I have created a method to calculate whether 5 dice rolls make a small straight in Java. According to my task, a small straight is defined by rolling 4 consecutive numbers in any order. I am using an array that tracks the frequency of the rolls in my method. arr[0] being number of one rolls etc. It works for all of my test cases except when the numbers rolled are 3, 4, 5, 5, 6. I can't use anything like a hash table as it has to be in vanilla Java.

The frequency array for the case that will not work is [0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1].

public int getSmallStraightScore() {
        int score = 0;
        int count = 0;
        int[] x = getRollFrequency();
        for (int i = 0; i < x.length; i  ) {
            if (x[i] != 0) {
                count  ;
            }
            else if (count == 4) {
                score = 30;
                break;
            }
        }
        return score;
    }

I have tried changing else if (count >= 4) which does not work. I am new to Java so I appreciate any help.

CodePudding user response：

You need to check for two cases :

First : check for 0,1,2,3 (first four rolls)

Second : check for 1,2,3,4 (next four rolls)

These cases cover the five rolls.

CodePudding user response：

There are more test cases which will fail. E.g. 1,2,3,5 will return 30 which is wrong. Also 3, 4, 5, 6, x whith x between 3 and 6 will fail.

Why? Because your if else is wrong (but it is close to be correctly).

Here is how it should look like:

if (x[i] != 0) {
    count  ;
} else {
    count = 0; // reset count if no match
}
if (count >= 4) { // always check and not just if there is no match
    score = 30;
    break;
}

You could simplify:

if (x[i] > 0) {
    if (  count == 4)
        return 30;
} else {
    count = 0;
}