Return two Strings from method - java

I'm a beginner in Java programming, and I'm trying to make a voting machine program, where you can vote for Republicans or Democrats. My question is, how can I edit my method so I would be able to return two strings with two distinct values?
For example, look at my code all the way in the bottom. It's wrong, but I wanted the tester to be able to print out Democrats: (some number) and Republicans: (some number) in one method. How can I do that?
import java.lang.String;
public class VotingMachine1 {
private double Democrats;
private double Republicans;
public VotingMachine1() {
Democrats = 0;
Republicans = 0;
}
public void voteRepublican() {
Republicans = Republicans + 1;
}
public void voteDemocrat() {
Democrats = Democrats + 1;
}
public void clearMachineState() {
Republicans = 0;
Democrats = 0;
}
//this is where I'm having difficulties. I know its wrong
public double getTallies() {
System.out.println("Democrats: ", return Democrats);
System.out.println("Republicans: ", return Republicans);
}
}

No return is necessary there, since you aren't leaving a function. To do what you seem to want to do, just replace that last method with the following:
public void getTallies()
{
System.out.println("Democrats: " + Double.toString(Democrats));
System.out.println("Republicans: " + Double.toString(Republicans));
}
Also, since your votecounts should only ever be integers, there's no reason to declare them as doubles instead of ints.

What you are looking for here is a format string. A format string is used when you know what your output should look like, and only have a few "holes" where unknown data should be filled in. To output your data using format strings, you would use the System.out.format(String, Object...) method:
System.out.format("Democrats: %f\n", Democrats);
System.out.format("Republicans: %f\n", Republicans);
In this case, the %f indicates that a floating-point number (since your variables are declared as double) will be printed instead of the %f. However, you may wish to consider declaring them as int (or long) instead, in which case you would use %d instead of %f in the format strings.
Finally, you ought to change your getTallies() method to return void instead of double, as you are printing the values, not returning them.

Your code and your description are so contradictory, it is not clear that you even know what you are trying to do. I believe that this is the real root of your problems.
Here goes:
public double getTallies()
{
System.out.println("Democrats: ", return Democrats);
System.out.println("Republicans: ", return Republicans);
}
First, your question says that you want to "return two strings with two values" ... but you have declared the method as returning one double.
Next, your code is printing values ... not returning them.
You've also made some major mistakes at the syntactic level, largely (I believe) because you are trying to do contradictory things:
return Republicans is not a valid Java expression, so you can't use it as a argument to the println method.
The println method can't be called with two arguments, as your code is trying to do. There is a zero argument version and a number of one argument overloads ... but no overloads with two or more arguments.
Basically, you need to start by making up your mind about what this method is supposed to do. Is it supposed to:
return the tallies (as two doubles)?
return a string representing the two tallies?
return nothing ... and output the two tallies to standard output?
do something else?
Once you've made up your mind:
code the method to do what you've decided it should do, and
chose a method name that correctly reflects what it is supposed to do. Hint: a method that starts with get is conventionally a "getter" that returns the attribute or attributes themselves ... not a String rendering.
double is a bad choice of type for a vote count too:
You cannot have a fractional vote.
You want to represent vote counts precisely and floating point types (like double) are not precise. (Or at least, not in the sense that you require.)
When you attempt to format or output a double, the resulting character string is likely to include a pesky decimal point ... or worse.
You should use int or long instead of double.
Finally, this is a serious Java style violation, and should get you a significant penalty if your marker is paying attention.
private double Democrats;
private double Republicans;
Variable names in Java should start with a LOWER CASE letter.

