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API

Video explaining the new findKeyword method that fixes the bug in searching for strings in the user's statement.

Magpie3.java

/**
 * A program to carry on conversations with a human user.
 * This version: 
 * <ul><li>
 *    Uses advanced search for keywords 
 * </li></ul> 
 *    
 * @author Laurie White
 * @version April 2012
 */
public class Magpie3
{
	/**
	 * Get a default greeting
	 * 
	 * @return a greeting
	 */
	public String getGreeting()
	{
		return "Hello, let's talk.";
	}

	/**
	 * Gives a response to a user statement
	 * 
	 * @param statement
	 *            the user statement
	 * @return a response based on the rules given
	 */
	public String getResponse(String statement)
	{
		String response = "";
		if (statement.length() == 0)
		{
			response = "Say something, please.";
		}
		else if (findKeyword(statement, "no") >= 0)
		{
			response = "Why so negative?";
		}
		else if (findKeyword(statement, "mother") >= 0
				|| findKeyword(statement, "father") >= 0
				|| findKeyword(statement, "sister") >= 0
				|| findKeyword(statement, "brother") >= 0)
		{
			response = "Tell me more about your family.";
		}
		else
		{
			response = getRandomResponse();
		}
		return response;
	}

	/**
	 * Search for one word in phrase. The search is not case
	 * sensitive. This method will check that the given goal
	 * is not a substring of a longer string (so, for
	 * example, "I know" does not contain "no").
	 * 
	 * @param statement
	 *            the string to search
	 * @param goal
	 *            the string to search for
	 * @param startPos
	 *            the character of the string to begin the
	 *            search at
	 * @return the index of the first occurrence of goal in
	 *         statement or -1 if it's not found
	 */
	private int findKeyword(String statement, String goal,
			int startPos)
	{
		String phrase = statement.trim();
		// The only change to incorporate the startPos is in
		// the line below
		int psn = phrase.toLowerCase().indexOf(
				goal.toLowerCase(), startPos);

	    // at this point, if psn found the goal string inside
	    // the statement, it is psn is 0 or greater 

		// Refinement--no to make sure that the goal isn't part of a
		// word, like "no" inside "knowledge"
		while (psn >= 0)
		{
			// Find the string of length 1 before and after
			// the word- we want to grap the the letter before and
			// after the found string.
			String before = " ", after = " ";
			if (psn > 0)
			{
				before = phrase.substring(psn - 1, psn)
						.toLowerCase();
			}
			if (psn + goal.length() < phrase.length())
			{
				after = phrase.substring(
						psn + goal.length(),
						psn + goal.length() + 1)
						.toLowerCase();
			}

			// If before and after aren't letters, we've
			// found the word
			if (((before.compareTo("a") < 0) || (before
					.compareTo("z") > 0)) // before is not a
											// letter
					&& ((after.compareTo("a") < 0) || (after
							.compareTo("z") > 0)))
			{
				return psn;
			}

			// We only get to this part of the code if
			// the last position didn't work, so let's find
			// the next, if there is one.
			psn = phrase.indexOf(goal.toLowerCase(),
					psn + 1);

		}

		return -1;
	}

	/**
	 * Search for one word in phrase. The search is not case
	 * sensitive. This method will check that the given goal
	 * is not a substring of a longer string (so, for
	 * example, "I know" does not contain "no"). The search
	 * begins at the beginning of the string.
	 * 
	 * @param statement
	 *            the string to search
	 * @param goal
	 *            the string to search for
	 * @return the index of the first occurrence of goal in
	 *         statement or -1 if it's not found
	 */
	private int findKeyword(String statement, String goal)
	{
		return findKeyword(statement, goal, 0);
	}

	/**
	 * Pick a default response to use if nothing else fits.
	 * 
	 * @return a non-committal string
	 */
	private String getRandomResponse()
	{
		final int NUMBER_OF_RESPONSES = 4;
		double r = Math.random();
		int whichResponse = (int) (r * NUMBER_OF_RESPONSES);
		String response = "";

		if (whichResponse == 0)
		{
			response = "Interesting, tell me more.";
		}
		else if (whichResponse == 1)
		{
			response = "Hmmm.";
		}
		else if (whichResponse == 2)
		{
			response = "Do you really think so?";
		}
		else if (whichResponse == 3)
		{
			response = "You don't say.";
		}

		return response;
	}

}

MagpieRunner3.java

import java.util.Scanner;

/**
 * A simple class to run the Magpie class.
 * @author Laurie White
 * @version April 2012
 */
public class MagpieRunner3
{

	/**
	 * Create a Magpie, give it user input, and print its replies.
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		Magpie3 maggie = new Magpie3();

		System.out.println (maggie.getGreeting());
		Scanner in = new Scanner (System.in);
		String statement = in.nextLine();

		while (!statement.equals("Bye"))
		{
			System.out.println (maggie.getResponse(statement));
			statement = in.nextLine();
		}
	}

}

StringExplorer.java

/**
 * A program to allow students to try out different 
 * String methods. 
 * @author Laurie White
 * @version April 2012
 */
public class StringExplorer
{

	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		String sample = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.";

		//  Demonstrate the indexOf method.
		int position = sample.indexOf("quick");
		System.out.println ("sample.indexOf(\"quick\") = " + position);

		//  Demonstrate the toLowerCase method.
		String lowerCase = sample.toLowerCase();
		System.out.println ("sample.toLowerCase() = " + lowerCase);
		System.out.println ("After toLowerCase(), sample = " + sample);

		//  Try other methods here:

	}

}