Question

Java Code:

public class Car {

    //variables
    int myStartMiles;
    int myEndMiles;
    double myGallonsUsed;
    int odometerReading;
    double gallons;

    //constructors
    public Car(int odometerReading) {
        this.myStartMiles = odometerReading;
        this.myEndMiles = myStartMiles;
    }

    //methods
    public void fillUp(int odometerReading, double gallons) {
        this.myEndMiles = odometerReading;
        this.gallons = gallons;
    }

    public double calculateMPG() {
        int a = (this.myEndMiles - this.myStartMiles);
        return ((a) / (this.gallons));
    }

    public void resetMPG() {
        myGallonsUsed = 0;
        this.myStartMiles = myEndMiles;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int startMiles = 15;
        Car auto = new Car(startMiles);

        System.out.println("New car odometer reading: " + startMiles);
        auto.fillUp(150, 8);
        System.out.println("Miles per gallon: " + auto.calculateMPG());
        System.out.println("Miles per gallon: " + auto.calculateMPG());
        auto.resetMPG();
        auto.fillUp(350, 10);
        auto.fillUp(450, 20);
        System.out.println("Miles per gallon: " + auto.calculateMPG());
        auto.resetMPG();
        auto.fillUp(603, 25.5);
        System.out.println("Miles per gallon: " + auto.calculateMPG()); 
    }
}

I’m trying to get this to work, but I can’t get the desired output.

The desired results are:

New car odometer reading: 15
Miles per gallon: 16.875
Miles per gallon: 16.875
Miles per gallon: 10.0
Miles per gallon: 6.0

I’m getting:

New car odometer reading: 15
Miles per gallon: 16.875
Miles per gallon: 16.875
Miles per gallon: 15.0
Miles per gallon: 6.0

Could you tell me what is wrong with the code? I am trying to manually run it by hand on paper.

Answer 1

The problem is in your fillUp method. Specifically this line:

this.gallons = gallons;

Should be:

this.gallons += gallons;

Since you are assigning instead of adding, the output is wrong in the third case because:

auto.fillUp(350, 10);
auto.fillUp(450, 20);

Sets gallons to 10 and then overwrites it with 20 instead of adding 10, and then adding 20 for a total of 30.

EDIT: You will also need gallons = 0; in your resetMPG method. Currently you set myGallonsUsed = 0, but that variable is otherwise unused, so I don’t know why you are doing this.