Android Studio - Array, ArrayList, List - JAVA

Question

I am making a guessing game for as my School project, but I am quite new to Android Studio and Java.

At the moment my code looks like this:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    public int score = 0;
    int random = random();
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Button correct = (Button) findViewById(R.id.correct);
        Button other = (Button) findViewById(R.id.other);
        Button newGame = (Button) findViewById(R.id.newGame);
        TextView words = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.words);


    }

    public Integer random (){
        int random = (int )(Math.random() * 5);
        return random;
    }

    private String list[] =
            {"Dog", "Cat", "Mouse", "Elephant", "Rat", "Parrot"};

    public void clickedButton(View view) {
        TextView words = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.words);
        if (view.getId()== R.id.newGame)
        {
            words.setText(list[random]);
            score = 0;
            Log.i("score", "score = " + score);
        }
        if (view.getId() == R.id.correct)
        {
            // set maybe new array so new textview does not give the same value
            words.setText(list[random]);
            score = score +1;
            Log.i("score", "score = " + score);
        }
        if (view.getId() == R.id.other)
        {
            // set maybe new array so new textview does not give the same value
            words.setText(list[random]);
            Log.i("score", "score = " + score);
        }

    }

}

Idea is simple. I have my array with (at the moment) 6 words in it. So as I launch the game it gives me a random word on screen which I have to describe to others. If they guess it right I press correct, I get another word, if not I can pass and get another word... Well the problem I see is that there is chance that I get the same word over again. So I thought there should be a way how to fix this problem.

I thought about adding like if statements like if index 1 or 2 or 3 then give another word but if I had 100 words it would be monkey work to do it.

So I think there should be a chance how I can delete words from like temp. array, but there is no in-built method to do it.

I was reading that there are those arrayLists and lists but would not it be easier to use Array? and maybe some tips how to?

Answer 1

You can first Create an ArrayList (because it is more flexible):

List<String> list;

Then initialize the object in the constructor and shuffle the ArrayList like below:

list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("Dog");
list.add("Cat");
...
//or alternatively list.addAll(Arrays.asList(normalArray)); if you have your data in array

Collections.shuffle(list,new Random(System.nanoTime()); //randomly shuffles your list

Then you can keep track of the index of the last item you read:

int index = 0;

And every time you read an item just increase the index:

words.setText(list.get(index++));

This will do the trick