Question

I have this section of code:

int numberStars =0;
int counter =0;

while (file.hasNext()) {
  String contents = file.next();
  {             
    if (contents.contains("*")) {
      numberStars = counter;                    
      continue;
    }
    counter++;              
  }
}

So if I have a text file containing something like

ha de fa * la we * ba *

The output will be 3,5,6. How do I change this loop so that the last * is not counted (so the 6 won’t be present), and also how would I ensure, that each time a value is assigned to numberStars, that value is then used in another part of the method?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

It looks like you might want to store a list of values of counter instead of just a single int. Something like

List<Integer> numberStars = new ArrayList<Integer>();
int counter = 0;
while (file.hasNext()) {
    String contents = file.next();
    if (contents.contains("*")) {
        numbStars.add(counter);
        continue;
    }
    counter++;
}
numberStars.remove(numberStars.size() - 1); // remove last value
// all the values are now available in the numberStars list