Question

I’m trying to implement a program that involves an array of stacks. Each stack takes in Integer objects, but the problem is when I try to get an Integer object from the stack:

import java.util.*;

public class Blocks
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        System.out.println();
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

        Stack[] blocks = new Stack[input.nextInt()];
        for (int i = 0; i < blocks.length; i++) {blocks[i] = new Stack<Integer>();} //initializing main array of stacks of blocks
        for (int i = 0; i < blocks.length; i++) {blocks[i].push(i);} //add first block to each stack
        Stack retainer = new Stack<Integer>(); //used for when moving stacks of blocks instead of one block.

        boolean m; //move or pile
        boolean on; //onto or over

        int fromBlock; //block being moved
        int toBlock; //block where the fromBlock is being moved

        String command = input.next();
        while (!command.equals("quit"))
        {
            m = command.equals("move");
            fromBlock = input.nextInt();
            on = input.next().equals("onto");
            toBlock = input.nextInt();

            if (m) //put back blocks on fromBlock
            {
                if (on) //put back blocks on toBlock
                {
                    int holder = blocks[fromBlock].pop().intValue(); //I get a compiler error here
                    moveOnto(blocks, holder, toBlock);
                }
                else //fromBlock goes on top of stack on toBlock
                {
                }
            }
            else //bring blocks on fromBlock
            {
                if (on) //put back blocks on toBlock
                {
                }
                else //fromBlock goes on top of stack on toBlock
                {
                }
            }

            command = input.next();
        }
    }

    void moveOnto(Stack[] array, int sBlock, int rBlock)
    {

    }
}

The error says that is doesn’t recognize .intValue(). Obviously that is a method of Integer, and I found out from that point that it’s returning Object objects instead of Integer types. How can I make it return Integer types?

Answer 1

(oops – Java doesn’t allow arrays of generics)
Change your Stack variable declaration to use the generic version of Stack:

Stack<Integer>[] blocks = new Stack<Integer>[input.nextInt()];

Otherwise when you access the non-generic stack’s .pop() method it just returns an Object which you would need to cast back to an Integer In order to access Integer methods like intValue():

int holder = ((Integer)blocks[fromBlock].pop()).intValue();

(But you won’t need to cast if you fix the declarations.)