We Keep Coding

Problem with Switch statement in for loop for turn based RPG battle in java

Essentially, I've put a switch statement in a for loop. It has not been working as intended. I think it has something to with the break statement.
What I want the loop to do is go to the first element in the array list, execute code based on the 'action' String, then go to the next until the list ends. However, it seems that whenever I run the program it only executes the code in the first index. Here is some code for the BattleManager class:
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String cmd;
String[] dtct;
Arraylist<BattleAction> turns = new ArrayList<BattleAction>();
public void handle() {
cmd = input.nextLine();
dtct = (cmd.split());
switch(dtct[0]) {
case "attack":
turns.add(new BattleAction("playerattack"));
getenemyaction();
turnsequence();
break;
case "defend":
getenemyaction();
turnsequence()
}
}
public void getenemyaction() {
turns.add(new BattleAction("enemyattack"));
}
public void turnsequence() {
Collections.sort(turns);
print("Size: " + turns.size())
for (int i = 0; i != turns.size(); i ++) {
switch(turns.get(i).action) {
case "playerattack":
playerattack();
break;
case "enemyattack":
enemyattack();
break;
}
}
}
public void playerattack() {
print("Player attack");
}
public void enemyattack() {
print("Enemy attack");
}
When I run the program here is the output I am getting with the attack command:
attack
Size: 2
Player Attack
However when I use the defend command the output is:
defend
Size: 1
Enemy Attack
The desired output would be for turnsequence() to go through turns and do check action for the desired code to be executed, like this:
attack
Size: 2
Player Attack
Enemy Attack
I have done my best to cut out as much unnecessary information at possible to prevent confusion. Thank you so much for reading my post! I really appreciate your help!

java: loop with switch only works sometimes

I'm really scratching my heard on this one. I'm new at java, and I'm having the strangest thing happen.
It's homework and I'm taking it one step at a time. My issue is the loop just keeps going and stops asking for input, just keeps looping until it terminates. My comments are largely for myself. I tried to extract what was causing my problem and post it here.
Look at the "hatColor" switch, you'll notice the way I'm making sure the user enter only from the options I have allotted. Should I be using a exception handler or something?
Anyway, in short, the problem is that if I enter something with spaces, the loop skips asking for my next input. Like, if I entered "y y y y y " to the scanner when first prompted, the program will terminate and not give me the chance to enter something else.
Please, anyone that understands this, I would really appreciate your help.
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Testing
{
static String hatColor;
public static void main(String[] args) {
gameStart();
}
public static void gameStart()
{
Scanner userInput = new Scanner(System.in);
boolean keepLooping = true;
int loopCounter = 0;
System.out.println("The game begins. You must choose between 3 different colored hats."
+ " You can type white, black, or gray.");
while (keepLooping == true)
{
hatColor = userInput.next();
switch(hatColor)
{
case "white":
System.out.println("You have chosen the path of well intentioned decisions.");
walletDrop();
//the two items below are only there in case the wallet drop somehow completes without calling another method
keepLooping = false; // stops the while loop from looping again.
break; // breaks out of the switch
case "gray":
System.out.println("You have chosen the path of free will.");
walletDrop();
keepLooping = false;
break;
case "black" :
System.out.println("You have chosen the path of personal gain.");
walletDrop();
keepLooping = false;
break;
default : //we could just copy this default chunk for later switch statements
if (loopCounter >= 3)//end program on them
{
System.exit(0);
}
System.out.println("You didn't enter a usable answer. Try again");
loopCounter++;
if (loopCounter == 3)
{
System.out.println("This program will self destruct if you enter another invalid response.");
}
}//end of switch
}//end of while
}//end of game start method
public static void walletDrop()
{
System.out.println("wallet drop successful");
}
}

So I have actually solved this right after posting. In case someone else needs to look here for help:
The issue I was experiencing was due to using the scanner method
variableToAssign = scannerName.next();
instead of
variableToAssign = scannerName.nextLine();

Making a program repeat within itself, but you can't make a method(?): Java

I have a project for my computer science class and we're making battleship. Part of the program is that we have make sure that the piece the player puts down does not go off of the board.
I've made a method to check to see whether it goes off the board:
private static boolean test(String s, int row, int column,int spaces)
{
if(s.equals("right")&&column+5<=10)
{
return true;
}
if(s.equals("up")&&row-spaces>=0)
{
return true;
}
if(s.equals("left")&&column-spaces>=0)
{
return true;
}
if(s.equals("Down")&&row+spaces<=10)
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
But once I've gotten it to print out an error message, I'm not sure how to make it so that the program can re-recieve the new position for the piece, without putting an if statement in and if statement in an if statement (and on and on), because you need to check the new position to make sure it doesn't go off of the board.
Here is the part where I get the position of the playing piece (although I don't think you need it)
Scanner sonic= new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Please input the row where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
int beginrow = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.println("Please input the column where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
int begincolumn = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.print("Please input what direction (up, down, left, right) \nyou want your battle ship to face, making sure it doesn't go off of the board.");
String direction = sonic.next();
And here's one of the if statements that I use to check/place the pieces
if(direction.equals("left")&&test("left",beginrow,begincolumn,5))
{
for(int i = beginrow; i>beginrow-5; i--)
{
battleship[begincolumn-1][i-1] = ('a');
}
}
else if(!test("left",beginrow,begincolumn,5))
{
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println("*****ERROR: your piece goes off the board, please re-enter your position and direction*****");
}
This may be a duplicate, but I didn't know how to reword my search to find what I wanted. (So if anyone could direct me to the right article, that'd be nice as well)

