Java

Unit1

FCPS
Java
Packets
Unit One – JKarel Programming
August 2008

Developed by Shane Torbert

Answer Key by Marion Billington
under the direction of Gerry Berry
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax, Virginia

One-1
 Java
Unit1

Contributing Authors
The author is grateful for additional contributions from Marion Billington, Charles Brewer, Margie Cross, Cathy
Eagen, Anne Little, John Mitchell, John Myers, Steve Rose, John Totten, Ankur Shah, and Greg W. Price.

The students' supporting web site, including all materials, can be found at http://academics.tjhsst.edu/compsci/
The teacher's FCPS Computer Science CD is available from Stephen Rose at srose@fcps.edu

Acknowledgements
Many of the lessons in Unit 1, including the edu.pace.Robot and edu.pace.World files, were taken and modified from:
Bergin, J., Stehlik, M., Roberts, J., and Pattis, R. Karel++: A Gentle Introduction to
the Art of Object-Oriented Programming. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997.

License Information
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

You are free:

* to Share -- to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work

Under the following conditions:

* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
* Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
* No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
* For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
* Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder, smtorbert@fcps.edu

You are free to alter and distribute these materials within your educational institution provided that appropriate credit is
given and that the nature of your changes is clearly indicated. As stipulated above, you may not distribute altered
versions of these materials to any other institution. If you have any questions about this agreement please e-mail
smtorbert@fcps.edu
One-2
 Java
Unit1

Java Instruction Plan—Unit One

Section One – Classes and Objects Page
Lab00: Hello Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-4
Lab01: Students and Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-7
Lab02: Escape the Maze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-10
Section Two – Inheritance and Methods
Lab03: Climb Every Mountain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-14
Lab04: Take the Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-16
Lab05: Shuttle Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-21
Lab06: AHalf-Dozen Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-24
Section Three – Algorithms and Polymorphism
Lab07: Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-26
Lab08: Hurdle Racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-29
Lab09: Shifting Piles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-31
Lab10: Maze Escaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-34
Section Four – Abstract Classes and Interfaces
Lab11: Your ID Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-37
Lab12: Harvesting and Carpeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-39
Lab 13: Project: Build Your Own Robot .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-40
Lab14: Synchronized Swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-42
Lab15: Dancing Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-44
Lab16: Shifty Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-45
Section Five – Return, break, and continue
Lab17: Follow Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-47
Lab18: Treasure Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-49
Lab19: Yellow Brick Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-50

Appendix
Recursion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-51
Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-56
Seeking the Beeper, Part II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-57
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-58

One-3
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
File Management
Java requires you to organize your files carefully. You must do your work in your personal folder, which
might be on a network drive, a hard drive, or a removable drive. The JKarel Unit1 folder, with all its files
and folders, should be copied from a CD or a network drive into \personal_folder\. Ask your teacher
how to do this on your school’s system.

personal_folder

Unit1

karele.gif
kareln.gif (Save your source code here.)
karels.gif
karelw.gif
Lab06.java
Lab07.java maps
. . . *.map

Source code is the Java program you write. Save your source code directly to your Unit1 folder; do not create
sub-folders because your programs and the gif files must be in the same folder.

Running a Java program is a two-step process: compiling and then running. Compiling is the translation of
the source code into a lower-level code called bytecode. Compiling also checks for some kinds of errors,
which is helpful. If the program successfully compiles, then you run the bytecode and see what happens. If
you edit your source code, and you do not re-compile, then you are running the old bytecode. Accordingly,
every time you make a change, you must re-compile in order to create an updated bytecode.

The two-step process was adopted in order better to accommodate different

kinds of computers connected by the World Wide Web. The bytecode is
sent over the internet, which is then run on the local system. The result is source code
that Java is portable, or platform independent: you compile once and run compile
anywhere. One disadvantage of this process is that Java runs slower than
some compiled-only languages like C++.
bytecode
Java, and object-oriented programming, can be difficult (but fun) to learn.
Unit 1 uses karel robots and maps to introduce the concepts of object- run run
oriented programming. run

Why the name “Karel”? According to Karel++: A Gentle Introduction to the UNIX Windows Mac
Art of Object-Oriented Programming by Joseph Bergin, Mark Stehlik, Jim
Roberts, and Richard Pattis:

The name Karel is used in recognition of the Czechoslovakian dramatist Karel Čapek, who popularized
the word robot in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). The word robot is derived from the
Czech word robota, meaning forced labor.

One-4
 Java
Unit1

Lab00
Hello Robot
Objective
Classes, objects, and sending Robot commands. Program structure.

Background
Ask your teacher about the text editor and Java environment you will be using. A nice text editor for a
beginning student is jGRASP, available for free from Auburn University.

Specification
Go to File, New, Java file. Enter the source code shown below.
Line 1: This line states the programmer's
name and date, beginning with //. The //
starts a comment line, which is not
compiled into bytecode; it is ignored.
Line 2: The import keyword makes
classes in other packages accessible.

Line 5: The class name and file name

must match exactly.

Line 6: Left brace begins class Lab00.

Line 7: All applications have a main

method. The statements execute in order.

Line 8: Left brace begins main.

Line 9: openWorld() is a class method in

the Display class.

Line 12: The compiler usually ignores

whitespace.

Line 13: Our object named karel is an instance of the Robot class. We have instantiated a Robot object.

Line 15: move() is an instance method in every Robot object.

Lines 24 and 25: Right brace ends main and another right brace ends class Lab00. When you click CSD, the
braces are all indented properly and the blue lines are generated.

Go to Save As. . . and save it as Lab00 in the Unit1 folder. CSD. Compile and fix any errors. Run. You will
see a map and a robot accomplishing its task, like this:

Sample Run

Start: End:

One-5
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab00
A Robot object’s default initial conditions are to start at (1, 1) facing east with zero beepers. You may tell the
robot how to begin by specifying the avenue, street, direction, and number of beepers. For instance:
Robot ophelia = new Robot(); //calls the default constructor
Robot horatio = new Robot(5, 4, Display.SOUTH, 37); //calls the 4-arg constructor

1) What does ophelia know? What does horatio know? What do both robots know?

2) Write the command to create a robot named pete starting at (4, 3) facing west with 50 beepers.

3) Complete the main method to have lisa move one block, put down a beeper, then move another block.
Since we have not set-up a specific map, the default robot-map will be used. The default map is empty
except for the two infinite-length walls on the southern and western edges.
public static void main (String[] args)
{
Robot lisa = new Robot(7, 7, Display.SOUTH, 15);

4) Complete the main method to have martha move forward five blocks and “hand-off” her beeper to george.
Have george move forward two blocks and put the beeper down.

public static void main (String args[])

{
Robot martha = new Robot(1, 1, Display.NORTH, 1);
Robot george = new Robot(1, 6, Display.EAST, 0);

5) Question #3 has no Display.openWorld( ). In that case, what map is used?

One-6
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Java Applications
Java applications, or programs, have a standard structure. You have already seen that the class name must
match the filename. An application must also have a main method. The main method is the entry point for
your program. When the program runs, the machine executes public static void main(String[]
args)and the commands in main execute in order. Java's structure also requires matching parentheses for
every block of code.

public class LabXX

{
public static void main(String[] args)
{

}
}

The code above must be saved as LabXX.java. The compiler first checks the .java code for syntax errors.
Then it imports all the necessary files, which are usually in different places. The compiler first searches the
current folder (which is our Unit1), then the external import locations, then the automatic import locations. All
this source code is put together and translated into bytecode, which is saved in Unit1 as a .class file.

