Troubles with toString and static and non-static

Ok, in this assignment I have to write the code for a game that involves picking up and putting down stones in the right combination in order to unlock the treasure chest.

We've been advised that it only needs 4 classes i.e Player, Game, TreasureChest and Stones

My problem comes when I try to get the Game class to run a toString method that when it's finished should return something like this "Jack(0) #(1) @(2) %(3) $(4) Treasure/6\(5)"

This is what my code looks like for the Game class so far:

Code Java:

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import java.util.Scanner;
public class Game
{
   private int maxMoves;
   private int combination;
   private String name;
   private TreasureChest chest;
   private Player player;
 
 
   public Game()
   {
       Game game1 = new Game();
       Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
       System.out.print("Enter combination for the treasure chest (5-10): ");
       int combination = keyboard.nextInt();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       chest = new TreasureChest(combination);
       System.out.print("Enter maximum allowed moves: ");
       int maxMoves = keyboard.nextInt();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       System.out.print("Enter player name: ");
       String name = keyboard.next();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       game1.toString();
 
   }
 
   public String toString()
   {
       return name + "";
   }
 
}

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I still need to add the other information that the toString method is supposed to return, but I can't get it to return even the name. When I try to initialise the Game class it is supposed to ask for the combination, max moves and player name. Instead I get the error "java.lang.StackOverflowError:null"

Any pointers?

I'm not really sure what this has to do with toString or the static keyword.

In your Game constructor, you create a new Game, which calls the Game constructor, which creates a new Game, which...

Hint: Put a System.out.println("here"); or something as the first line in your Game constructor.

Ok, that makes sense. If I remove that first line of code what do I need to change the "game1.toString(); line to for the method to actually run? That was where the static and non-static issues come from.

If I change it to Game.toString(); I get the error message "non-static method toString() cannot be referenced from a static context."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BadgerWatch

Ok, that makes sense. If I remove that first line of code what do I need to change the "game1.toString(); line to for the method to actually run? That was where the static and non-static issues come from.

If I change it to Game.toString(); I get the error message "non-static method toString() cannot be referenced from a static context."

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When you're in the constructor, you're already "in" an instance of Game, so you don't have to refer to a game instance at all. You could use this.toString(), but the "this" part is implied, so simply calling toString() will do it. Calling Game.toString() is looking for a static method called toString, which you don't have.

But also, you're not doing anything with the String returned from the toString() method. I assume you want to print it out or something?

Oh of course. Yeah eventually, once I get the rest of the code up to scratch it is supposed to print out "Jack(0) #(1) @(2) %(3) $(4) Treasure/6\(5)" to show the player what the game situation is.

Thanks for the quick responses I'll get back into it and see how it goes ^_^

Cool, glad you got it sorted.

I'm back -_-

When I try to get the toString to return the "name" all it returns is null.

Code java:

---

 
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Game
{
   private int maxMoves;
   private int combination;
   private String name;
   private TreasureChest chest;
   private Player player;
 
 
   public Game()
   {
       Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
       System.out.print("Enter combination for the treasure chest (5-10): ");
       int combination = keyboard.nextInt();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       chest = new TreasureChest(combination);
       System.out.print("Enter maximum allowed moves: ");
       int maxMoves = keyboard.nextInt();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       System.out.print("Enter player name: ");
       String name = keyboard.next();
       keyboard.nextLine();
       System.out.println(toString());
       turn();
       String move = keyboard.nextLine();
       move.charAt(0);
 
   }
 
   public String toString()
   {
       return "" + name + "string1" + "string2" + "string3";
   }
 
   public void turn()
   {
       System.out.print("Move (l/r/p/d) : ");
   }
}

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The reason is, you have a "name" variable already declared in the class private members.
You declare it again

Code :

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String name = keyboard.next();

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here.
So, your name is in this variable. And when toString() tries to get value, it goes to the private variable of the class which is null.
Note: Remove the String keyword from

Code :

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String name = keyboard.next();

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this statement and hopefully it will work all fine.