What you should do is split your code appropriately into methods and call that methods repeatedly until your program is satisfied with the outcome.
For example:
create a method startGame() which has the job call methods getting user input until satisfied
make a method to request the user to input all the different ships and other required data
That might look something like
public void startGame() {
// do some setup
while(!requestShipInput()) { // request ship data until the data is valid
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println("*****ERROR: your piece goes off the board, please re-enter your position and direction*****");
}
// do some more ship setup
// get the actual playing started
}
public boolean requestShipInput() {
Scanner sonic= new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Please input the row where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
int beginrow = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.println("Please input the column where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
int begincolumn = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.print("Please input what direction (up, down, left, right) \nyou want your battle ship to face, making sure it doesn't go off of the board.");
String direction = sonic.next();
if(direction.equals("left")&&test("left",beginrow,begincolumn,5)) {
for(int i = beginrow; i>beginrow-5; i--) {
battleship[begincolumn-1][i-1] = ('a');
}
return true; // valid ship data
}
return false; // invalid ship data
}

As a first step, separate input validation from taking the action based on that input - you already have the validation logic in a separate function, so this is easy. Then figure out what needs to be done in case of invalid input - in your case, you need to ask for new input until you get a valid position:
do {
System.out.println("Please input the row where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
beginrow = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.println("Please input the column where you want the aircraft carrier (5 spaces) to begin: ");
begincolumn = sonic.nextInt();
System.out.print("Please input what direction (up, down, left, right) \nyou want your battle ship to face, making sure it doesn't go off of the board.");
direction = sonic.next();
} while (!test(direction, beginrow, begincolumn, 5))
After that, you know you've got a valid position.
My next step would probably be to group the information required to describe a ship on the board (i.e. beginrow,begincolumn,direction, probably also size) in a separate Object - possibly named Ship.

I think you could pretty naturally use recursion here:
public void getInput() {
// scanner code to get input
if (!test("left",beginrow,begincolumn,5)) { // test failed
getInput()
return
}
// test succeeded, continue
}

You already have something to the limits of you board? If you execute the check first, you don't need to execute a cascade of if-else
if(!test(direction,beginrow,begincolumn,size))
{
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println("*****ERROR: your piece goes off the board, please re-enter your position and direction*****");
} else {
// check for collision with already placed ships
}
Keep in mind that there is a chance to combine up/down and left/right. The calculation rules are nearly the same and you only have to decide if you have to look to the one or the other direction.

Java help regarding looping (do loops)

I'm trying to make a very basic game where you guess a number between 1-1000 using a do loop. Everything works, except when I finally make the correct guess, I am still prompted to make another guess, and when I enter the same correct guess again, the program terminates like it's suppose to.
Why do I have to make that extra guess to finally get my program to work? Am I looping around an extra time? Also, if I make a correct guess (the compiler will say I am correct then still prompt me), then a wrong guess (the compiler will tell me I'm wrong), then the correct guess again, the program will only terminate after I make the correct guess a second time.
The second do loop at the bottom is what I put in my main method. Everything above is in a method I wrote called play.
public static boolean play()
{
boolean c;
int n = 0;
do {
String input = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter a number between 1-1000");
n = Integer.parseInt(input);
if (n == guess)
{
System.out.println("Correct");
c = true;
}
else if (n < guess)
{
System.out.println("Not Right");
c = false;
}
else
{
System.out.println("Not Right");
c = false;
}
guess++;
} while (c == false);
return c;
}
In main method:
do {
game1.play();
} while (game1.play() != true);

This loop runs the play method twice in each iteration of the loop :
do {
game1.play(); // first call
} while (game1.play()!=true); // second call
You are not testing the value returned by the first call, so even if it returns true, you would still call game1.play() again, which will display "Enter a number between 1-1000" again.
Replace it with:
boolean done = false;
do {
done = game1.play();
} while (!done);
This would only call play() one time in each iteration of the loop.
That said, I'm not sure why you need the outer loop.
You can just replace in with one call to game1.play(), since game1.play() will loop until the correct number is entered.

