Lab 3 Using Classes and Objects

Prelab Exercises
These exercises focus on the String, Random, and Math classes defined in the Java Standard
Class Library. The goals of the lab are for you to gain experience with the following concepts:
 Declaring a variable to be a reference to an object—for example, the following declares
the variable quotation to be a reference to a String object:
String quotation;
 Declaring a variable to be a reference to an object and creating the object (instantiating it)
using the new operator—for example,
String quotation = new String("I think, therefore I am.");
Random generator = new Random();
 Invoking a method to operate on an object using the dot operator—for example,
quotation.length()
invokes the length method which returns the length of the quotation String or
quotation.toLowerCase()
quotation except all letters are lower case. These invocations would be used in a program
in a place appropriate for an integer (in the first case) or a String (in the second case) such
as an assignment statement or a println statement.
 Invoking static or class methods—these are methods that are invoked using the class
name rather than an object name. The methods in the Math class are static methods
(basically because we don't need different instances of Math whereas there are lots of
different String objects). Examples are
Math.sqrt(2) (which returns the square root of 2)
and
Math.pow(3, 2) (which returns 32)
 Importing the appropriate packages—usually when you use classes from a library you
need to put the import declaration at the top of your program. The exception is for classes
defined in the java.lang package (this includes String and Math) which is automatically
imported into every Java program.
Exercises
1. Fill in the blanks in the program StringPlay.java as follows:
 a. declare the variable town as a reference to a String object and initialize it to
"Anytown, USA".
b. write an assignment statement that invokes the length method of the string class to
find the length of the college String object and assigns the result to the stringLength
variable
c. complete the assignment statement so that change1 contains the same characters as
college but all in upper case
d. complete the assignment statement so that change2 is the same as change1 except all
capital O's are replaced with the asterisk (*) character.
e. complete the assignment statement so that change3 is the concatenation of college
and town (use the concat method of the String class rather than the + operator)

2. The program in RightTriangle.java should read in the lengths of two sides of a right triangle
and compute the length of the hypotenuse (recall that the length of the hypotenuse is the
square root of side 1 squared plus side 2 squared). Complete it by adding statements to read
the input from the keyboard and to compute the length of the hypotenuse (you need to use a
Math class method for that).
3. In many situations a program needs to generate a random number in a certain range. The Java
Random class lets the programmer create objects of type Random and use them to generate a
stream of random numbers (one at a time). The following declares the variable generator to
be an object of type Random and instantiates it with the new operator.
Random generator = new Random();
The generator object can be used to generate either integer or floating point random numbers
using either the nextInt method (either with no parameter or with a single integer parameter) or
nextFloat (or nextDouble) methods, respectively. The integer returned by nextIn(t could be any
valid integer (positive or negative) whereas the number returned by nextInt(n) is a random
integer in the range 0 to n-1. The numbers returned by nextFloat() or nextDouble() are floating
point numbers between 0 and 1 (up to but not including the 1). Most often the goal of a program
is to generate a random integer in some particular range, say 30 to 99 (inclusive). There are
several ways to do this:
 Using nextInt(): This way we must use the % operator to reduce the range of values—
for example,
Math.abs(generator.nextInt()) % 70
will return numbers between 0 and 69 (because those are the only possible remainders
when an integer is divided by 70 - note that the absolute value of the integer is first taken
using the abs method from the Math class). In general, using % N will give numbers in
the range 0 to N - 1. Next the numbers must be shifted to the desired range by adding the
appropriate number. So, the expression
 Math.abs(generator.nextInt()) % 70 + 30
will generate numbers between 30 and 99.
 Using nextInt(70): The expression
generator.nextInt(70)
will return numbers between 0 and 69 (inclusive). Next the numbers must be shifted to
the desired range by adding the appropriate number. So, the expression
generator.nextInt(70) + 30
will generate numbers between 30 and 99.
 Using nextFloat: In this case, we must multiply the result of nextFloat to expand the
range—for example,
generator.nextFloat() * 70
returns a floating point number between 0 and 70 (up to but not including 70). To get the
integer part of the number we use the cast operator:
(int) (generator.nextFloat() * 70)
The result of this is an integer between 0 and 69, so
(int) (generator.nextFloat() * 70) + 30
shifts the numbers by 30 resulting in numbers between 30 and 99.

The method nextFloat can be replaced by nextDouble to get double precision floating
point numbers rather than single precision.
Fill in the blanks in the program in LuckyNumbers.java to generate the random numbers as
described in the documentation. NOTE that that java.util.Random must be imported to use the
Random class.
Working with Strings
The program in StringManips.java illustrates the use of some of the methods in the String class.
Study the program to see what it is doing. Compile and run the file. Study the output and make
sure you understand the relationship between the code and what is printed. Now modify the file
as follows:
1. Declare a variable of type String named middle3 (put your declaration with the other
declarations near the top of the program) and use an assignment statement and the
substring method to assign middle3 the substring consisting of the middle three
characters of phrase (the character at the middle index together with the character to the
left of that and the one to the right – use variables, not the literal indices for this particular
 string). Add a println statement to print out the result. Save, compile, and run to test what
you have done so far.
2. Add an assignment statement to replace all blank characters in switchedPhrase with an
asterisk (*). The result should be stored back in switchedPhrase (so switchedPhrase is
actually changed). (Do not add another print—place your statement in the program so
that this new value of switchedPhrase will be the one printed in the current println
statement.) Save, compile, and run your program.
3. Declare two new variables city and state of type String. Add statements to the program
to prompt the user to enter their hometown—the city and the state. Read in the results
using the appropriate Scanner class method – you will need to have the user enter city
and state on separate lines. Then using String class methods create and print a new string
that consists of the state name (all in uppercase letters) followed by the city name (all in
lowercase letters) followed again by the state name (uppercase). So, if the user enters
Lilesville for the city and North Carolina for the state, the program should create and
print the string
NORTH CAROLINAlilesvilleNORTH CAROLINA

