Help needed with collection classes

Question

Howdie all,
I'm new to Java, and for the most part, I can do it.
I'm stuck on how to do the following:
I have to write a program that simulates a deck of cards, including shuffling (involving cards are re-collected), dealing cards. I have to create 52 objects of the card class. The only things that I can use involve some of the collection classes (arrays, dynamic lists, vectors, dictionaries), queues/stacks
I dont know:
** what to use. should i use a dyn list or a vector
**how the heck would i shuffle the cards?
** for dealing the cards, i figued i would just use a loop to draw a set of cards (face and suit)
i am not asking for code on how to do it (though pseudo-code/alogorithm may help). i just dont know where to start..i am totally stuck.
thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

I would suggest you to use the LinkedList class for the deck representation.
To create the cards you could use
for i = 0 to 51
new Card(i);
In Card constructor do something like
int colour = i/13+1; // (1-4, one for each colour)
int value = i%13+1; // (1-13, ace-king)
To shuffle you could
for i = 0 to 100
j = radom(52)
k = random(52)
swap(card#j, card#k)
This will swap 2 random cards 100 times.
To draw cards
Card c = cards.remove(0)
or
Card c = cards.remove(radom(cards.size()))
In the later, the shuffle part is not really needed.
thought about this some more and now i have another
question:
when using a dyn linked library, i am not even sure
how to create the 52 objects. previously when doing
project like this, i just used a random function to
generate the cards, and used switch statements for the
non-numbered cards and for the suite. how would i do
accomplish this when using a collection class?
Howdie all,
I'm new to Java, and for the most part, I can do it.
I'm stuck on how to do the following:
I have to write a program that simulates a deck of
cards, including shuffling (involving cards are
re-collected), dealing cards. I have to create 52
objects of the card class. The only things that Ican
use involve some of the collection classes (arrays,
dynamic lists, vectors, dictionaries),queues/stacks
I dont know:
** what to use. should i use a dyn list or avector
**how the heck would i shuffle the cards?
** for dealing the cards, i figued i would just usea
loop to draw a set of cards (face and suit)
i am not asking for code on how to do it (though
pseudo-code/alogorithm may help). i just dont know
where to start..i am totally stuck.
thanks a bunch!