Java Method not working constantly

I have a text based game that I am making. It is a RPG style where the user is given options linked to numbers and they have to choose a number. Now my problem is that when running the program. A certain method, Decision(), only works certain times. The method is in a superClass while it is being called in the subclass. in the subclass, It works the first time, but not necessarily the second. Also, when I copy the decision method from the superclass into the subclass its starts working, but the next time it is called, it stops. Here is what I've tried and the results. I've included the decision method and where it is being called.
Decision Method:
public int decision(String question, int length, String[] choices){
int[] numbers = new int[length];
int iterator = 1;
for(int i = 0; i < length; i++){
numbers[i] = iterator;
iterator++;
}
boolean done = false;
while(!done){
//print("Test");
print("");
print(question);
String options = "";
for(int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++){
options = (options + numbers[i] + " - " + choices[i] + " ");
}
print(options);
boolean univSet = true;
int entry = 1;
while(univSet){
if(univInt != 0){
univSet = false;
entry = univInt;
univInt = 0;
//print("testing");
}
}
if(entry == 23){
help();
}else{
for(int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++){
if(entry == numbers[i]){
done = true;
univInt = 0;
return entry;
}
}
print("Invalid Number, Try again");
print("");
univInt = 0;
}
}
return (Integer) null;
}
Chapter1 Class (Where it's being called:
public class Chapter1 extends Story implements Serializable {
Player player;
public Chapter1(Player player){
this.player = player;
}
public void engage() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
player.chapter = 1;
save(player.name);
sPrint("Welcome to Chapter 1");
print("You wake up in a lighted room with white walls.\nA fresh breeze is coming through the window yet the air smells rotten.");
print("You jolt up suddenly. You don't remember anything about how you got here. You've even forgotten who you are.");
print("You look down at your white shirt, there is a streak of blood across the top.\nYou are wearing a nametag that says: " + player.name + ".");
print("You're sitting in a chair but there are no restraints. You decide to get up and look around");
cur = decision("What do you do?", 2, new String[]{"Try the door", "Look out the window"});
print(cur + "");
if(cur == 1){
print("You walk over to the door and try and open it, it is unlocked.\nYou walk through and are welcomed by a cold and poorly lit hallway");
}else{
print("You walk to the window and look outside. You see a huge barren field. You can make out a humanoid like structure.\nYou call out yet the figure doesn't move.");
print("You decide to try the door. It's unlocked so you walk through into a cold dimly lit hallway.");
}
print("You see a dull knife on the floor as well as a door on the end of the hallway");
cur = decision("What do you do?", 2, new String[]{"Go to the door", "Take the knife"});
if(cur == 2){
print("You pick up the knife.");
addWeapon("Kitchen Knife", player);
}else{
print("You walk down the hallway to the door when suddenly the door opens and out comes a zombie.\nIt Lunges for your shoulder. You are caught by surprise and it bites into your skin and you are infected");
gameOver();
}
print("You continue to walk down the hall when suddenly a hideous creature lunges out from the door.\nYou jump back and prepare yourself for a battle.");
battle("Zombie", 5, 2, player);
sPrint("I see that you have succeeded in your first encounter with the undead.\nI congratulate you but you have a long way to go. Remember, I am your only way to learning about your past. \nNow, make your way down to the bottom of the tower. I will help you where I see fit along the way.");
print("You look around and see that the lights have brightened up. The zombie has been mutilated by your Kitchen Knife. \nYou don't know where the voice came from but you are scared. Behind the zombie's original hiding spot you see a staircase.\nYou follow it down, onto what seems to be..the 11th floor.");
print("");
print("Please input 'complete' to continue");
pause();
sPrint("Chapter 1 complete");
}
Now in this class, engage() is being called to run this chapter. And decision is being called where you see it, as well as in the battle() method(the battle method loops a couple times and decision() is called every loop.
Originally, both Decision and battle are in the superclass, but not in the sub class. This results in the first decision method in the class to be called, but not the second. In the second, it stops at the loop checking the value of univInt.
When I put the decision method into the sub class, It passes the first two but it fails to get past the first one in the battle method for the same reason.
When I put both the decision and battle method into the sub class, it has the same result as just putting decision.
Finally if I put battle in the sub class but not decision it only passes the first two again.
In the project I have one variable named cur that holds the integer value of whatever decision returns. I reuse it for every decision. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. This really doesn't make sense to me how whether the methods are in the same class, or inherited would matter at all if they are the same method.
I am ready to clarify anything and I hope someone is able to understand what is going wrong.
EDIT:
univInt is being set to another number other than 0 outside of decision. thats why it works some times. It is a swing class and a method in a superclass sets univInt to whatever is in a TextField when a button is pressed so with that while loop I try to constantly check to see univInt has been changed from 0

It seems like your "univInt" is a class member, not a local variable, and you do not reinitialize it when entering the function. Thus it won't be changed back to allow the program to enter the if-statement you mention.