Compiling is accomplished by running a separate program named javac. This program was written by Sun
and is part of the j2sdk installation. The syntax from a command line would be javac LabXX.java. (In
jGrasp, we just click a button.) The name of the bytecode will LabXX.class. The bytecode is a comparatively
small file, so that it can travel quickly over the internet.

To run the bytecode, maybe at a different computer, Sun uses another program named java. The syntax from
a command line would be java LabXX, because the extension is assumed to be .class. (In jGrasp, we just
click a button.) Then the JVM automatically calls your LabXX’s main method. If you did not define main
your program will give an error, “not found: main”. If you did define main but the header does not say
precisely:
public static void main(String[] args)

your program will give an error, “not found: main”. The entire process is illustrated below.

You write and Java creates

save your Java javac LabXX.java the bytecode java LabXX
source code.
Look at the output,
LabXX.java LabXX.class see if it is
compile run what you wanted.

fix the syntax

errors

fix the run-time errors

One-7
 Java
Unit1

Lab01
Students and Books
Objective
Program structure. Display commands. Robot commands.

Background
Maps are mapped according to the Cartesian coordinate system.
The corner at the bottom-left of the graphics window is (1, 1).
Maps create the context for solving robot problems. Pre-defined
maps are stored in the folder Unit1\maps
An identifier is the name of a class, an object, or a method. An
identifier can be any unique sequence of numbers, letters, and the
underscore character “_”. An identifier cannot begin with a
number. An identifier cannot be a Java keyword, like class.
Identifiers are case-sensitive, so lisa is not the same as Lisa. As a
convention, only class names begin with an uppercase letter.
Method names, objects, and other variables always begin with a
lowercase letter. One exception is constants, like EAST, which are
written in ALL CAPS.
The word instantiate means to create an instance of a class—an object. Java instantiates an object with the
new keyword.

The object “knows” how to do things in its methods. We can call or invoke a method, or send a message to a
robot object, by using dot-notation. For instance, a robot named pete will move forward with the call
pete.move();. The identifier “pete”, before the dot, is the name of an object and the identifier “move”,
after the dot, is the name of a method. All methods in Java are marked by parentheses, which sometimes are
empty and sometimes have values. The pete object will attempt to follow the calls in its move() method.

Specification
Create Unit1\Lab01.java with the “school” map at size 10x10. Instantiate two Robot objects, one named lisa
using the default constructor and the other named pete starting at (4, 5) facing south with zero beepers. Have
lisa pick up the “book” from the math office and bring it to pete. Have pete take the book to the storage room
and place it on the pile that currently has only two books. Then have pete step away from the pile.

Sample Run
start finish

One-8
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab01
1) An API is a document that lists all relevant information about each class. Consult the Unit1 API
found at http://academics.tjhsst.edu/compsci/CSweb/index.html
a. Fields store an object’s private information about its state. List all the fields of the Robot class:

b. What methods in Robot have we used so far?

c. What methods in Display have we used so far?

2) Circle the valid identifiers.

mrsAdams mr.chips class r2_d2 c-3po hal9000 7_of_9

3) Mark the following points A(1, 1), B(6, 7), C(5, 2), D(3, 8), E(8, 1) on the
robot-map shown.

4) What has the size of this robot-map been set to?

5) Give the command to set that size.

6) Lisa is a teacher at the local high school. She needs to store some books in the storage room downstairs.
Lisa takes the books from the math office to the student lounge, where eager students wait to help their
teachers. Lisa gives the books to pete, who cheerfully stores the books on the smallest pile.

Identify the nouns in the story above:

Identify the verbs in the story above:

7) In objected oriented programming, nouns turn into __________.

8) In objected oriented programming, verbs turn into _____ _________.

Our Lab01 program models the story from Question #6 using robots and books. Think of other classes that
could have been used instead to solve the same problem.

9) What should be the attributes (private data) of each class?

10) What should be the behaviors of each class?

One-9
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Errors
A Java compiler checks your work for errors whenever you compile a
program. For instance, if you misspell Robot as Robt in your source
code, you will receive a lexical error message because Robt is
undefined. The compiler can’t understand that you meant to say CSD Line Numbers
Robot but spelled it incorrectly. (The error message will tell you on
which line your error occurs; use the Line Numbering button to help you locate the exact line.)
A second kind of error is a syntax error, meaning that it breaks the rules of forming valid commands in Java.
It is like making a grammatical error in English.
A third kind of error can occur when the program runs. If your code tells a robot to walk through a wall, pick
up a beeper that isn’t there, or place a beeper that it doesn’t have, then a runtime error will occur. Your run-
time environment generates an error message saying why the program crashed.
A fourth kind of error occurs when your program executes all the commands, but doesn’t accomplish the
required task. Such logic errors are not the program’s fault. They are the programmer’s fault, usually due to
unclear thinking. You’ll be spending a lot of time correcting logic errors.

Please get in the habit of generating CSD and compiling after you write a few lines of code. That way, you
know that any syntax errors are in the last few lines that you wrote.

To help correct logic errors, you might try to comment out parts of the code. That way you can check portions
of the code by itself. The commented out portions will turn orange (in jGrasp), and the compiler ignores those
lines. You can either use // at the beginning of each line, or you can use /* to start a block of code and */ to
end it.

Using Lab01, create these errors and write down what error messages, if any, they generate.

common errors CSD error messages compiler error run-time error

omit a semicolon

put in an illegal semicolon, say after

public static void main(String[] args);
omit a }

lexical error in “SSSSchool”

pass the wrong number of arguments,

e.g. new Robot (4, 5, Display.SOUTH);
forget to import edu.fcps.karel2.Display;

Finally, comment out the lisa Robot and all lisa’s commands. What happens to pete?

The process of finding errors and correcting them is called “debugging” and the errors themselves are called
“bugs.” In 1951, Grace Hopper, who would eventually rise to the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States
Navy, discovered the first computer “bug.” It was a real moth that died in the circuitry. Hopper pasted the
moth into her UNIVAC logbook and started to call all her programming errors “bugs.”

One-10
 Java
Unit1

Lab02
Escape the Maze
Objective
Inheritance. Defining instance methods.

Background
Escaping the maze shown involves both left turns and right turns.
Since our robots only know how to turn left we will define another
type of object (athlete) in a separate class (Athlete) that knows how
to turn both left and right, and 180 degrees around.

Study the structure of Athlete.java, especially lines 14 to 24. In

these instance methods, we “ teach” Athlete how to turn around and
how to turn right. (We will talk about lines 6 to 13 later.)

The keyword extends means that an athlete isa robot.

Isa means that the Athlete class inherits the behaviors and
attributes of the Robot class; the methods from Robot do
not have to be re-written. We can use turnLeft() in our
definition of turnRight() and turnAround(), and any
athlete object can use any robot method. When you write
methods in Athlete, think of programming an Athlete in
general, not of programming any specific athlete object.

Athlete is a general resource class that will be useful in a

wide range of applications. The application called
Lab02, which has the main() method, will use the Athlete
class. We sometimes say that Lab02 hasa athlete.

