Re: Need basic help....

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.help

Date:

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:07:41 -0400

Message-ID:

<yYidnUKx9drgCbfanZ2dnUVZ_sCtnZ2d@comcast.com>

Mark Space wrote:

Lew wrote:

Yes, of course, but the requirement didn't say "NUL" character, it
said "empty" character.

Yeah good point.

Good training, too. Understanding the requirements is one of those skills
you'll use always in this profession. Ambiguous or incompletely-defined
requirements are the norm. One of the strongest skills for a developer is to
clarify and gain customer agreement for requirements in detail.

class MyChar {
boolean charIsSet = false;
char character;

public void

    setCharacter( char c ) {
        character = c;
        charIsSet = true;
    }
}

Another way (there are always many ways, with relative advantages and
disadvantages), assuming empty != NUL:

  class MyChar
  {
     private Character ch;
  // I'm just not comfortable with the pun even with lower-case
     public void setCh( char c )
     {
         ch = c;
     }
     public char getCh()
     {
       if ( ch == null )
       {
         throw new IllegalStateException( "empty character" );
       }
       return ch;
     }
  // etc.
  }

--
Lew
"Back in the box. S'awright?"
"S'awriiight!" - Se?or Wences