Building Java Programs, 4th edition

Lab: Parameters

Except where otherwise noted, the contents of this document are Copyright 2013 Stuart Reges and Marty Stepp.

lab document created by Marty Stepp, Stuart Reges and Whitaker Brand

Lab goals

Goals for this problem set:

• practice declaring and passing parameters to methods

Parameters

A parameter allows you to pass in a value to a method as you call it.

public static void name(type name) {   // declare

methodName(expression);                // call

Example:

public static void squared(int num) {
    System.out.println(num + " times " + num + " is " + (num * num));
}
...
squared(3);          // 3 times 3 is 9
squared(8);          // 8 times 8 is 64

Exercise : Parameters output

• What two values are printed by each call below? Write them in the boxes provided.

  public class MysteryNums {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          int x = 15;
          sentence(x, 42);      // 15 42
  
          int y = x - 5;
          sentence(y, x + y);   // 10 25
      }
      
      public static void sentence(int num1, int num2) {
          System.out.println(num1 + " " + num2);
      }
  }
  

Solving "Parameter Mystery" problems

• Note the values passed, the order in which they are passed, and the order the method prints them.

  public class MysterySoda {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          String soda = "coke";
          String pop = "pepsi";
          String pepsi = "soda";
          
          // #1 = "coke", #2 = "pepsi", #3 = "soda"
          carbonated(soda, pop, pepsi);
      }
      //                                    #1           #2           #3
      public static void carbonated(String coke, String soda, String pop) {
          //                           #2               #3             #1
          System.out.println("say " + soda + " not " + pop + " or " + coke);
      }
  }
  

• output: // say#2pepsi not#3soda or#1coke

Exercise : Parameter Mystery

• Fill in the boxes with the output that each method call would produce:

  public class MysterySoda {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          String soda = "coke";
          String pop = "pepsi";
          String coke = "pop";
          String pepsi = "soda";
          String say = pop;
  
          carbonated(soda, pop, pepsi);        // say pepsi not soda or coke
          carbonated(coke, soda, pop);         // say coke not pepsi or pop
          carbonated(pop, pepsi, pepsi);       // say soda not soda or pepsi
          carbonated("pop", pop, "koolaid");   // say pepsi not koolaid or pop
          carbonated(say, "say", pop);         // say say not pepsi or pepsi
      }
      public static void carbonated(String coke, String soda, String pop) {
          System.out.println("say " + soda + " not " + pop + " or " + coke);
      }
  }
  

Exercise : Parameter Mystery

• Fill in the boxes with the output that each method call would produce:

  public class MysteryNumbers {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          String one = "two";
          String two = "three";
          String three = "1";
          int number = 20;
  
          sentence(one, two, 3);                  // three times two = 6
          sentence(two, three, 14);               // 1 times three = 28
          sentence(three, three, number + 1);     // 1 times 1 = 42
          sentence(three, two, 1);                // three times 1 = 2
          sentence("eight", three, number / 2);   // 1 times eight = 20
      }
      public static void sentence(String three, String one, int number) {
          System.out.println(one + " times " + three + " = " + (number * 2));
      }
  }
  

Exercise : Parameter Mystery

• Fill in the boxes with the output that each method call would produce:

  public class Mystery {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          String hear = "bad";
          String song = "good";
          String good = "hear";
          String walk = "talk";
          String talk = "feel";
          String feel = "walk";
          claim(feel, song, feel);       // to walk the walk is good
          claim(good, hear, song);       // to hear the good is bad
          claim(talk, "song", feel);     // to feel the walk is song
          claim("claim", talk, walk);    // to claim the talk is feel
      }
  
      public static void claim(String hear, String good, String song) {
          System.out.println("to " + hear + " the " + song + " is " + good);
      }
  }
  

Exercise : Syntax errors

• The following Java program has 9 errors. Can you find all of them?

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

  public class Parameters { public static void main() { double bubble = 867.5309; double x = 10.01; printer(double x, double y); printer(x); printer("barack", "obama"); System.out.println("z = " + z); } public static void printer(x, y double) { int z = 5; System.out.println("x = " + double x + " and y = " + y); System.out.println("The value from main is: " + bubble); } }

• Copy and paste the code into jGrasp and see if you can fix the errors.

Exercise - answer

1. line 5: cannot use variable y without declaring and initializing it
2. line 5: cannot declare the type of y in the method call
3. line 6: cannot call printer without the correct number of parameters (2, in this case)
4. line 7: cannot call printer by passing the correct type of parameters (double, in this case)
5. line 8: cannot refer to the variable z: it is in scope inside printer, not main
6. line 11: must provide a type for x
7. line 11: must provide a variable name for the second parameter
8. line 12: must refer to the parameters using the exact same spelling
9. line 13: cannot refer to variables in main that were not passed into printer as a parameter

Exercise - Corrected version

• Here is a corrected version of the program:

  public class Parameters {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          double bubble = 867.5309;
          double x = 10.01;
          double y = 5.3;
          printer(double x, double y);
          printer(x, 0.0);
          printer("barack", "obama");
          int z = 5;
          System.out.println("z = " + z);
      }
  
      public static void printer(double x, double y) {
          System.out.println("x = " + x + " and y = " + y);
          System.out.println("The value from main is: " + bubble);
          int z = 5;
      }
  }
  

Exercise : printGrid

• Write a method named printGrid that accepts two integers representing a number of rows and columns and prints a grid of integers from 1 to (rows*columns) in column-major order.
• For example, the call:

  printGrid(4, 6);
  

  should produce the following output:

  1 5 9 13 17 21
  2 6 10 14 18 22
  3 7 11 15 19 23
  4 8 12 16 20 24
  

• Check your answer using Practice-It from the check-mark icon above.

Exercise : printSquare

• Write a method printSquare that accepts min and max integers and prints a square of lines of increasing numbers. The first line should start with the minimum; each line that follows should start with the next-higher number. The numbers on a line wrap back to the minimum after it hits the maximum. For example, the call:

  printSquare(3, 6);
  

  should produce the following output:

  3456
  4563
  5634
  6345
  

• If the maximum passed is less than the minimum, the method produces no output. Check your answer using Practice-It from the check-mark icon above.
• Hint: remember the mod operator or think of each lines as having two parts...