One-11
 Java
Unit1

Specification
Load Unit1\Athlete.java. Implement the methods turnRight and turnAround, then compile Athlete.java to
create the file Athlete.class. When you create an athlete object in your Lab02 application, Java will look for
the Athlete.class file in order to understand what athlete objects do. Do not run Athlete.

Create Unit1\Lab02.java with “maze” map at size 8x8. Instantiate one athlete object and direct it to escape the
maze. Leave a trail of beepers to mark the path. By default, athletes begin with an infinite number of beepers.

Sample Run

One-12
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab02
Examine the robot-map shown. Assume the Athlete’s name is maria.

1) Write the commands to put one beeper at the indicated location.

2) Use a different path from your answer from Question #1. Write the commands to put one beeper at the
indicated location

3) Lab01 used three classes, Lab01, Display, and Robot. Label the boxes (it’s called a UML diagram),
showing the class relationships. Label the arrows with “hasa.”

4) Lab02 involved four classes, Lab02, Display, Robot, and Athlete. Label the boxes in the UML diagram,
showing the class relationships. Label the arrows with “isa” or “hasa.”

One-13
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Resources vs. Drivers
In Lab01 you wrote one class while in Lab02 you wrote two classes, a driver class and a resource class. The
driver class contained the main method while the resource class contained the code for Athlete. Using a
different terminology, we could say that the driver class is the client and the resource class is the server. The
client sends messages or commands while the server knows how to respond to those messages. Notice also
that the driver class did not have to be instantiated to be used. The driver class had a static main method,
which contained code that just lies around, waiting to be used. We could just run the main method. In
contrast, the resource class did have to be instantiated (using the new keyword) as an object. Then the client
could send messages to that object, the server, directing the object to perform some task.

Discussion
Class Types vs. Primitive Types
A data type specifies how the different kinds of data, e.g., numbers, or words, or Robots, are stored and
manipulated. (This is a big topic in computer science. Here we just introduce the topic.) Classes define
complex types since they encapsulate data and methods, i.e., an object’s data and methods are private and
wrapped up inside the object. Objects are accessed by references, which act like little pointers. The code
Robot karel = new Robot() does three things: creates a reference, instantiates an object, and assigns
(the "=" sign) the reference to point to the object. You should have this picture in mind:

Robot karel = new Robot(); karel OBJECT

Two or more references can point to a single object. You will see this in later labs.
In Java, some built-in data types are not complex, but are simpler, called primitive data types. Three of Java’s
primitive data types are int for integers, double for decimal numbers, and boolean for true-false.

Primitive data types are not accessed by reference. Instead, the data is stored directly in memory spaces called
variables. A type declaration assigns a name to a memory space, and often assigns a value, e.g.:
int sum; sum
int total = 0; total 0

We may say that these two statements declare sum and total. Here are five more declarations:
int x = 5; x 5
int y = x; y 5
double d = 5.79;
boolean answer = true; d 579 2
boolean result = answer; answer true
result true
The eight declarations on this page create a reference to a Robot object, seven different variables, and assign
values to six of those variables.
The constructor method public Athlete(int x, int y, int dir, int beep) creates four
memory spaces for integers, but does not assign values. The values are assigned when the actual values are
passed to the constructor method by a call to the constructor such as:
Athlete ariadne = new Athlete(1, 2, Display.EAST, 10);.

One-14
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Constructors
Lab02 instantiated an athlete at (1, 1, north, infinity) with the call Athlete karel = new Athlete().
That call executed lines 6-9 in the Athlete class below, which is the code for the default constructor. A
constructor method is a method that creates an object and initializes its private data. The private data known
by an Athlete, for example, is its x-position, y-position, direction, and beepers.

The default constructor is easy to call,

but isn't flexible. It always
instantiates an object in the default
state, which in the case of an Athlete
is 1, 1, north, and infinity. It would
be nice to be more flexible, so that we
could specify an Athlete at different
positions, directions, and numbers of
beepers. We can do so by writing a
constructor with arguments.

Lines 10 through 13 contain the code

for the 4-arg constructor, because in
line 10, the (int x, int y, int d, int b)
creates room for 4 values. The 4-arg
constructor is hard to call, but is
flexible because it allows the
programmer to instantiate an athlete
in any state.
Object
Java allows us to write as many constructors as we want, each designed to instantiate
objects in slightly different states.
Robot
In Java, a subclass inherits fields and methods, but not constructors. The subclass needs
an explicit call to the superclass’s constructor. Java’s call to the superclass constructor is
super(). The super command calls the constructor of the class above the current Athlete
class. Thus, Athlete’s super calls Robot’s constructor method. Robot also has a
super method, which calls the constructor of the class above it, which happens to be Object. Eventually, all
the objects in the hierarchy combine together to make an Athlete object.

There are several rules regarding constructors. First, the name of the constructor method must match the name
of the class, i.e. Athlete() on lines 6 and 10 must match Athlete on line 4. Second, constructors are not
labeled with a keyword, such as void or static. Third, the super command, including the number and
types of arguments, must match the constructor of the class in the hierarchy above. For example, the Athlete’s
super(1,1,Display.NORTH,Display.INFINITY) must find a corresponding 4-arg constructor
method in Robot. Similarly, a call to a 1-arg constructor must find a corresponding 1-arg constructor method.

If you don’t write a constructor, then Java automatically provides a default or no-arg constructor, which is nice
but confusing, because then you don't actually see the code for the constructor.

If you do write a constructor with arguments, then you should, as a general rule, also define a no-argument
constructor, just in case the chain of constructors needs it later. (Sadly, we don’t follow this rule in Lab03.)

One-15
 Java
Unit1

Lab03
Climb Every Mountain
Objective
Constructors.

Background
A constructor is a method that creates an object and initializes its private data.

One specialized type of athlete is the climber. A climber robot explores mountains, has adventures, and finds
treasure. Climbers always start at the bottom facing north with one beeper, but we want them to be able to
begin at any given x-position. In order to specify the starting x-position, the Climber class will define a 1-arg
constructor.

public class Climber extends Athlete

{
public Climber(int x) Robot
{
super(x, 1, Display.NORTH, 1);
}
public void climbUpRight() Athlete
{
//pseudocode: tL, m, m, tR, m
}
//You must define three other instance methods. Climber
}

We might instantiate a climber with Climber tenzing = new Climber(100). Note that we must
pass one argument to Climber's constructor, but that Climber's super passes four arguments to Athlete’s
constructor, which passes those four to Robot's constructor, which finally instantiates a climber robot.

The Climber's instance methods all have to do with climbing the mountain. Each
method should work for one step only. Plan how you will teach the climber to climb
up one step, going to the right.

Specification
Consult the JKarel API to find out what methods the Climber class needs to know.

Create Unit1\Climber.java. Implement the methods in the Climber class, then compile.

Create Unit1\Lab03.java with “mountain” map at size 16 x 16. Instantiate two climbers starting at avenue 8.
Put down the beeper, which is the "base camp." Staying together as much as possible, bring the treasure back
to “base camp.”