A few more random comments:
import java.lang.String; is superfluous as all classes in package java.lang are automatically imported in every Java source file.
Votes can not be fractional. People can't vote 0.75 candidate A, and 0.25 candidate B. If you use integer datatypes (int or long), you will be reflecting this fact better. Also, you will be saving yourself a lot of headache when you start obtaining results like 379857.999999. This is because floating point types have a better range, but worse precision (especially noticeable when working with pure integers).
According to Java usual naming conventions, variable names should start with a lowecase letter.
A better name for function getTallies is printTallies.
For output purposes, it's much better to use string formatting than concatenation. Some advantages are: multiple formats supported, ease of use, and internationalization.
Putting all together:
private int democratVotes;
private int republicanVotes;
public void printTallies() {
System.out.format("Democrats: %,d%n",democratVotes);
System.out.format("Republicans: %,d%n",republicanVotes);
}
In this particular case, votes will be printed with thousand separation (ex: 3,345,623 instead of 3345623). Check Java's Formatting Numeric Print Output tutorial.
Thinking better about it, there are some alternatives where getTallies would effectively be returning some form of value:
1) Make it to return a String with both tallies. It would be hard and inefficient to separate the tallies later, though.
public String getTallies() {
return "Democrats: %,d votes. Republicans: %,d votes.%n".format(democratVotes,republicanVotes);
}
2) Make it to return an array.
public int[] getTallies() {
return new int[2]{ democratVotes, republicanVotes };
}
public int[] getTallies1() { // Same as getTallies, but written step by step.
int[] result= new int[2] ;
result[0]= democratVotes ;
result[1]= republicanVotes ;
return result ;
}
3) Make it to return a class.
public VotingMachineResults getTallies() {
return VotingMachineResults(democratVotes,republicanVotes) ;
}
public static class VotingMachineResults {
private int democratVotes;
private int republicanVotes;
public VotingMachineResults(democratVotes,republicanVotes) {
this.democratVotes= democratVotes ; // `this` required to disambiguate field democratVotes from parameter democratVotes.
this.republicanVotes= republicanVotes ;
}
public int getDemocratVotes() {
return democratVotes ;
}
public int getRepublicanVotes() {
return republicanVotes ;
}
}
As you can see, this class is very similar to VotingMachine1, but it does not accept internal state changes. It is a "value" class.

In Java, you concatenate Strings with the + operator. Proper syntax for what you were trying to do looks like this:
System.out.println("Democrats: " + Democrats);
System.out.println("Republicans: " + Republicans);
A return statement is only used when you want to return some object or value to a method that called your current method. It is not appropriate in this place since you're only passing a value to another method (println()).
ALSO, you need to fix your getTallies() method. Make it return void instead of double since you aren't returning anything.

Here's something completely different: why not override toString()?
Presumably, any instance of VotingMachine1 will apply for all votes that you care about for that instance. That is to say, you don't create a new instance of a VotingMachine1 every time someone casts a vote.
So, what you can do is override the toString() method. We'll also use String.format() to handle the numerical values.
#Override
public String toString() {
// assumes that Democrats and Republicans are declared as int
// since it's pointless to indicate percentages of a vote
return String.format("Democrats: %d\nRepublicans: %d", Democrats, Republicans);
}
Now, whenever you vote, you can use the toString() method to get the information (which is called whenever one does System.out.println(object).
VotingMachine1 voter = new VotingMachine1();
voter.voteDemocrat();
voter.voteRepublican();
System.out.println(voter);
/* This prints:
Democrats: 1
Republicans: 1
*/

A less specific answer to your question would be to return an Object called (say) Votes
public class Vote {
int democratVotes
int republicanVotes
}
and then make your VotingMachine class simply return an instance of this object (suitably changed to make it immutable).
On my project we have created a generic version of this called a Tuple that returns a pair of values in a single object - it has an overloaded toString method for easy printing.

you can return an array with [0] and [1] as key and devide it on the basis of your need..
like
returnArray[0]="first string";
returnArray[1]="second string";
and use it ur way...

Related

How to implement a default interface method that adds a value to the object instance

