Java How to Program Fourth Edition - DCC

Chapter 6 Methods 273
parameter list. Method rollDice returns the sum of the two dice, so a return type of int
is indicated in the method’s header.
The user clicks Roll Dice to roll the dice. This action invokes method action-
Performed (line 70) of the applet. Method actionPerformed checks the boolean
variable firstRoll (line 73) to determine if it is true or false. If it is true, this roll
is the first roll of the game. Line 74 calls rollDice, which picks two random values from
1 to 6, displays the value of the first die, second die and the sum of the dice in the first three
JTextFields, respectively, and returns the sum of the dice. Note that the integer values
are converted to Strings (lines 131–133) with static method Integer.toString,
because JTextFields can display only Strings. After the first roll, the nested
switch structure at line 76 in actionPerformed determines if the game has been won
or lost, or if the game should continue with another roll. After the first roll, if the game is
not over, sumOfDice is saved in myPoint and displayed in pointField.
Line 115 calls method displayMessage (defined at lines 141–161) to display the
current status of the game. The if/else structure at line 144 uses applet method show-
Status to display a String in the applet container’s status bar. Line 145 displays
Roll again.
if gameStatus is equal to CONTINUE. Lines 150–151 display
Player wins. Click Roll Dice to play again.
if gameStatus is equal to WON. Lines 153–154 display
Player loses. Click Roll Dice to play again.
if gameStatus is equal to LOST. Method showStatus receives a String argument
and displays it in the status bar of the applet container. If the game is over (i.e., it has been
won or lost) line 158 sets firstRoll to true to indicate that the next roll of the dice is
the first roll of the next game.
The program then waits for the user to click the Roll Dice button again. Each time the
user presses Roll Dice button, method actionPerformed invokes method rollDice
to produce a new sumOfDice. If the current roll is a continuation of an incomplete game,
the code in lines 103–112 executes. In line 107, if sumOfDice matches myPoint, line
108 sets gameStatus to WON, and the game is complete. In line 110, if sumOfDice is
equal to 7, line 111 sets gameStatus to LOST, and the game is complete. When the game
completes, displayMessage displays an appropriate message, and the user can click
the Roll Dice button to begin a new game. Throughout the program, the four JText-
Fields are updated with the new values of the dice and the sum on each roll, and the
pointField is updated each time a new game begins.
Note the interesting use of the various program control mechanisms we have discussed.
The craps program uses four methods—init, actionPerformed, rollDice
and displayMessage—and the switch, if/else and nested if structures. Note also
the use of multiple case labels in the switch structure to execute the same statements
(lines 79 and 85). Also, note that the event-handling mechanism acts as a form of program
control. In this program, event-handling enables user-controlled repetition—each time the
user clicks Roll Dice, the program rolls the dice again. In the exercises, we investigate various
interesting characteristics of the game of craps.
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