Sample Run:
Start: End:

One-16
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab03
1. Assume the class Elf inherits from Robot. Write a constructor for Elf that takes one argument specifying
the number of beepers to start with and sets the starting position to (1, 90) facing south.
public class Elf extends Robot
{

2. Let's make the class Spartan extend Athlete. Write a constructor for Spartan that takes two arguments
specifying the position to start on. All Spartans face east with one beeper.
public class Spartan extends Athlete
{

Discussion
Passing Arguments
We said above that we might instantiate a climber with Climber tenzing = new
Climber(100);. The number 100, inside parentheses, is called an actual argument. The x 100
program then goes to the method’s code, sees the public Climber(int x), creates
room for the x, and assigns the 100 to the x. The variable x is called the formal argument. x 100
Whenever the x is used after that, its value will be 100. Similarly, when the call to y 1
super(100, 1, Display.NORTH, 1) is executed, then those four integers are passed
d 3
up to Athlete. There, the x is 100, the y is 1, the d is Display.NORTH, and the b is 1. The
four actual arguments must match up with the four formal arguments, or the class will not b 1
compile. Whenever we write or call a method, we need to think about the method’s arguments, both their type
and their number.

In the next lab, we will be passing objects as arguments with takeTheField(maria); The computer
then goes to the method’s code, sees public static void takeTheField(Athlete arg), and
creates and assigns a new reference. Because Java objects are referenced, what gets passed is the reference,
meaning that maria and arg point to the same object. In effect, the athlete has two names. Commands invoked
on arg affect the object that maria points to.

takeTheField(maria); maria

ATHLETE

arg

One-17
 Java
Unit1

Lab04
Take the Field
Objective
Class methods vs. Instance methods

Background
A class method is invoked without an object (the class "knows"). The class method is just available for use.
Often class methods control the environment, such as Display.setSize() or Display.openDisplay (). Question:
is Display an object or a class? Sometimes class methods just conveniently store code, such as the
mathematical formulas in the Math class. All class methods are marked by the keyword static. Class
methods are usually placed before the main method, but they don’t have to be.
An instance method is invoked on an object which has been instantiated (the object “knows”). Every Athlete
should know how to turnRight(). Therefore, turning right is appropriately defined as an instance method
within the Athlete class. In contrast, taking the field is something that is specific to this lab only. All the
athletes in Lab04 will go from the locker room (Point A) to the field (Point B), by executing the code in the
class method takeTheField(). Athletes should not know for themselves how to take the field.

public class Lab04

{
public static void takeTheField(Athlete arg)
{
arg.move();
arg.move();
arg.move();
arg.move();
B
arg.turnRight();
arg.move();
arg.move();
} A
public static void main(String[] args)
//You must define main.
}

We can use this class method with any athlete object by passing the object. For instance, if we have athletes
maria and gary defined in main, we can tell each to take the field with the commands:

takeTheField(maria);
takeTheField(gary);

Notice that we do NOT say maria.takeTheField(). This is because

takeTheField() is not part of an Athlete object. It is in the Lab04
class. We call takeTheField() and pass the object to the argument arg,
which points to whatever Athlete has been passed; first maria, then gary.

Specification
Create Unit1\Lab04.java with “arena” map at size 10x10. Create six
athletes starting in the locker room; use the default constructor. Create one
object by the side of the field to represent the coach. Have your team get
positioned for the start of the game as shown.

One-18
 Java
Unit1

Exercises, Part 1
Lab04 class NewLab
Robot
public class NewLab main()
{ karel
josie Athlete
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Robot karel = new Robot();
Athlete josie = new Athlete();
//Assume each command below is inserted here. class Lab04
} takeTheField(Athlete arg)
} main()
Explain what is wrong with each command shown below. gary
maria
1. karel.turnRight();

2. karel.putBeeper();

3. maria.pickBeeper();

4. josie.turnLeft();
josie.move();

5. josie.takeTheField();

6. takeTheField(josie);

7. Lab04.takeTheField(karel);

8. Lab04.takeTheField(josie, karel);

9. Lab04.takeTheField(Athlete arg);

One-19
 Java
Unit1

Exercises, Part 2
Lab04
Examine the robot-map shown. Note that this is not exactly the
same arena map from Lab04. Our facilities are being renovated
and the construction crew has temporarily blocked off our normal
passageway; there’s a horizontal wall north of (1, 2) that wasn’t
there originally.

1. Describe how you would have to change your Lab04

application so that it would work in this map.

2. Write down the complete code of all methods that you changed, starting with the header for that method
and including the entire method body.

3. Modular design is the practice of breaking larger problems into smaller, more manageable pieces. Explain
how modular design helped us maintain our Lab04 program when the robot-map changed.

Look at the Java API for the Math class.

4. Which Math method doesn’t take any arguments? ______________________

5. Name a Math method that takes two arguments. ______________________

6. Why does it make sense that all the Math methods are marked static?

One-20
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Class Hierarchy
In the class hierarchy, or inheritance hierarchy, shown in
the UML diagram at the right, we say: Robot
• Robot is the superclass of Athlete and Athlete is
the subclass of Robot. Athlete
• Athlete is the superclass of Climber and Climber
is the subclass of Athlete.
• Athlete is the superclass of Racer and Racer is the Climber Racer
subclass of Athlete
Other names for a superclass are base class or parent class. Other names for a subclass are derived class or
child class. Since a climber isa athlete and an athlete isa robot, we can also say that a climber isa robot.
Likewise, since a racer isa athlete and an athlete isa robot, we can say that a racer isa robot. Not only do the
subclasses inherit methods and fields, but they also inherit the name of the superclass.

1) For each attribute, circle the classes that must have that attribute.
A. Athletes have green feet. Robot Athlete Climber Racer

B. Climbers have blue scales. Robot Athlete Climber Racer

C. Robots have curly tails. Robot Athlete Climber Racer

D. Racers have sharp teeth. Robot Athlete Climber Racer

2) Given the declarations below, circle all the commands that are legal.
Robot karel = new Robot();
Athlete gary = new Athlete();
Climber lisa = new Climber();
Racer mary = new Racer(); // Racer defines jumpHurdle()
public static void runAway(Athlete arg)

karel.move(); gary.move(); lisa.move(); mary.move();

karel.turnRight(); gary.turnRight(); lisa.turnRight(); mary.turnRight();
karel.turnLeft(); gary.turnLeft(); lisa.turnLeft(); mary.turnLeft();
karel.climbUpRight(); gary.climbUpRight(); lisa.climbUpRight(); mary.climbUpRight();
karel.jumpHurdle(); gary.jumpHurdle(), lisa.jumpHurdle(); mary.jumpHurdle();
karel.main(); gary.setSize(); lisa.openWorld(); mary.pickUpBeeper();
karel.runAway(); gary.runAway(); lisa.runAway(); mary.runAway();
runAway(karel); runAway(gary); runAway(lisa); runAway(mary);

One-21
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Loops
We often want to repeat (or iterate, or loop) either one command or a sequence of commands. For instance:
karel.move(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.putBeeper(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.putBeeper(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.putBeeper(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.putBeeper(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.putBeeper(); pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move();
karel.putBeeper();
In the first example, we want to repeat moving and putting exactly 6 times. In the second example, we want to
pick exactly 10 beepers. Since we know beforehand exactly how many times to iterate (definite iteration), we
will use a for-loop. (We will study indefinite iteration, the while-loop, in Lab06.)

int k; int k;
for(k=1; k<=6; k++) for(k=1; k<=10; k++)
{ pete.pickBeeper();
karel.move();
karel.putBeeper(); This loop will cause pete to pick up a beeper ten
} times (once when k has each of the values 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10).
This loop will cause karel to move and put
down a beeper six times (once when k has Braces are optional if the process to be repeated
each of the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). consists of only a single command.