How do I implement void add(Number number) so it adds number to the object instance
public interface Numbers {
static int toIntValue();
static void fromIntValue(int value);
default void add(Number number) {
// what do i write here
}
}
You mostly cannot do this; interfaces do not have any state, and the notion of 'add a number' strongly implies that you wish to update the state.
This is one way to go:
public interface Number /* Isn't Numbers a really weird name? */ {
int toIntValue();
default int add(int otherValue) {
return toIntValue() + otherValue;
}
}
Here no state is changed; instead a new int is returned.
Another problem here is that the whole notion of abstracting away a numeric type is that there is no default implementation of add.
That's just basic math. Complex numbers are a kind of number; it is clearly impossible to write code that can add 2 complex numbers together without knowing anything about complex numbers beforehand.
What you CAN do is create add out of other primitives, except, 'add' is generally the convenient primitive. For example, here's a take on multiply that can work as a default method, though it is not at all efficient:
public interface Number {
Number plus(Number a); /* an immutable structure makes more sense, in which case 'plus' is a better word than 'add' */
default Number multiply(int amt) {
if (amt == 0) return Number.ZERO; // Define this someplace.
Number a = this;
for (int i = 1; i < amt; i++) a = a.plus(this);
return a;
}
}
Here you've defined multiply in terms of plus.
Note that java already has an abstract number concept (java.lang.Number) and it indeed can do almost nothing, because trying to abstract math like this is hard in any language, and particularly so in java.

int vs Integer vs a user made class to achieve effective pass by reference behavior in Java

Let's say you have a class of object with three
integer fields that you want to possibly change, all in the same way, with one method.
Let's keep it simple and say all that the method does is add 1 to the parameter passed to it.
That is to say, the desired behavior is that by the time the method has completed, the relevant field has increased by 1.
This is impossible to achieve in Java using the primitive type "int" for those fields.
I know about how Java is "always" pass by value, and not pass by reference,
- and - i've heard whisperings on the internet that this is one reason that the Integer class exists, along with other object "wrapper" classes
for ordinarily primitive types such as int and double.
Sending an object as an argument to a method should, in theory, provide a way to [effectively, if not technically] pass by reference, since the value that is passed, is supposedly the value of the reference to the object.
Very tricky. BUT - and this is where my annoyance comes in - I've tried achieving this very simple task by passing an Integer argument instead of an
int, and the desired behavior was still not accomplished. 1 was not added to the relevant field.
And yet, when I made my very own object, which consisted of just one field, an int value, and passed an instance of this object as an argument
to an appropriate method which would simply add 1 to the passed parameter, the desired behavior was in fact accomplished. 1 was added to the relevant field.
So the questions orbiting around this query are - Is it really going to be necessary to craft my own homemade class just to carry a simple integer value
every time I want to achieve this desired behavior? Can the existing tool provided by Java, Integer, really not perform this simple task?
Instead of having one nice, neat method to handle all three of the hypothetical integer fields i mentioned in the beginning, I felt compelled (in a separate, similar project that ultimately provoked this line of thinking) to make a separate method corresponding to each of the three fields, with essentially the same exact code in each one. This seems very inefficient.
It may not seem like a big deal, on the surface, to write three similar methods instead of one, but to clarify why this dismays me - imagine instead of an object with three integer fields as I stated, there are say, i don't know, four thousand. It would be so much better to write just one thing to perform the same kind of behavior, instead of copying and pasting (and changing whatever little bits necessary) four thousand times.
So I suppose the ultimate question is,
Why doesn't Integer function in a reasonable way? What's the point of wrapping a primitive in an Object at all, if it doesn't even help perform something this simple? Am I missing something simple about how to get Integer to function in the desired way? (Hopefully so) The answer seems close yet infuriatingly out of reach since "RInteger" produces the desired behavior, yet "Integer" doesn't.
The entire source code I used while trying to figure out how to construct this painstaking question is below.
package r9mp;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class RefTest2 {
//[main m]
public static void main(String[] args){
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
new RefTest2();
}
});
}
//[fields]
int i;
Integer I;
RInteger RI;
//[constr]
public RefTest2(){
intTest();
IntegerTest();
RIntegerTest();
display();
}
//[methods]
private void intTest(){
i = 100;
intMethod(i);
}
private void IntegerTest(){
I = 100; //boxing? auto?
IntegerMethod(I);
I = 100; //just in case.
IntegerMethod2(I);
}
private void RIntegerTest(){
RI = new RInteger(100);
RIntegerMethod(RI);
}
private void intMethod(int ipar){
ipar = ipar + 1;//no change. expected.
}
private void IntegerMethod(Integer IPar){
IPar = IPar + 1;//no change. frustrating.
pln("From inside IntegerMethod: IPar = " + IPar );
pln("From inside IntegerMethod: I = " + I );
}
private void IntegerMethod2(Integer IPar){
IPar = new Integer(IPar+1);//still no change. there are no set methods for Integer, or I'd try them.
}
private void RIntegerMethod(RInteger riPar){
riPar.value = riPar.value + 1;
}
private void display(){
pln(
"Display... \n" +
"i: " + i + "\n" +
"I: " + I + "\n" +
"RI: " + RI + "\n" +
"--------"
);
}
private void pln(){
pln("");
}
private void pln(String s){
System.out.println(s);
}
//[internal class]
private class RInteger{
int value;
public RInteger(int v){
value = v;
}
public String toString(){
return ""+value;
}
}
}
And, here is the output...
How about one method for primitives and their wrappers?
private int incInteger(int value)
{
return value + 1;
}
and call for it:
int intVal = 100;
intVal = incInteger(intVal);
Integer integerVal = 200;
integerVal = incInteger(integerVal);
First of all, you need to read up on immutability to find out why it is a very good thing to have. There even exist entire languages (functional, mostly) that capitalize on it.
Once you have read about that, then read Eric Lippert's series of articles on immutability. Start here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ericlippert/2007/11/13/immutability-in-c-part-one-kinds-of-immutability/ Mind = blown.
But to give you a quick hint as to why primitive wrappers like Integer are immutable, let me just say that these classes are often used as keys in Hash Maps, and a key must be immutable, so that its hashCode will never change, otherwise the hash map will fail with very difficult to track down behaviour. Mutable keys in hashmaps are nasty bugs.
You can achieve what you want with a class of your own devise which plays the role of a reference, or by simply passing an array and modifying the element at array[0].
My personal preferences are as follows:
I would try to do as much as possible with return values.
When return values are inapplicable, (as the case is with invokeLater,) then inner/nested/anonymous classes that have access to the fields of the enclosing class are my next preference.
When that's not an option either, then special classes crafted precisely for the application at hand are my next option. (MyMutableNumberWrapper.)
And when I just want something quick and dirty, then general-purpose classes like Ref<T> (or even single-element arrays) would be my final option.