Rolling Dice
Write a complete Java program that simulates the rolling of a pair of dice. For each die in the
pair, the program should generate a random number between 1 and 6 (inclusive). It should print
out the result of the roll for each die and the total roll (the sum of the two dice), all appropriately
labeled. You must use the Random class.
Computing Distance
The file Distance.java contains an incomplete program to compute the distance between two
points. Recall that the distance between the two points (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) is computed by
taking the square root of the quantity (x1 – x2)2 + (y1 – y2) 2. The program already has code to
get the two points as input. You need to add an assignment statement to compute the distance
and then a print statement to print it out (appropriately labeled). Test your program using the
following data: The distance between the points (3, 17) and (8, 10) is 8.6023... (lots more digits
printed); the distance between (–33, 49) and (–9, –15) is 68.352.…
Formatting Output
File DeliFormat.java contains a partial program that computes the cost of buying an item at the
deli. Do the following:
1. Study the program to understand what it does.
2. Add the import statements to import the DecimalFormat and NumberFormat classes.
3. Add the statement to declare money to be a NumberFormat object as specified in the
comment.
 4. Add the statement to declare fmt to be a DecimalFormat object as specified in the
comment.
5. Add the statements to print a label in the following format (the numbers in the example
output are correct for input of $4.25 per pound and 41 ounces). Use the formatting object
money to print the unit price and total price and the formatting object fmt to print the
weight to 2 decimal places.
***** CS Deli *****
Unit Price: $4.25 per pound
Weight: 2.56 pounds

TOTAL: $10.89

Playing with Cards

Write a class that defines an enumerated type named Rank with values ace, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king. The
main method should do the following:
1. Declare variables highCard, faceCard, card1, and card2 of type Rank.
2. Assign highCard to be an ace, faceCard to be a jack, queen or king (your choice), and
card1 and card2 to be two different numbered cards (two through ten - your choice).
3. Print a line, using the highCard and faceCard objects, in the following format:
A blackjack hand: ace and .....
The faceCard variable should be printed instead of the dots.
4. Declare two variables card1Val and card2Val of type int and assign them the face value
of your card1 and card2 objects. Use your card1 and card2 variables and the ordinal
method associated with enumerated types. Remember that the face value of two is 2,
three is 3, and so on so you need to make a slight adjustment to the ordinal value of the
enumerated type.
5. Print two lines, using the card1 and card2 objects and the name method, as follows:
A two card hand: (print card1 and card2)
Hand value: (print the sum of the face values of the
two cards)
Experimenting with the Integer Class
Wrapper classes are Java classes that allow a value of a primitive type to be "wrapped up" into
an object, which is sometimes a useful thing to do. They also often provide useful methods for
manipulating the associated type. Wrapper classes exist for each of the primitive types: boolean,
char, float, double, int, long, short, and byte.
Write a program IntWrapper that uses the constants and methods of the Integer class to perform
the following tasks. Be sure to clearly label your output and test your code for each task before
proceeding.
1. Prompt for and read in an integer, then print the binary, octal and hexadecimal
representations of that integer.
2. Print the maximum and minimum possible Java integer values. Use the constants in the
Integer class that hold these values -- don't type in the numbers themselves. Note that
these constants are static
3. Prompt the user to enter two decimal integers, one per line. Use the next method of the
Scanner class to read each of them in. (The next method returns a String so you need to
store the values read in String variables, which may seem strange.) Now convert the
strings to ints (use the appropriate method of the Integer class to do this), add them
together, and print the sum.
Nested Panels
Using program NestedPanels.java do the following:
1. Compile and run the program. Experiment with resizing the frame and observe the effect
on the components
2. Modify the program by adding a third subpanel that is twice as wide, but the same height,
as the other two subpanels. Choose your own label and color for the subpanel (the color
should not be red, green, or blue). Add the panel to the primary panel after the other two
panels.
3. Compile and run the modified program. Again, experiment with resizing the frame and
observe the effect on the components.
4. Now add a statement to the program to set the preferred size of the primary panel to 320
by 260. (What would be the purpose of this?). Compile and run the program to see if
anything changed.
5. Now add another panel with background color blue and size 320 by 20. Add a "My
Panels" label to this panel and then add this panel to the primary panel before adding the
other panels. Compile and run the program. What was the effect of this panel?