Each for-loop has three parts, where k begins, where k ends, and how k increases. The command k++ causes
the value of the variable k to increase by one. If k was one, it is now two; if k was two, it is now three; and so
on. (Plus-plus (++), the unary increment operator, gave us the name of the language C++.)

The table to the right shows both the values that the integer variable k takes
and the values that the boolean expression k <= 6 takes inside karel’s loop. k k <= 6
1 true
The boolean expression evaluates to false only when the value of k reaches 2 true
seven. Since the loop continues until this condition is false, the value of k is 3 true
seven when the loop stops. What is the value of k when pete’s loop stops? 4 true
5 true
The loop control variable, k, can actually be declared within the for-loop. 6 true
The syntax of a for-loop that repeats n times can then be written as: 7 false
for(int k = 1; k <= n; k++)
{
}

One-22
 Java
Unit1

Lab05
Shuttle Run
Objective
for-loops.

Background 3 import edu.fcps.karel2.Display;

4 public class Racer extends Athlete
Racers always start on the left side at x=1,
5 {
facing east with an infinite number of 6 public Racer(int y)
beepers, but they may begin on any y- 7 {
coordinate. The Racer constructor with an 8 super(1, y, Display.EAST,
argument that specifies the starting y- Display.INFINITY);
position is on lines 6-9. 9 }
10 public void jumpRight()
Racers also improve upon the powers of 11 {
Athletes and Robots. Racers will be able //pseudocode: tL, m, tR, m, tR, m, tL
15 }
to move many steps at a time, pick up 16 public void sprint(int n)
piles of beepers, and put down piles. 17 {
These instance methods will use for-loops 18 for(int k=1; k <= n; k++)
and pass a variable. One is done for you; 19 move();
complete the other three. 20 }
21 public void put(int n)
If pete is a Racer, then 22 {
pete.sprint(100); will move pete 23 __________________
way off the screen. How does the
24 __________________
sprint() method work? 25 }
26 public void pick(int n)
Since three racers will complete the same 27 {
task, which depends on the map that is 28 __________________
used, this is a perfect place to define a
class method. What is the syntax for 29 __________________
sending pete to runTheRace()? 30 }

Specification
Consult the JKarel API for the methods that should be in the Racer class. Create Unit1\Racer.java. Implement
the Racer class, then compile.

Create Unit1\Lab05.java with “shuttle” map at size 10x10. Create three racers to run the shuttle run. It’s not a
race. Let one racer finish the task, then send each of the others. Use a class method. Each pile of beepers
must be brought individually back to the racer’s starting point. At the end each racer must step away from the
pile to confirm that all 15 beepers have been retrieved.
Sample Run

Start: End:

One-23
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Loops and If
Any for-loop can be re-written as a while-loop.

Both loops as written will try to make karel turn left for n times, no matter what. However, it has become
conventional to use the for-loop for definite loops and the while-loop for indefinite loops, where you don’t
know beforehand exactly how many times to loop.

The while-loop below is a better example of an indefinite loop, for we don’t know when it will stop. It keeps
picking up a beeper as long as nextToABeeper() is TRUE. The result is to make a robot that is standing
on top of a pile to pick up that entire pile of beepers.

An if-statement is similar to a while-loop, but only makes one decision. The if-statement below will cause
karel to pick up one beeper if he is currently standing on top of one. If karel is not currently standing on top of
a beeper, the code just moves on. Thus, the if-statement acts as a guard to prevent the program from crashing
in certain situations.

Warning
There is no such thing as an if-loop. An if-statement checks its condition only once.

Java distinguishes between void methods and return methods. Void methods take action and change the
situation, such as public void turnRight(). In contrast, return methods provide information about a
robot’s situation. Since there are different kinds of information, return methods come in several varieties. One
variety returns boolean values, either true or false. Think of booleans as answering yes-no questions. An
example of a boolean method, used above, is public boolean nextToABeeper().
Another boolean method defined in the Robot class is frontIsClear(). It determines whether or not a wall
blocks a robot’s path. Look at the examples below; you can see that this method makes no distinction
whatsoever as to the cardinal-direction in which the robot is facing.
frontIsClear() returns true frontIsClear() returns false

There is no method frontIsBlocked(). However, there is the exclamation mark (!), called the not operator,
and follows the rules not-true is false and not-false is true. The not operator goes in front of the whole
expression, for example, !karel.frontIsClear(). We might read it as “not karel dot frontIsClear.”

One-24
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Boolean methods
Look at the Robot’s API to see what boolean methods might be helpful here.

1. Write the commands to force a Robot object 2. Write the commands to make an Athlete named
named karel to face west no matter what direction ann to put down all her beepers.
it is initially facing.

3. Write the commands for Climber c to pick up a 4. Write the commands for Racer ray to stop moving
pile of beepers. when it is next to (on top of) another racer.

5) Given the declarations and the default map, indicate the boolean value of
each statement.
Robot pete = new Robot(5, 1, Display.WEST, 37);
Robot lisa = new Robot(2, 6, Display.SOUTH, 0);

!pete.frontIsClear() true false

pete.hasBeepers() true false

!lisa.hasBeepers() true false

!pete.facingWest() true false

lisa.facingWest() true false

1. The logical AND (in Java) is the symbols &&. The logical OR (in Java) is the symbols||. Evaluate:
true && true  true || true 
true && false  true || false 
false && true  false || true 
false && false  false || false 
2. Extra Credit: make a truth table that shows that De Morgan’s Laws are true:
!(a && b) == !a || !b !(a || b) == !a && !b

One-25
 Java
Unit1

Lab06
A Half-Dozen Tasks
Objective
while-loops and if-statements

Background Row Task

1 Go to the end of the row of beepers.
This lab instantiates 6 Robots to perform 6 different 2 Go to the beeper.
tasks. For convenience, we code each task as a class
3 Go to the wall.
method. Each task uses one or more indefinite loops.
Some tasks also use if-statements. 4 Go to the wall, picking up all the beepers
(max one beeper per pile).
5 Go to the wall, picking up all the beepers.
6 Go to the end of the row of beepers; there is
one gap somewhere.
If temp (for temporary) is a Robot object, the solution to task number three is:
Before After
while(temp.frontIsClear())
{
temp.move();
}

This loop will repeat an unknown number of times, as long as temp’s path is not blocked. The pictures show
two such situations. Warning: if there is not a wall somewhere along the path then this segment of code will
repeat forever; this is called an infinite loop and your program will never end.

This is the first lab in which your program must work correctly for many different robot-maps, all of which
have the same basic structure. Thus, your program will not contain the command:
Display.openWorld("maps/tasks1.map");
because your program cannot be fully tested with only the tasks1 map. Instead you must import the
javax.swing.JOptionPane class and use the commands:
String filename = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("What robot map?");
Display.openWorld("maps/" + filename + ".map");
When your program runs, an input dialog box will open prompting you for the name of the map to use. Run
your program three times, entering either “tasks1”, “tasks2”, or “tasks3”. Your program does not work unless
it runs successfully for all three maps.

Specification
Load Unit1\Lab06.java. Set the size to 10x10. Notice the 6 class methods, each instantiating a Robot object.
Accomplish all six tasks. The same code must work with all three maps “tasks1”, “tasks2”, and “tasks3”.