Infinite Integer in Java

I don't think I'm approaching this the right way. I'm supposed to create a class that allows users to enter in any number not matter how big it is (Of course, with the restrictions of memory it's not really infinite). I have some code but I'm pretty sure the quality is crap. I seem to be having the most trouble with a string and have been avoiding it. I'll only post what I have worked on. I just need help clearing it up because I don't think I'm going in the right direction. Here is what my code has so far. I apologize. I'm not a very seasoned coder.:
public class InfiniteInteger implements Comparable<InfiniteInteger> {
// TO DO: Instance Variables
public final int BigNumbers;
public final String Infinite;
public final int []integerArray;
public InfiniteInteger(String s) {
// TO DO: Constructor
Infinite=s;
}
public InfiniteInteger(int anInteger) {
// TO DO: Constructor
BigNumbers=anInteger;
integerArray= new int[anInteger];
}
public int getNumberOfDigits() {
// TO DO: return an integer representing the number of digits
of this infinite integer. //
int NumberOfDigits=0;
for(int i=0; NumberOfDigits<0;i++){
}
return BigNumbers;
}
/**
* Checks whether this infinite integer is a negative number.
* #return true if this infinite integer is a negative number.
* Otherwise, return false.
*/
public boolean isNegative() {
// TO DO
if(isNegative()) {
return true;
} else return false;
}
Do I need to convert the string to int in my first constructor. I also had made an array previously in the string constructor but it caused a whole lot of grief so I got rid of it and just put one in the second constructor.
You can use a BigInteger for that. It uses an bitarray with varying length.
Operations on BigInteger's are slower but will work, regardless of the number (as long as it is an integer). And furthermore BigInteger operations are optimized (for instance using special CPU instructions)...
On a sidenote if people mean any number, they sometimes mean any resonable number. In that case the range of a long is in many cases sufficient.
Use the Java built-in class BigInteger, from the Javadoc BigInteger is for
Immutable arbitrary-precision integers.
What you are trying to accomplish is already made in BigInteger class. Maybe examining it's source might be useful when creating a simpler version of it :
http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/6-b14/java/math/BigInteger.java

