Word Puzzle still not working

Question

I have written the code to take a text file (from a command line argument) holding the information for the word find grid and also the file holding the words to be found in the grid. The whole find the two files and drop them into memory works all peachy keen but the rest of the program doesn't work for some oddball reason that I can't figure out (and the TAs are useless as usual). I dropped in print statements all over the world to see why it's not working but all I can see is that I hit the method SolvePuzzle and don't actually get any further than the print statement.
Just so you know, all of the methods in the program do work as I wrote them for another version of the same puzzle...it was just that I had to change the program to run with command line arguments instead of asking the user to input the file names. Please, can someone take a look at this monstrous mess and tell me how on earth I get the stupid thing to output correctly?
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
// WordFind class interface: solve word search puzzle
// CONSTRUCTION: with no initializer
// ******************PUBLIC OPERATIONS******************
// int solvePuzzle( )   --> Print all words found in the
//                          puzzle; return number of matches
public class WordFind
     * Constructor for WordFind class.
     * Prompts for and reads puzzle and dictionary files.
   public WordFind(String fname, String fname2 ) throws IOException
        loadPuzzle(fname, fname2);
        //solvePuzzle( );
     * Routine to solve the word search puzzle.
     * Performs checks in all eight directions.
     * @return number of matches
    public int solvePuzzle( )
        int matches = 0;
        for( int r = 0; r < rows; r++ )
            for( int c = 0; c < columns; c++ )
                for( int rd = -1; rd <= 1; rd++ )
                    for( int cd = -1; cd <= 1; cd++ )
                        if( rd != 0 || cd != 0 )
                            matches += solveDirection( r, c, rd, cd );
System.out.println("testing to see if we get BBOOOOO.");
        return matches;
     * Search the grid from a starting point and direction.
     * @return number of matches
    private int solveDirection( int baseRow, int baseCol, int rowDelta, int colDelta )
    System.out.println("testing to see if we get this far part 2.");
        String charSequence = "";
        int numMatches = 0;
        int searchResult;
        charSequence += theBoard[ baseRow ][ baseCol ];
        for( int i = baseRow + rowDelta, j = baseCol + colDelta;
                 i >= 0 && j >= 0 && i < rows && j < columns;
                 i += rowDelta, j += colDelta )
            charSequence += theBoard[ i ][ j ];
            searchResult = prefixSearch( theWords, charSequence );
            if( searchResult == theWords.length )
                break;
            if( !((String)theWords[ searchResult ]).startsWith( charSequence ) )
                break;
            if( theWords[ searchResult ].equals( charSequence ) )
                numMatches++;
                System.out.println( "Found " + charSequence + " at " +
                                    baseRow + " " + baseCol + " to " +
                                    i + " " + j );
        return numMatches;
     * Performs the binary search for word search.
     * @param a the sorted array of strings.
     * @param x the string to search for.
     * @return last position examined;
     *     this position either matches x, or x is
     *     a prefix of the mismatch, or there is no
     *     word for which x is a prefix.
    private static int prefixSearch( Object [ ] a, String x )
    System.out.println("testing to see if we get this far part 3.");
        int idx = Arrays.binarySearch( a, x );
        if( idx < 0 )
            return -idx - 1;
        else
            return idx;
     private void loadPuzzle(String fname, String fname2)
      String oneLine;
      try {
         // open file for reading
         wsFile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fname));
         // get the row and columns
         oneLine = wsFile.readLine();
        List puzzleLines = new ArrayList( );
        if( ( oneLine = wsFile.readLine( ) ) == null )
            throw new IOException( "No lines in puzzle file" );
        int columns = oneLine.length( );
        puzzleLines.add( oneLine );
        while( ( oneLine = wsFile.readLine( ) ) != null )
           // if( oneLine.length( ) != columns )
           //     System.err.println( "Puzzle is not rectangular; skipping row" );
           // else
                puzzleLines.add( oneLine );
        int rows = puzzleLines.size( );
        theBoard = new char[ rows ][ columns ];
        Iterator itr = puzzleLines.iterator( );
        for( int r = 0; r < rows; r++ )
            String theLine = (String) itr.next( );
            theBoard[ r ] = theLine.toCharArray( );
               System.out.println(theBoard[r]);      
      //BufferedReader wsFile2;
      //ring oneLine;
      try {
         // open file for reading
         wsFile2 = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fname2));
         List words = new ArrayList( );
        String lastWord = null;
        String thisWord;
        while( ( thisWord = wsFile2.readLine( ) ) != null )
           // if( lastWord != null && thisWord.compareTo( lastWord ) < 0 )
             //   System.err.println( "Dictionary is not sorted... skipping" );
              //  continue;
            words.add( thisWord );
            lastWord = thisWord;
        theWords = words.toArray( );
        System.out.println(words);
      catch (FileNotFoundException e)
         System.out.println("File not found.");
      catch (IOException e)
         System.out.println("IO error.");
     //solvePuzzle();
      // Cheap main
    public static void main( String [ ] args )
      String fname = args[0];
          String fname2 = args[1];
       // String fname = "cahsiers.txt";
        //String fname2 = "cashwords.txt";
        WordFind p = null;
            try{
                System.out.println(args[0] + " " + args[1]);
            p = new WordFind(fname, fname2);
                  catch (IOException e)
         System.out.println("IO error.");
             System.out.println( "Solving..." );
        p.solvePuzzle( );
   private char [][] theBoard;
   private int rows, columns;
   private Object [] theWords;
   private int numWords;
     private BufferedReader wsFile;
   private BufferedReader wsFile2;
}Sample output - notice the only output are the test print statements at the moment
cashiers.txt cashwords.txt
BSERENITYNZEKYI
ZBREAMOANARHECM
BBASSWGITOOLKAY
QSCENERYTNLCYMM
TUORTIASEAUBDPA
JZIVVVYYVDXOWSE
FSSENREDLIWAMIR
FIRSEHRSPNLTLTT
CLSCUILRTLYKAES
XAOHQKFOEFYLUSR
ORBGIIWYDSAQLEM
GEYITNEFPGOROEA
EKALNGGAXRERCGJ
TEKRAMSGCAFETOY
[ANTIQUE, BASS, BOAT, BREAM, CABIN, CAFE, CAMPSITE, CRAFTS, CROQUET, DOWNTOWN, D
UCK, FISHING, GEESE, GOLF, GROCERY STORE, HIKING, HONEY, INN, JAM, JELLY, LAKE,
LODGE, MARKET, MOUNTAIN, POND, PRESERVES, RELAXATION, RESORT, RIVER, SCENERY, SE
RENITY, SPA, STREAM, TROUT, VACATION, VALLEY, VIEW, WALLEYE, WILDERNESS, ]
Solving...
testing to see if we get BBOOOOO.
Press any key to continue...
Thanks for all your help.
Wulf

Answer 1

Your problem is the duplicate declarations of rows/columns
class fields
private int rows, columns;
and in loadPuzzle()
int columns = oneLine.length( );//remove int
int rows = puzzleLines.size( );//ditto
the 'int' makes rows/columns local to loadPuzzle(), leaving the class fields rows/colums = 0
the for loops of solvePuzzle() are not executed because rows = 0
also, in loadPuzzle() you seem to have an extra readLine() at the top. This could be by design, but you will lose the first line
// get the row and columns
oneLine = wsFile.readLine();//<--------------
List puzzleLines = new ArrayList( );