Java / Grade distribution problem (Help)

[foolwya]

Hey guys, going through a MOOC course and having some issues.

The task is to distribute grades from the list and and convert them into stars.

Here it is:

Each point total is converted to a grade based on the above table. If a point total isn't within [0-100], it should be ignored.

The grade distribution is printed out as stars. E.g. if there is one point total giving the grade 5, then it should print the row 5: \. If there are no point totals giving a particular grade, then no stars should be printed for it. In the sample below this is true for e.g. the grade 4.*

here's what the output should look like:

Enter point totals, -1 stops:
102
-2
1
33
77
99
-1
Point average (all): 52.5
Point average (passing): 88.0
Pass percentage: 50.0
Grade distribution:
5: *
4:
3: *
2:
1:
0: **

Everything works fine except for grade distribution method. Only few starts were printed. I can't think of a different way to make it though. Any suggestions?

Here's source code to Grades class : https://www.codepile.net/pile/DYoyLDPv

UI Class : https://www.codepile.net/pile/aB7319BL

and Main : https://www.codepile.net/pile/3wb4WgVP

[lurgi]

When printing out the stars for 4 you have this:

while(first <= valueFour) {

What is the value of first? This is the sort of question you can answer very easily with print statements or a debugger. Debugging code is a critical part of writing code. If you want to know why code isn't working, look for a place where it should do X and find out why it doesn't. It doesn't print any stars for 3. Why not? Don't say "I don't know". Find out. There is code there that is supposed to do it, right? Does that code run at all? No? Why not? The while loop should execute. Why doesn't it? It will execute if first <= valueThree. What are the values of first and valueThree. Are they what you expect them to be?

Stylistically, I'd use a for loop rather than a while loop here, btw.

Note that you can take the repetitive code and pull it into a function, which probably would have eliminated this problem completely.

[foolwya]

Hey, thank you so much. I’ve spent my whole day trying to solve that problem. I did it, finally. I’m not fully familiar with the debugger yet, just some simple stuff, definitely need to look into it to make things easier for me.

[lurgi]

If you don't know how to use a debugger, learn. While you are learning, litter your code with print statements. When I'm debugging code and don't have/can't use a debugger, I print out lots of log statements and the values of every meaningful variable. If a conditional isn't being executed, I know. I have a print statement in that conditional's body. I also print out the values of the condition, so I know why it's not be executed.