumes you mean 'this.setPartner()'.
Since 'this' is the current object, which is a DancingLesson object, then it gives you the error, since DancingLesson has no setPartner method.

I have no idea what class has that method, so I cannot say what should appear there instead.

[dawnMist]

Oh, sorry about that. The setPartner method is a part of the Dancer class.

[Tolls]

So, since you are passing the 'man' in as a parameter, I'm going to guess that this should be called on the 'woman'.
No point making the man partner himself after all.

woman.setPartner(man);

Looking in the setPartner it is on the right track, but you can get rid of the try/catch. It's not doing anything, and is actually preventing those lines in the catch block from executing, and you want them to as they check the data is valid. In fact they should probably be before you set the 'partner' values, as you only want to set them if those check are correct.
The other thing is you have to use 'this' in there each time you are referring to the 'partner' variable that is part of the object, and not the parameter. That is the only way you can tell the compiler which one you mean. You do it once already, but you need to ensure you do it elsewhere in that method as well.
For example:

this.partner = partner;
partner.partner = partner;

Is setting the current objects partner to the parameter (which is great), but then setting the parameters 'partner' variable to itself...which is wrong.
The result of this is that woman.setPartner(man) will make the man.partner == man.
It should read:

this.partner = partner;
partner.partner = this;

[dawnMist]

Ok, I finally got it right. Thank you very much for your help.
I corrected the setPartner method like this:

    public void setPartner(Dancer partner) throws NullPointerException, DancerException {
        if(partner == null) throw new NullPointerException("partner");
        
        if( (partner.hasPartner() != false) || (this.hasPartner() != false) )
            throw new DancerException("Dancer already has a partner.");
        
        if(this.isMale() == partner.isMale()) throw new DancerException("Dancers have the same gender.");
           
        this.partner = partner;
        partner.partner = this; 
    }

And I deal with those exceptions in the other method like this:

    public boolean pair(int ladie, int gentleman) {  
        try {
            getDancer(ladie).setPartner(getDancer(gentleman));
        } catch (NullPointerException e) {
            return false;
        } catch (DancerException e) {
            e.getMessage();
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

Thanks again.