COMP 15
Programming Assignment 6:
The Java Guessing Game
Assigned:
Monday Nov 29, 1999
Due:
Tuesday Dec 7, 1999
Note: This assignment is to be completed individually. No collaboration is permitted.


Problem Description

In this second and final Java programming assignment you are asked to construct a simple interactive game in which the objective is for you to guess a number chosen by the computer. For each guess you make, the computer reports whether your guess is too high or too low. When you determine the correct number, the game starts over again with a new number. This continues until you are sick of the game at which point you indicate that you want to quit, and some statistics are printed. A sample run of the program is shown at the end of this page (user inputs are shown in bold font).

Supplied Solution Components

You can obtain the zip file prog6.zip from the the class web page. Create a folder called GuessGame in a safe place on your computer and use winzip to unzip this file into that folder. When this is complete, the folder will contain a skeleton VJ++ project that you can edit to complete this problem. To work on the project, double-click on GuessGame.vjp in the GuessGame folder. The project contains a single Main class with several class (static) methods, incuding a main method. The project can be compiled and run as distributed, but only prints instructions for the game and then arrives at the last line of the run above. Your job is to insert the missing functionality.

You need not be concerned with how to read input from the keyboard; use the prompt method supplied in the project. An example use of prompt can be found on the last line of the main procedure. Note that import java.io.* is required at the head of the Main class to provide access to the methods used within prompt.

You will also find a file P6demo.exe in the GuessGame folder. This is a ready-to-run solution for this programming assignment, which you can use to check how your program should behave. Double-click this application to try it out. In this version the computer chooses numbers between 1 and 10 (as shown above) to simplify experimenting with the program. To make your own program more interesting, you may wish to set max to 100, which should cause the computer to pick numbers in the range 1 to 100, inclusive.

While your program should generate output that closely parallels the output of the demo program, it is not necessary to precisely match the spacing and formatting of the sample program.

Random numbers in Java

The generation of random numbers is quite a bit simpler in Java than in Haskell. The class method Math.random() returns a (different) random double r such that 0 <= r < 1, each time it is called. The class Math is implicitly available in Java, so no import statement is required to use this method.


Extra Credit

A simple improvement you can make to your program is to keep track of the range to which the search has been narrowed by the player guesses and computer responses responses generated thus far in a game. This could take the form of values shown in the prompt and/or a warning if the player makes a guess that yields no new information.


Submission Procedure

The times available for submission of program 6 are


A sample execution of the Guessing Game
Welcome to the guessing game.

I will choose a number between 1 and 10 ... and you try to guess it.

With each guess, I will tell you whether you are high or low.
The objective is to find the number using as few guesses as possible.


Let's start!

I am thinking of a number between 1 and 10.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  5
Your guess is too low.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  8
Your guess is too high.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  6
Your guess is too low.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  7
*** Correct!  You got it in 4 guesses!


Let's play again!

I am thinking of a number between 1 and 10.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  5
*** Correct!  You got it in 1 guesses!


Let's play again!

I am thinking of a number between 1 and 10.
Enter guess (or 0 to quit):  0


You played 2 games and used an average of 2.5 guesses per game
Thanks for playing.  Enter any number to close this window: 0


$ Revised: Mon Nov 29 1999 by prins@cs.unc.edu