User input with while

Question

Hello all!
I'm kinda new to Java and especially to these forums. I know it's impolite to go into a community and ask for something straight away; but I really can't find a solution to my problem:
I'm trying to make a small hangman game with console user input. The code:
package mystupidjavaapp;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class MyStupidJavaApp
    public static void main(String[] args)
     Scanner console = new Scanner (System.in);
     System.out.println("Let's play hangman are you ready? ");
     String s = console.nextLine();
     DrawingPanel panel = new DrawingPanel(500, 400);
     Graphics g = panel.getGraphics();
     panel.setBackground(Color.white);
     drawingPanel(g);
     userInput(console, g, s);
    public static void drawingPanel( Graphics g)
        g.setColor(Color.black);
        g.drawLine(50, 50, 50, 70);
        g.drawLine(50, 50, 100, 50);
        g.drawLine(100, 50, 100, 150);
        g.drawLine(75, 150, 125, 150);
        g.drawString("Hello and welcome to a small sample of a hangman game!", 120, 50);       
    public static void userInput(Scanner console, Graphics g, String s)
       int roll=0;
       String word = "";
       while (!s.equals("yes"))
          console.next();
          System.out.println("Well if you can't say a simple \"yes\"  then we can't go on. ");
          s = console.nextLine();
         System.out.println("Nice! ");
         Random r = new Random();
         roll = r.nextInt(4)+1;
         if (roll == 1)
             word = "pu";
         else if (roll == 2)
             word = "copac";
         else if (roll == 3)
             word = "bani";
         else
             word = "casa";
      if (roll !=0)
          g.drawLine(150, 130, 200, 130);
       for (int i=0; i<=word.length()-1; i++)
          g.drawLine(150+i*70, 130, 200+i*70, 130);
      int tries=0, position=0, guess=0;
      while (tries <= 6 && guess<=word.length())
       System.out.println("Ok please input a letter(one letter at a time please): ");
       String s1 = console.next();
       char c = s1.charAt(0);
       for (int i=0; i<word.length(); i++)
             if (word.charAt(i) == c)
                 position = i;
                 System.out.println("Congratulations you got a letter right! ");
                 guess++;
                 if (position==1)
                    {g.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 40));
                     g.drawString(s1.substring(0,1), 170, 125);}
                 else if (position!=0)
                    {g.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 40));
                     g.drawString(s1.substring(0,1), 170+70*position, 125);}
             else
                 tries++;
}My main problem is with the "while (!s.equals("yes"))" part, where if I enter the loop it will never exit it. What to do? Also, I tried watching for variables but I dunno how to do that to be honest :(. (In Netbeans, I tried going in the top "Debug" menu and there I selected "New Watch" and I chose the variable I wanted. Sadly as I run my code, in the watch window my variable is unchanged; moreover it doesn't even receive a value)
Suggestions/ help anyone :S?

Answer 1

Hello!
Thanks for the reply and sorry for my late reply. I wanted to start out by watching the "tries" variable but I have no idea what I'm doing. i tried setting break points throughout my code but nothing seems to happen/change. I need a step by step tutorial on how to watch a variable "evolve" through my code. I know this is probably a nuisance but until I find a good tutorial on it, I dunno how to do it :(.
**QUICK EDIT**
I finally got it to work! The main problem started because I couldn't get all the letters to show up on the right spot or sometimes I couldn't get the letters to show up at all. But after staring at the code for awhile I decide to ditch the "if" that was generating the letters. Here's how it looks now and it works flawlessly! (In case some1 is curious.)
package mystupidjavaapp;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class MyStupidJavaApp
    public static void main(String[] args)
     Scanner console = new Scanner (System.in);
     System.out.println("Let's play hangman are you ready? ");
     String s = console.nextLine();
     DrawingPanel panel = new DrawingPanel(500, 400);
     Graphics g = panel.getGraphics();
     panel.setBackground(Color.white);
     drawingPanel(g);
     userInput(console, g, s);
    public static void drawingPanel( Graphics g)
        g.setColor(Color.black);
        g.drawLine(50, 50, 50, 70);
        g.drawLine(50, 50, 100, 50);
        g.drawLine(100, 50, 100, 150);
        g.drawLine(75, 150, 125, 150);
        g.drawString("Hello and welcome to a small sample of a hangman game!", 120, 50);       
    public static void userInput(Scanner console, Graphics g, String s)
       int roll=0;
       String word = "";
       while (!s.equals("yes"))
          console.next();
          System.out.println("Well if you can't say a simple \"yes\"  then we can't go on. ");
          s = console.nextLine();
         System.out.println("Nice! ");
         Random r = new Random();
         roll = r.nextInt(4)+1;
         if (roll == 1)
             word = "pu";
         else if (roll == 2)
             word = "copac";
         else if (roll == 3)
             word = "bani";
         else
             word = "casa";
          g.drawLine(150, 130, 200, 130);
       for (int i=0; i<=word.length()-1; i++)
          g.drawLine(150+i*70, 130, 200+i*70, 130);
      int tries=0, position=0, guess=0;
      while (tries <= 6 && guess<=word.length())
       System.out.println("Ok please input a letter(one letter at a time please): ");
       String s1 = console.next();
       char c = s1.charAt(0);
       for (int i=0; i<word.length(); i++)
             if (word.charAt(i) == c)
                 position = i;
                 System.out.println("Congratulations you got a letter right! ");
                 guess++;
                 g.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 40));
                 g.drawString(s1.substring(0,1), 170+70*position, 125);
             else
                 tries++;
          if (tries == 1)
              g.drawOval(40, 70, 30, 30);
          else if (tries == 2)
              g.drawLine(50, 100, 50, 140);
          else if (tries == 3)
              g.drawLine(50, 110, 20, 120);
          else if (tries == 4)
              g.drawLine(50, 110, 80, 120);
          else if (tries == 5)
              g.drawLine(50, 130, 20, 140);
          else if (tries == 6)
              g.drawLine(50, 130, 80, 140);
}Sadly I couldn't manage to understand how to use breakpoints :|.
Edited by: 890334 on Jan 23, 2012 1:53 PM