Creating a method that accepts a string and a length (integer) as parameters

I am trying to teach myself more about the relationships between methods. In doing this, I am writing a program that has multiple methods. I have one method (createSpace) that is called from the main method.
It seemingly was straight forward but I realized I needed my createSpace method to
1) accept BOTH a string and an int as parameters,
2) pad the parameter string with designated number of spaces and
3) return a padded string.
Most of this seems pretty good to me. For 2, I will write a for loop that gives the designated number of spaces that I want. For 3, I will designate my method to be a return type. But I am having a bit of trouble with 1, which is frustrating as it it the first part to this.
How does one create a method that accepts two types of values (strings and ints) as parameters?
Hopefully this question makes sense.
You specify them like so, seperated with a comma:
public void genericMethod(int someNumber, String someString) {
//dosomething
}
In case this wasn't clear, I would like to add the following. If you need two different strings, you specify two strings, also seperated by a comma:
public void genericMethod(int someNumber, String someString, String otherString) {
//dosomething
}
Etc, etc.
Simply, you can create a method with a String and int type parameters as follows:-
[your access modifier] [return type] [method name](set of parameters) {
// write your code here
}
for example, i will declare a method test with a string and int paramters which doesn't return any thing :-
public void test(String s , int i){
// write your code here
}
and i recommended you to read this carefully http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/javaOO/methods.html
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/java_methods.htm

sending value to another method in another class in JAVA

sorry I'm new to java. I want to pass the mark1 to class Exam in method Calculator, but I got some error how can i do that the program say incompatibe type. What can I do?
I want to send mark1 from this method:
public float SendMark(){
Exam ex = new Exam();
for (int i=0; i<students.length; i++) {
mark1 = students[i].getMark();
}
return ex.Calculator(mark1);
}
to this class and method calculator ... but it say incompatible type ... to this method i want to sum the Array value and get average of the array values ... is it correct way ?? what should i write here ...? please help me details thanks ...
public class Exam {
public Calculator (float mark1) {
AddList ad = new AddList();
}
}
you are missing the return type for the method calculator.
public Calculator (float mark1)
should be
public float Calculator (float mark1)
Your Calculator method does not have a return statement and its signature (the method header) does not declare a return type.
Also, I can't see where you declared mark1, you only initialized it in the for loop.
Meanwhile, I also spotted a logic error, the mark1 will always send the last score in the array because its value would be repeatedly overwritten in the loop; only the last value survives.
When you do not need return type, you type void method_name(args), like in C. Void is the placeholder for no return type. Secondly, your code is better than of other noobs, but you still have a lot of unnecessary details, which means that you did not debug yourself. Localize the problem better (remove everything unnecessary to reproduce). It will be simpler then for experts to see your problem immediately. You will even see or guess it yourself. Otherwise, without learning localizing the bugs, you will never become a programmer. And garbage the SO unnecessarily.
there are several small problems in your codes:
usually method name should start with lower letter in java code convention
what does the for loop in SendMark method do? just overwrite a float variable many times?
in your comment, you mentioned you want Exam.Calculator method print result, but no return value. Then you should add void as return type to method Calculator().
if you don't expect any return value from Calculator() method, why you return ex.Calculator(mark1) in your SendMark() method, and type is float?
From what I have understood from your question, here is my answer.
public float **s**endMark(){
Exam ex = new Exam();
for (int i=0; i<students.length; i++) {
mark1 = students[i].getMark(); //this does not make any sense.
}
//Since you insisted that you wanted to only print, just call the calculator method and do not return anything. change the return type of calculator method to void.
ex.Calculator(mark1);
return "something";//since your method's definition says so
}
public class Exam {
public void **c**alculator (float mark1) {
//Do your stuff
}
}
You may also want to look into sun java's coding conventions.
one of the approach is to pass your students array to calculator and inside calclator method iterate over student sum up marks like
marks = marks + students[i].getMark() and avg = marks/students.length
other could be, form marks i your main method by marks = marks + students[i].getMark() and then pass marks and length to calculator method to calculate average.
Also please go through java coding conventions and how to pick return types.
hope this helps.

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