Thread: Method error for checking and updating guess in a basic hangman game

Hello and thank you for reading. I will try my best to explain what I have done so far and my current thought process about solving this problem. I have to make a hangman-based, text game where a user can make guesses about a string I have disguised with question marks. Every time the user makes a guess the program should check the character input against the secret word and update the disguised word with the correct character displaying (granted the guess was correct) or simply ask again if the guess was incorrect. So the method I'm having trouble with is "makeGuess". Right now the program keeps skipping the "for-each" statement and returning "???????" disguised word no matter what the guess is (unless it's a digit to quit). I was hoping it would first check the "if" condition, checking if user's guess is equal to each character at every index, and then replace the index of the correct guess with the correct guess: basically updating the disguisedWord. Then it should also check in the 2nd (if) statement if the secretWord and disguisedWord are the same to break out of the isFound boolean and end the program. The (else) seems to be getting called no matter what character is entered, so all that happens is wrongGuesses continues incrementing.

I appreciate any advice or pointers in the right direction and I'm not looking for someone to just solve it for me since I feel like I almost have this done. I just feel like now I've hit a wall. Thank you for your time.

hangman class:

package hangmandemo;
public class Hangman {
 
    private String secretWord;
    private String disguisedWord;
    private int guesses;
    private int wrongGuesses;
    boolean found = false;
 
    public String getDisguisedWord() {
        return disguisedWord;
    }
 
    public String getSecretWord() {
        return secretWord;
    }
 
    /**
     * returns number of guesses
     */
    public int getGuesses() {
        return guesses;
    }
 
    /**
     * continues game until secretWord is found
     */
    public boolean isFound() {
        return found;
    }
 
    /**
     * brings in a char to test against String
     */
    public void makeGuess(char c) {
        for (int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++) {
            if (c == secretWord.charAt(i)) {
                int position = secretWord.indexOf(c);
                char letter = secretWord.charAt(position);
                disguisedWord = disguisedWord.replace(letter, secretWord.charAt(i));
            }
        }
        if (secretWord.equals(disguisedWord)) {
            found = true;
        } else {
            System.out.println("keep trying");
            wrongGuesses++;
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * assigns secret String to secret word
     */
    public void createSecretWord(String secret) {
        secretWord = secret;
    }
 
    /**
     * disguises secret word with "???"
     */
    public void createDisguisedWord() {
        disguisedWord = "";
 
        for (int i = 0; i < secretWord.length(); i++) {
            disguisedWord += "?";
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * returns number of wrong guesses
     */
    public int getWrongGuesses() {
        return wrongGuesses;
    }
}

Main class:

package hangmandemo;
 
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class HangmanDemo {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
        Hangman game = new Hangman();
        game.createSecretWord("assessments");
        game.createDisguisedWord();
        System.out.println("This is the hangmandemo.");
        System.out.println("Enter any digit to quit.");
        System.out.println("The disguised word is..."+ game.getDisguisedWord());
        while (!game.isFound()) {
            System.out.println("Enter a one character guess");
            char c = keyboard.next().charAt(0);
            if (Character.isDigit(c)){
                System.out.println("game over, the word was... " + game.getSecretWord());
                System.exit(0);
            }
            game.makeGuess(c);
            System.out.println(game.getDisguisedWord());
        }
 
        System.out.println("you guessed it, the word was... " + game.getSecretWord());
        System.out.println("you had " + game.getGuesses() + " guesses.");
        System.out.println("you had " + game.getWrongGuesses() + " wrong guesses.");
    }
}

Thank you for the advice, I will try this debugging approach and hopefully I'll figure out the logic errors!

--- Update ---

The debugging helped me identify what's working and what's not working inside the makeGuess method. But now I'm confused to as to the why functions aren't working - specifically these functions:

disguisedWord = disguisedWord.replace(letter, secretWord.charAt(i));
//and
 int position = secretWord.indexOf(c);

Here is the debugging output I learned from trying "e":

run:
This is the hangmandemo.
Enter any digit to quit.
The disguised word is...???????????
Enter a one character guess
e
c is = e
letter is = e
position is = 3
secret word is = assessments
disguised word is  = assessments
c is = e
letter is = e
position is = 3
secret word is = assessments
disguised word is  = assessments
keep trying
???????????
Enter a one character guess

The whole method logic seems to be off as well. It runs through multiple times depending on how many times this boolean is true:

 if (c == secretWord.charAt(i))

So I know it is correctly checking the index, but incorrectly updating the position and incorrectly updating disguisedWord.
Do you have any tips or links to documentation that might help me correctly amend the logic and functions in this method?

(I accidentally made the println debug test for disguisedWord return the secretWord, I went back and changed it so it returns 11 questions marks)The value of disguisedWord is 11 questions marks (disguising the string 'assessments'). I feel like this function should replace a question mark with index of a correct guess. It does not do this

--- Update ---

c = e, letter = e, and the positon(index) is 3 which is all correct. it does this twice, instead of finding the 2nd instance of e which should return postion 7....I guess the params of the replace method must be incorrect, I will try working on this.

Ok thank you I will check out the doc - unfortunately for the purposes of this program I cannot use the StringBuilder class.

Hmmm, I see. I will spend time trying this on my own to hopefully better grasp the logic and application. Thank you for your help thus far.

something in the realm of.... newString = firstString.substring(0,1) + 'x' + firstString.substring(3)
So in my program, disguisedWord is all question marks. The index of a correct guess is int position = secretWord.indexOf(c);
so the substring of disguisedWord should go up to the position, then concat "c", and then concat the rest of the string....ah, it's so hard to keep track of where everything is >.<

Okay, thank you for all your help - I appreciate it. Have a good night.

--- Update ---

Updating with new progress - thanks for the tips Norm! I'm nearly done now. Here is what I came up with and it's working:

int position = i;
disguisedWord = disguisedWord.substring(0, position) + c + disguisedWord.substring(position + 1, Math.max(0, disguisedWord.length()));

this is working great, now i just have some smaller problems in the same method (makeGuess) that always hits the Else statement but I can figure this out. Thanks again!