Thread: MP3 catalogue with favorites (ArrayList)

Hi I'm first year student writing a MP3 catalogue for my fist assignment. It has all the usual functions EG add track, delete track, swap tracks and sort track by name, title, artist etc. All communication is via the console window.

I have a main, MP3Track, MP3Interface and several comparator classes. Main calls static methods such as addTrack, searchCat, moveTrack and trackExists etc. MP3Track contains data members such as trackNo, trackName, artist, album & length. My collection is stored in an ArrayList.

MoveTrack swaps two track numbers if they exist.

I would like to add a favorites function.

Typical output below FYI

Capture.jpg

I was thinking that one possible option would be to add an extra data member in MP3Track (boolean inFav) flagging if this in or isn't. Then iterating through the collection and extracting favorites for manipulation etc.

(Or)

To have another collection (what type of?) for favorites pointing to the original. One of the problems I can see with this is if a user adds a track number to favorites and then later swaps track numbers in the main collection my favorites will now contain a track I didn't choose to be there!! (I think). I want them to be able to add a track either by tack number or title. Am I right and if so how could I overcome this. Or maybe I've got this all wrong... maybe using a Set as they don't hold duplicates!

...all suggestions, improvements, pointers and advice much appreciated.

Great site BTW and I hope to be able to contribute one day.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi I'm first year student writing a MP3 catalogue for my fist assignment. It has all the usual functions EG add track, delete track, swap tracks and sort track by name, title, aritst etc. All communication is via the console window.

I have a main, MP3Track, MP3Interface and several comparator classes. Main calls static methods such as addTrack, searchCat, moveTrack and trackExists etc. MP3Track contains data members such as trackNo, trackName, artist, album & length. My collection is stored in an ArrayList.

MoveTrack swaps two track numbers if they exist.

I would like to add a favorites function.

Typical output below FYI

Capture.jpg

I was thinking that one possible option would be to add an extra data member in MP3Track (boolean inFav) flagging if this in or isn't. Then iterating through the collection and extracting favorites for manipulation etc.

(Or)

To have another collection (what type of?) for favorites pointing to the original. One of the problems I can see with this is if a user adds a track number to favorites and then later swaps track numbers in the main collection my favorites will now contain a track I didn't choose to be there!! (I think). I want them to be able to add a track either by tack number or title. Am I right and if so how could I overcome this. Or maybe I've got this all wrong...

...all suggestions, improvements, pointers and advice much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Please don't post duplicate topics. It doesn't get you help faster, and keeping track of the thread in two places makes it harder for those wanting to help.

I'll answer in the Collections topic, because that's probably where it goes best.

Posted pictures or screen captures don't work well. They're just too small. You should be able to copy the result from your terminal and post that, if it's really necessary. In this case, I'm not sure it is.

I think your first option is the best: add a boolean field that tracks favorite status. You could create another collection of favorites, but then you'd be required to keep it current with the user's latest changes. Not a big deal, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having objects that define themselves with their attributes. Keeping the same data in multiple places just becomes a management headache unless there's a significant processing benefit which isn't likely true here.

It wasn't intentional...the repost