Extensions
1. Modify task_04 and task_05 so that they count and print the number of beepers. Look at the code on the
next page for a hint.
2. Create a valid robot-map for this lab using MapBuilder.jar and test your program with that map.
One-26
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab06 int count = 0;
while(karel.nextToABeeper())
How can the robot keep count of its beepers? {
One way is to use an integer variable that starts karel.pickBeeper();
at zero and increments every time. This code count++;
counts and prints the number of beepers in a }
pile. System.out.println("Count is "+ count);

Complete the methods below.

public static void task_07() //go to the beeper or the wall. Count and report the number of steps you took.
{

}
public static void task_08() //go until you are next to another robot, then put all your beepers down.
{

}
public static void task_09() //put down 5 different piles with 4 beepers in each pile. Use definite loops.
{

}
public static void task_10() //fill in gaps with a beeper. Stop when you reach a wall.
{

}
public static void task_11() //while there is a wall to your right, put down one beeper at each step
{

}
public static void task_12() //go until there is a wall to your right and you are standing on a beeper
{
1 2 3 4

One-27
 Java
Unit1

Using MapBuilder.jar, make your own maps for tasks 7 through 12 above.

One-28
 Java
Unit1

Lab07
Exploration
Objective
Polymorphism.

Background
Some other variations on creating an object:
Robot karel = new Robot(); Both reference and object created at once.
Robot lisa; The reference is created first and then the
lisa = new Robot(); object is instantiated.
Robot maria; The reference is created and then a subclass
maria = new Athlete(); object is instantiated.
Robot maria = new Athlete(); A superclass reference to a subclass object.
But why would we want a Robot pointer to point to an Athlete? Why would we want a superclass reference to
point to a subclass object? Because polymorphism is powerful. We can write one, general code, but by
passing subclass objects, which behave somewhat differently, we can solve different problems.
In this lab, you are going to define two subclasses of
Climber, one to climb hills and one to climb steps. Four Climber
instance methods (climbUpRight(), etc.) in each subclass
will override the four similar instance methods in Climber.
We could then use the power of polymorphism with this HillClimber StepClimber
code:
Climber karel = new HillClimber();
karel.climbUpRight();
Which climbUpRight() command will be followed? The answer

is that Climber karel will execute the climbUpRight() command

as it is defined in the HillClimber class. Climber karel will

climb hills, not mountains. In the actual Lab07, we will call
explore(Climber arg) and pass a HillClimber as an argument.

Specification
Load Mountain.java and study its method explore(). Complete the Exercises on the next page.

Create Unit1\HillClimber.java and Unit1\StepClimber.java. Consult the JKarel API for more information
regarding the HillClimber and StepClimber classes. Implement both the HillClimber and StepClimber classes.
Recall that the actual arguments of the super() in the HillClimber constructor must match the formal
arguments accepted by the Climber constructor.

Load Unit1\Lab07.java. Compile and run. The application will prompt you, using the JOptionPane methods,
to specify the map, the type of climber, and the avenue starting position as follows:

mountain1, mountain2, mountain3 Climber 8

hill1, hill2, hill3 HillClimber 10
One-29
 Java
Unit1

step1, step2, step3 StepClimber 12

Exercises
Lab07
Looking at Unit1\Mountain.java, answer the following questions.
1. Does Mountain contain class methods or instance methods?

2. Which direction does the method explore() explore first?

3. How does explore() know not to search the other mountain if the treasure has already been recovered?

4. Explain the purpose of the first arg.putBeeper() and last arg.pickBeeper() commands of
explore().

5. In explore_west(), what is the variable n actually counting?

6. How do we know that we’ve reached the summit?

7. If the treasure isn’t there, how do we know not to try to pick it up?

8. Why can we use a for-loop going down the mountain when we needed a while-loop going up?

9. How are we able to find base camp?

10. What is the difference between explore_west() and explore_east()?

11. Does the steepness of the mountain change our code to go up and down? Why or why not?

12. How can different types of objects make use of a single, common code?

One-30
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Polymorphism
The formal argument to the method Mountain.explore() is a reference of type Climber. When an actual
argument, either Climber, HillClimber, or StepClimber, is passed to Mountain.explore(), a copy of the
reference is made. This means that the formal argument, named arg, will point to the same object as the actual,
anonymous, argument. In other words, we pass an object by reference:
public class Mountain
{
public static void explore(Climber arg) Climber arg
{
//method definition here Climber
} object
}
public class Lab07
{
anonymous
public static void main(String[] args)
{
explore( new Climber(x) );
}
}
So far, strictly speaking, there has been no polymorphism involved. Now we get to:
public class Mountain
{ Climber arg
public static void explore(Climber arg)
{
//method definition here HillClimber
} object
}
public class Lab07
{
public static void main(String[] args) anonymous
{
explore( new HillClimber(x) );
}
}
In this situation, the Climber reference arg will point to a subclass HillClimber object. Is a HillClimber a
legal argument to the method explore? Yes, the compiler (in this case) allows a superclass reference to a
subclass object. The compiler checks to see if the reference has access to the method. The computer at run-
time actually runs the method’s code, whatever it may be. Therefore, when we give “the same” commands to
arg, the subclass's methods are executed and we get polymorphic behavior from the code. climbUpRight() is
one of the polymorphic methods in this lab. Note we could pass a StepClimber to explore, but it would not
pass the compiler to pass a Robot object, because Robot objects do not know how to climbUpRight().

Suppose the header were explore(Robot arg). In that case, the compiler does not allow the superclass
reference to the subclass object. However, we can fix it if we cast the reference. See Exercises after Lab08.

Polymorphism works because the code calls a superclass’s method, but the subclass’s (overridden) method is
the one that actually gets executed. It is the type of the object and not the type of the reference that determines
the behavior. The algorithm in explore is the same, but the objects are slightly different--but not totally
One-31
 Java
Unit1

different, for the objects must stand in a superclass/subclass relationship. Polymorphism is also called
dynamic method binding, or late binding.

One-32
 Java
Unit1

Lab08
Hurdle Racing
Objective
Polymorphism. The if-else control structure.

Background
The hurdles shown below are all one-block tall hurdles. A beeper marks the finish line. An object of the
Racer class can traverse that race-course using the algorithm:

while(!arg.nextToABeeper())
if(arg.frontIsClear())
arg.move();
else
arg.jumpRight();

If there’s no hurdle, then move, otherwise jump over the hurdle. The else-clause jumpRight() is executed
when the condition frontIsClear() is false.

Now let's change the race-course so that instead of one-block tall

hurdles we must jump over hurdles of any height. We do not change
the algorithm above! The method arg.jumpRight() is a perfectly good
command—in the abstract—to jump hurdles of any height. All we
need to do is to write our own jumpRight(). In object-oriented
programming we look around for a class that does approximately
what we want (i.e. Racer) and the extend it. When we extend a class,
we give the new class the powers that we really want—namely, how to jump hurdles of different heights.

What about jumping hurdles of differing widths? Again, our original algorithm still works! All we have to do
is to write a new subclass that knows how to jump these new kinds of hurdles.

Racer

SteepleChaseRacer BoxTopRacer

Each of the classes SteepleChaseRacer and BoxTopRacer will extend Racer and override jumpRight().

