how can i do this in the java word game i am making similar to battle ship

[apaandmomo]

hi i am making a word game in java. its objectives are similar to battleships. at the start of the game,5 words(or any number really) are randomly placed on locations on a GUI grid of 8 by 8. at first i had wanted to make words vary in length but i will do them of 3 letters each to keep it simple.the player tries to hit the words on the grid. If he hits a letter, a window pops up. in this window there will be the letter he hit and blank spaces for the rest of the letters. a hint about the word will also be displayed. the user has one chance to try and guess the word. if he manages it counts as a point and the word is sunk else the window closes and the game continues but the hit letter remains uncovered. i had no problem up till the later parts of making the game. I have created the grid in GUI and a word vector in another class. the main menu with the options of PLAY, HELP and ADD WORDS is functional and working. however i hit a road block. i cant figure out how to take the words from the vector and place them randomly on the grid :/ also the points methods that will keep track of the players points. how can i do this? also there is an odd number of words on the grid to avoid draws. please help any advice appriciated . one last thing is it possible to make a button uncklicable after it has been hit? thank you

[Tolls]

For deploying words, break it down.

You'll want a method that deploys all the words.
This is the easy bit.
Just loop over the array and call a deployWord(String) method.

Now, you need to write the deployWord method.
You'll need to describe your criteria for legal places to deploy a word.
For example you can't deploy one too close to the right hand side of the grid, since the word wouldn't fit.

As for making a button unclickable, they have a setEnabled method.

[apaandmomo]

For deploying words, break it down.

You'll want a method that deploys all the words.
This is the easy bit.
Just loop over the array and call a deployWord(String) method.

Now, you need to write the deployWord method.
You'll need to describe your criteria for legal places to deploy a word.
For example you can't deploy one too close to the right hand side of the grid, since the word wouldn't fit.

As for making a button unclickable, they have a setEnabled method.

hi can u please explain in a bit more detail how i can do the econd method. i created the first method. how do i place a word onto an actual grid? thank you

[DarrylBurke]

Moved from Advanced Java.

Whatever made you think this is an 'advanced' question?

db

[Tolls]

hi can u please explain in a bit more detail how i can do the econd method. i created the first method. how do i place a word onto an actual grid? thank you

You need to come up with some rules.
Forget about the buttons, just come up with some rules about checking whether a particular location is valid.
In order to check whether a position is valid it needs a model of the grid to work with. Note this is a model, not the grid of buttons itself. That button grid is simpyl a visual representation of the model.

All this should be doable without any reference to a GUI whatsoever.
Once you're happy that you have the population of this grid working, then you can use that grid to create the grid of buttons.