Program skipping 'if' Statement and defaults to 'else'

Question

I'm doing an assignment for my programming class, but something is wrong with my code (again) and I've spent the past hour and a half trying to debug it. The code is a sort of gambling game, where the user enters an amount to bet, and chooses either high, low, or sevens. high is when the die roll an 8 or higher, low is when the die roll a 6 or lower, and seven is when the die roll a total of 7. If the die rolls seven, the bet is multiplied by 4 and awarded to the user. Otherwise, when the user "loses", they lose the amount that they bet. I can't seem to figure out exactly what is wrong.

To begin with, the winnings are not correct. They are showing up in the console as "You won 128 dollars!" and then when the code repeats,the current pool always becomes 132, even when the user lost and money should have been subtracted. Also, the program skips the "if" statements in the determineWinnings method - it defaults to the else even when the user should have won. This is due in 20 minutes and I can't figure out how to fix it! Any help is sincerely appreciated!

package example;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class test
{

public static void main(String[] args)
{

    Scanner inScanner = new Scanner(System.in);
    int currentPool = 100; 
    int bet = ' ';
    char highLow = ' ';
    int roll = ' ';
    int winnings = ' ';

    System.out.println("You have " + currentPool + " dollars.");
    getBet(inScanner, currentPool);
    getHighLow(inScanner);
    determineWinnings(highLow, bet, roll);
    currentPool = currentPool + winnings;
    System.out.println("");

    while (bet != 0)
    {
        System.out.println("You have " + currentPool + " dollars.");
        getBet(inScanner, currentPool);
        getHighLow(inScanner);
        determineWinnings(highLow, bet, roll);
        currentPool = currentPool + winnings;
        System.out.println("");
    }


}



private static int getBet(Scanner inScanner, int currentPool)
{
    System.out.print("Enter an amount to bet (0 to quit): ");
    String strBet = inScanner.nextLine();
    int bet = Integer.parseInt(strBet);


    while (bet < 0 || bet > currentPool)
    {
        System.out.print("Your bet MUST be between 0 and " + currentPool + " dollars.");
        System.out.println("You have " + currentPool + " dollars.");
        System.out.print("Enter an amount to bet (0 to quit): ");
        strBet = (inScanner.nextLine());
        bet = Integer.parseInt(strBet);
    }

    if (bet == 0)
    {
        System.out.println("You have " + currentPool + " dollars.");
        System.out.println("Goodbye!");
        return bet;
    }
    else
    {
        return bet;
    }
}


private static char getHighLow(Scanner inScanner)
{
    System.out.print("High, Low, or Sevens (H/L/S): ");
    String hls = inScanner.nextLine();
    char highLow = ' ';

    if (hls.equals("H") || hls.equals("h"))
    {
        highLow = 'H';
    }
    else if (hls.equals("L") || hls.equals("l"))
    {
        highLow = 'L';
    }
    else if (hls.equals("S") || hls.equals("s"))
    {
        highLow = 'S';
    }
    else
    {
        System.out.print("ERROR: invalid character entered. Please try again.");

        while (!hls.equals("H") || !hls.equals("h") || !hls.equals("L") || !hls.equals("l") || !hls.equals("S") || !hls.equals("s"))
        {
            System.out.println("High, Low, or Sevens (H/L/S): ");
            hls = inScanner.nextLine();
        }
    }
    return highLow;
}   


private static int getRoll()
{
    int roll = (int)Math.floor(Math.random() * 6 + 1);
    return roll;
}


private static int determineWinnings(char highLow, int bet, int roll)
{
    int rollOne = getRoll();
    int rollTwo = getRoll();
    int total = rollOne + rollTwo;
    int winnings = bet + 0;
    System.out.println("Die 1 rolls: " + rollOne);
    System.out.println("Die 2 rolls: " + rollTwo);
    System.out.println("Total of two dice is: " + total);

    if (highLow == 'H')
    {
        if (total >= 8)
        {
            System.out.println("You won " + winnings + " dollars!");

        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("You lost!");
            winnings = 0 - bet;

        }
    }
    else if (highLow == 'L')
    {
        if (total <= 6)
        {
            System.out.println("You won " + winnings + " dollars!");

        }
        else 
        {
            System.out.println("You lost!");
            winnings = (0 - bet);

        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (total == 7)
        {
            winnings = bet * 4;
            System.out.println("You won " + winnings + " dollars!");

        }
        else 
        {
            System.out.println("You lost!");
            winnings = 0 - bet;

        }
    }
    return winnings;
}

}

Well, you return a value from getBet(), but you don't assign that return to anything. And while you are cheating a bit, it would be better for int bet = 0; rather than assigning it to the char value of a space character. — KevinO
– KevinO, Commented Oct 11, 2018 at 18:55

Dawood ibn Kareem · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-11 19:20:03Z

1

The part you haven't understood is that every method - in fact, every call to every method - has its own collection of local variables. That means that

the winnings variable declared in main is NOT the same variable as the winnings variable declared in determineWinnings;
the bet variable declared in main is NOT the same variable as the bet variable declared in getBet.

What you need to do is to make sure that the value returned by each called method is assigned to the variable that you want to store it in, in the caller method. So in main, when you call getBet, you actually want to write

bet = getBet(inScanner, currentPool);

so that the value returned from getBet gets assigned to the bet variable from main. Similarly, when you call determineWinnings, you need to write

winnings = determineWinnings(highLow, bet, roll);

so that the value returned from determineWinnings gets assigned to the winnings variable from main.

If you don't do that, then all the variables in main just keep their original values, which are 100 for currentPool and 32 for winnings (because ' ' is just another way to write 32). That's why your final value turns out to be 132.

answered Oct 11, 2018 at 19:20

Dawood ibn Kareem

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1 Comment

achAmháin Over a year ago

@SavannahStidham - is this your question or else someone in your class is stuck with the same problem - stackoverflow.com/questions/52746162/…

sachin patel · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-11 19:32:46Z

To avoid skipping if in execution use

bet = getBet(inScanner, currentPool); highLow = getHighLow(inScanner); winnings = determineWinnings(highLow, bet, roll);

instead of directly calling

getBet(inScanner, currentPool); getHighLow(inScanner); determineWinnings(highLow, bet, roll);

Reson for skipping if statement and wrong answer:

getBet(inScanner, currentPool) method is returning the value which is not assigned to

int bet = ' '; java tries to convert ' ' to an integer which is 32. so bet is every time assigned 32 value when you call getBet(inScanner, currentPool) even if the entered value is different(which will give wrong answer).

In the case of getHighLow(inScanner) method is returning char value but since it is not assigned to highLow, highLow will always have value ' '.

since highLow has not assigned the actual value(H/L/S), if statement will be skipped as ' '!=(H/L/S) and always statements in else are executed.

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