Specification
Consult the JKarel API for more information regarding the SteepleChaseRacer and BoxTopRacer classes.

Create Unit1\SteepleChaseRacer.java and Unit1\BoxTopRacer.java. Implement both the SteepleChaseRacer

and BoxTopRacer classes as described above, then compile.

Load Unit1\Lab08.java. Compile and run. With maps “hurdle1”, “hurdle2”, and “hurdle3”, use an object of
type Racer. With maps “steeple1”, “steeple2”, and “steeple3”, use a SteepleChaseRacer object. With maps
“boxtop1”, “boxtop2”, and “boxtop3”, use a BoxTopRacer object.

Extension
Have the class method race() accept an Robot argument, not a Racer argument. (That is, change the code to
say race(Robot arg). Explain why the code won’t compile.
One-33
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab08
Polymorphic behavior is resolved and executed at run-time. At public class Knight
compile time, the compiler can only check that the superclass extends Athlete
reference has access to the calls to the methods. So what about {
subclass methods that are brand new? Can a superclass reference to //a 4-arg constructor
Robot call a subclass method like retreat() that the superclass
does not define? Yes, if you cast the reference. Casting creates a public void turnLeft()
new “larger” reference pointing to the same object. Casting never {
changes the object itself! Look at the code at the right. Notice that move();
Knight overrides two methods and defines one brand new method. move();
Now suppose you are given some code that starts with a superclass super.turnLeft();
reference to a subclass object: move();
}
Robot karel = new public void turnRight()
Knight(4,3,Display.NORTH,6); {
1. Is karel.turnLeft() a legal command?____ Why? move();
move();
super.turnLeft();
2. Which turnLeft() is actually executed in Question #1, the Robot’s super.turnLeft();
turnLeft() or the Knight’s turnLeft()? Why? super.turnLeft();
move();
}
public void retreat()
{
3. Is karel.turnRight() a legal command?____ Why? super.turnLeft();
super.turnLeft();
turnRight();
}
}
4. Here is a cast on the karel reference. Which turnRight() is /* The keyword super is
actually executed? used to call the
original, inherited
Athlete maria = (Athlete)karel;
methods instead of the
maria.turnRight();
overridden methods. This
may only be done within
the definition of the
class; you cannot use
5. Is maria.retreat() a legal command?_ __ Why? this syntax from an
application. */

6. Here is another example of a cast on the karel reference. Is lancelot.retreat() a legal command? __ ___
Why?
Knight lancelot = (Knight)karel;
lancelot.retreat();

7. Make the Extension to Lab08 work by casting the Robot reference. Explain what casting does.
One-34
 Java
Unit1

Lab09
Shifting Piles
Objective
Algorithms. An algorithm is a sequence of steps, usually repeated, that eventually solves the problem.

Background
You’ll get very few hints on how to solve this problem. Your robot is standing on the first row at (1, 1) facing
east with zero beepers. Each block between (1, 1) and (7, 1), inclusive, has a pile of beepers. One or more of
these piles may contain zero beepers. It is possible that all of the piles contain zero beepers. It is guaranteed
that each pile contains a finite number of beepers. Your task is to shift each pile one block to the right. The
pile that started at (2, 1) should move to (3, 1), the pile that started at (3, 1) should move to (4, 1), etc.

(Each block on the second row, between (1, 2) and (7, 2), also contains piles of beepers, but they DO NOT
NEED TO BE MOVED! They only serve as a reference, so that when your program runs, you can easily
check whether it has run properly.)

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What are the initial conditions of the problem?

2. What are the terminating conditions of the problem?

3. List the sub-tasks that the robot must perform.

4. How can you proceed from one step of the problem to the next step of the problem?

5. Will your answer to Question #4 get you from the initial to the terminating condition?

Good luck.

Specification
Create Unit1\Lab09.java at size 10x10. Declare one Athlete at (1, 1) facing east with zero beepers. Shift each
of the piles on the first row one block to the right. Test the program with maps “pile1”, “pile2”, and “pile3”.

Sample Run

before after

Extension
Use MapBuilder.jar to create valid robot-maps to test your program.

One-35
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab09
In this exercise you also have to pick up beepers, counting as you pick, then carry the beepers to another place
and put them down. Change the vertical pictograph ("before") into the horizontal pictograph ("after"). There
is only one beeper at each corner. There are no more than 4 columns of beepers. You do not know how tall
each column is, but there are no gaps within a column.

Before After

1. Plan the tasks, in English, not in code, which your Athlete must do.

2. Would it help to make a subclass of Athlete? Y/N. If so, what would you name it and what would it do?

3. Assume that the robot is in position, facing east. Assume that the robot has already picked up and stored
the number of beepers in that row in the variable rowCount2. Now write the code to put down rowCount2
number of beepers in a row.

4. Your teacher may wish to turn this exercise into a lab. If so, you may use maps "picto1.map",
"picto2.map", and "picto3.map".

One-36
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Decision Structures
The simplest decision structure, which you have already seen, is the if-statement.

if(karel.nextToABeeper())
karel.pickBeeper();

if(total == 0) // tests for equality, i.e. "is equal to"

{
karel.turnRight();
karel.move();
}

(Given this code fragment, we may assume that karel is an Athlete and total has previously been declared as
an integer.) The if-statement is useful when we have one branch that may or may not happen. When we have
two branches, only one of which will happen, we use the if-else statement.
if(karel.nextToABeeper())
karel.pickBeeper();
else
karel.putBeeper(); //only happens if !karel.nextToABeeper()

Here is an if-else example that requires curly braces:

if(total != 0) // tests for "is not equal to"

{
karel.turnRight();
karel.move();
}
else
{
karel.turnLeft(); //only happens if total == 0
karel.move();
}
In an if-else statement, exactly one of the choices will occur. It is impossible that neither will occur. It is
impossible that both will occur. (Can you use factoring to rewrite the last example?) When three-way
branching is needed, we use an else-if ladder:
if(total < 0)
karel.turnRight();
else if(total > 0)
karel.turnLeft();
else
karel.turnAround();
karel.move(); //move() goes here because it will definitely move no matter what
Of course, this three-way branching can be generalized to n-way branching by using as many else-if statements
as are required. Make sure you end the ladder with an else statement to ensure that exactly one of the methods
will be executed—and in some cases just to keep the paranoid Java compiler happy.

One-37
 Java
Unit1

Lab10
Maze Escaping
Objective
Algorithms.

Background
You’ll get very few hints on how to solve this problem.
Your Athlete robot is standing at (1, 1) facing north with
an infinite number of beepers. Your robot is in a maze of
unknown size. A single beeper marks the end of the
maze. You must escape the maze.

There is one rule in maze construction: no islands. There

must be a continuous sequence of walls connecting the
start of the maze to the end of the maze. Hint: The last
sentence was a hint.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What are the initial conditions of the problem?

2. What are the terminating conditions of the problem?

3. What does an Athlete know about walls?

4. At each step, the Athlete needs to make one decision and either move, turn left, or turn right. What
sorts of situations could the Athlete be in?

5. Will your answer to Question #4 get you from the initial to the terminating condition?

Good luck.

Specification
Create Unit1\Lab10.java at size 10x10. Declare one Athlete robot at (1, 1) facing north with an infinite
number of beepers. Test your program on “maze1”, “maze2”, and “maze3”. Escape the maze.

