A reservation system for a movie theater, help needed

[Morphy]

Hi guys,

I have a home assignment where I should write a reservation system for a movie theater. I have come quite far, but I'm having problems with the following part of the assignment:

When user has inputted the number of desired seats, the application should be able to recommend seats for the user following some logic. Normally, if a user wants to reserve more than one ticket, the application should recommend seats that are a) primarily next to each other, and b) secondarily in the middle (rows) of the theater.

I would appreciate it very much if you could give me some pointers. Here's my current code:

import java.util.*;
public class Cinema
{
    public static void main (String[] args)
    {
        //Variables
        Scanner reader=new Scanner(System.in);
        Seat[][] seats=new Seat[5][6];
        int row, input, howmany, count = 0;
        String name;
        String menu = "Menu: "
            + "\n1: Book seats"
            + "\n2: View current seating"
            + "\n0: Quit program";
        //Assigns numbers to the seats.
        for (int i = 0; i<5; i++)
        {
            seats[i][0]=new Seat("1");
            seats[i][1]=new Seat("2");
            seats[i][2]=new Seat("3");
            seats[i][3]=new Seat("4");
            seats[i][4]=new Seat("5");
            seats[i][5]=new Seat("6");
        }
        do
        {
            //Asks the user what she wants to do
            System.out.println("\n"+menu);
            System.out.println("Input (1-2 or 0): ");
            input = Integer.parseInt(reader.next());
            reader.nextLine();
            switch(input)
            {
                case 1:
                //When all the 30 seats are booked, the program informs the user that the cinema is full.
                if(count == 30)
                {
                    System.out.println("\nThe cinema is fully booked.");
                }
                else
                {
                    do
                    {
                        System.out.print("How many seats would you like to book? ");
                        howmany = reader.nextInt();
                        if(howmany>5)
                        {
                            System.out.println("The maximum number of seats per booking is 5.");
                        }
                        if(howmany<1)
                        {
                            System.out.println("The minimum number of seats per booking is 1.");
                        }
                    }
                    while(howmany>5 || howmany<1);
                    for(int j=0;j<howmany;j++)
                    {
                        printArray(seats);
                        do
                        {
                            //Asks the user on what row he would like to book a seat
                            System.out.println("Where would person number "+(j+1)+" like to sit?");
                            do
                            {
                                System.out.print("Row: ");
                                row=reader.nextInt();
                                //If the user choses a nonexistent row
                                if(row>5)
                                {
                                    System.out.println("There are only 5 rows, please choose a new row.");
                                }
                            }
                            while(row>5);
                            //Asks what seat the user would like.
                            do
                            {
                                System.out.print("Seat: ");
                                name=reader.next();
                                //If the user choses a nonexistent seat
                                if(!name.equals("1") && !name.equals("2") && !name.equals("3") &&
                                !name.equals("4") && !name.equals("5") && !name.equals("6"))
                                {
                                    System.out.println("There are only 6 seats per row, please choose a new seat.");
                                }
                            }
                            while(!name.equals("1") && !name.equals("2") && !name.equals("3") &&
                            !name.equals("4") && !name.equals("5") && !name.equals("6"));
                        }
                        while(row>5);
                        for(int i=0;i<6;i++)
                        {
                            if(seats[row-1][i].getName().equalsIgnoreCase(name))
                            {
                                //If the seat is already taken, it informs the user about it
                                if(seats[row-1][i].getVisible()==false)
                                {
                                    System.out.println("\nThat seat is already taken, please select another one.\n");
                                    j--;
                                }      
                                //If the seat is free, the program books it and marks it as taken.
                                else
                                {
                                    seats[row-1][i].setVisible(false);
                                    count++;
                                }      
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                break;

                case 2:
                printArray(seats);
                break;

                case 0:
                System.out.println("Good bye!");
                break;

                default:
                //Informs the user that the input is not valid
                System.out.println("Invalid input.");
                break;
            }
        }
        while(input != 0);
    }

    //This method prints the current seating situation
    public static void printArray(Seat[][] a)
    {
        //Prints the rows
        System.out.println("-SCREEN-");
        for(int i=0;i<5;i++)
        {
            System.out.print(i+1+" ");
            //Prints the seats
            for(int j=0;j<6;j++)
            {
                System.out.print(a[i][j]);
            }
            System.out.print(" ");
            System.out.println();
        }
    }
}

and

public class Seat
{
    //Variables.
    private boolean visible;
    private String name;
    public Seat(String name)
    {
        visible=true;
        this.name=name;
    }
    public void setVisible(boolean b)
    {
        visible=b;
    }
    public String getName()
    {
        return name;
    }
    public boolean getVisible()
    {
        return visible;
    }
    public String toString()
    {
        if(visible)
            return name;
        else
            return "X";                    
    } 
}

[Sierra]

Well I will not do the homework for you... how about just:
if a user wants to reserve more than one ticket, look for
a) primarily next to each other
b) secondarily in the middle (rows) of the theater.

That needs you to define what the middle rows are and implement a method that checks if near the requested seat are 'n' other ones where n is the number of requested seats?

[Morphy]

Thanks Sierra, I will give it a try.