Test Data
Use MapBuilder.jar to create valid robot-maps to test your program.

Extension
Mark the path from start to end. The final path should not mark detours that were tried and then later
abandoned. Hint: The last sentence was another hint.

One-38
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Lab10
1. Given the declarations shown, circle the legal commands.
Robot karel = new Robot();
Athlete maria = new Athlete();
Climber lisa = new Climber(4);
Racer pete = new Racer(1);
Robot horatio = new Climber(8);

maria.facingEast(); pete.pick();

karel.climbUpRight(); pete.sprint(-10);

lisa.jumpRight(); pete.put(5);

lisa.climbUpRight(); pete.climbUpRight();

horatio.move(); pete.move(10);

Lab04.takeTheField(pete); Lab08.race(karel);

Climber ophelia = new Robot(); Robot hamlet = new Racer(3);

Athlete kyla = (Athlete) karel; Climber ray = (Climber) horatio;

Climber ann = (Climber) maria; Racer jerry = (Racer) lisa;

2. What is wrong with the instantiation:

Climber ophelia = new Climber(1, 1, Display.SOUTH, 10);

3. Write a constructor for a Roofer class that extends Robot. Roofers can start anywhere, but all Roofers face
SOUTH and carry 100 beepers.

4. Write the code for: if you are on top of a beeper, pick them all up, and report how many there are.

5. Write the code for: if the Robot karel is not carrying beepers, and it is on top of a beeper, then pick it up.

One-39
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Abstract Methods
All classes until now have specified both interfaces and implementations. The interface tells you what
methods are available. For example, the API is a list of interfaces for each class. But how does each method
work? That is a question about implementation, i.e., about the code specifying how the methods work.

An abstract method specifies an interface without its implementation. There is no code in the body of an
abstract method! The code for an abstract method (keyword abstract) consists of the name of the method
and the number and type of arguments. This is technically called the signature of a method. (The code also
specifies the return-type of the method, although the return-type is not technically part of the signature).

Since no implementation is given, an object of this class would not know how to respond when the method is
called. Thus, it is not permitted to create objects of a class containing any abstract methods. A class with an
abstract method is called an abstract class, labeled with the keyword abstract. The class could contain
many methods with implementations, but so long as there is even one abstract method, the class must be
abstract. The opposite of an abstract class is called a concrete class, but there is no keyword. All the classes
we have used up till now have been concrete classes. All objects are instantiated from concrete classes.

Abstract classes are useful when designing a class hierarchy. Generally, when you are given an abstract class,
you extend it. Usually, when you extend an abstract class, you make it concrete, i.e., you write the
implementation code for every abstract method. The compiler checks to see that any concrete subclass
actually does override the abstract method. If not, the compiler will generate an error.

Look at the code on the right. Digit is an abstract class

because it has the abstract method display().
Notice that display() has no implementation code
in its body, but only a semicolon.

Notice that the class Zero extends the abstract class

Digit. If we want to instantiate a Zero object, it must
be concrete and therefore must implement the abstract
method display().

Digits are composed of seven segments each of which is

either turned on or turned off. The Digit class implements
the methods for turning each segment on or off. These
methods must be called in numeric order from one to seven,
as shown in the code.

1
6 2

7
5 3

One-40
 Java
Unit1

If these six segments are turned on (look at the code in Zero), rows of beepers will be put down to form the
digit “0”. How would you make it display the digit “1”?

One-41
 Java
Unit1

Lab11
Your ID Number
Objective
Extending an abstract class.

Background
Digit is an abstract class. It provides code to turn on segments of beepers, but its display() method is
abstract. When you extend Digit, you will implement (provide the code for) display() that is appropriate
to each concrete class Zero, One, Two, etc.
Digit
The class hierarchy is familiar, although Digit is abstract.

Zero One Two Three . . . etc.

This hierarchy models the concept of a digit, which is a higher abstraction than your concept of, say, a five.
Your concept of a five in turn is a higher abstraction than your concept of this five here—5. The various
degrees of abstraction illustrated here relate precisely to the relationship between an abstract class, a concrete
class, and an object.

Mr. Torbert’s student ID number is 064420. He wants to

display his ID number in a robot-map using Digit objects.
Part of his driver program is shown at the right. The first
digit in his ID is a zero, the second digit is a six, the third
digit is a four, and so on. Notice that each digit is modeled
by its own concrete class. Look how he instantiates each
object. Notice that the arguments to the constructor
somehow control the horizontal spacing of the digits. He
later calls the superclass’s display method, which is
abstract, but is overridden by each subclass’s concrete
method. Here is another example of polymorphism at
work.

Specification
Create Unit1\Lab11.java with a default-map at size 36x32 or 42x37. Import both edu.fcps.karel2.Display
(why?) and edu.fcps.Digit (why?). Display your student ID number using appropriate Digit objects. For each
different numeral, you will have to define a concrete subclass.

Extension
Since we only ever call one method for each object, we do not need named references. Instead of using
first.display();
we could have used anonymous references, such as
new Zero(1, 9).display();
Rewrite the code to use anonymous references.
Extension 2
You have quite a bit of evidence about the behavior of Digit. Reverse engineer the Digit class. Make sure
your version works.
One-42
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Interfaces
An interface is like an abstract class that has
only abstract methods. No method in an
interface actually does anything. All the
methods are abstract. At the right is the
Workable interface, which is in the Unit 1
folder as Workable.java.
Since there are no methods that do anything,
it doesn’t make sense to extend an interface. There is nothing to extend. Thus we use a different keyword,
“implements,” to indicate that our subclass is providing code for all the methods. That is, our subclass will
implement the interface. For example,
public class Harvester extends Robot implements Workable
{
//private data
//constructors
//new instance methods in Harvester
//code for the four abstract methods from Workable
}
Again, the interface specifies what the methods are and our class defines how those methods work.
The power and beauty of this is that the driver application does not care about the object’s implementation.
Here is an example of a class method to “work one row” with a Workable object.

We really have no idea what this code will actually does, since any Workable object could be passed in here.
All we know is that the Workable object is instantiated from a class that implements the Workable interface,
i.e. provides code for the Workable methods. So the actual behavior depends on how the methods
workCorner and moveOneBlock have been defined in that subclass. In other words, we have another
example of polymorphic behavior.

In the next lab you will define a class that implements the interface Workable. Since Workable has four
abstract methods, you must define all four methods. You then instantiate an object of this class you’ve written
and pass that object to the class method work_8x8_square. The object will follow all the commands
because it now is guaranteed to know what to do.

You could, in fact, instantiate an object that wasn’t a Robot, as long as that class also implements Workable.
If your class implements Workable, then the compiler can check that the four abstract classes have indeed been
defined, and, thus, this class method actually does perform the actions—whatever that means for the non-
Robot object.
One-43
 Java
Unit1

Lab12
Harvesting and Carpeting
Objective
Implementing an interface.

Background
You are going to write two classes named Harvester and Carpeter. Each of these classes will implement the
Workable interface, but in slightly different ways. Polymorphism!

So how are harvesters different from carpeters? Harvesters pick beepers up when they find them whereas
carpeters put beepers down where they find none. On any given corner with a beeper, a harvester will pick the
beeper up but a carpeter will leave the beeper there. On any given corner without a beeper, a carpeter will put
a beeper down but a harvester will not.

The driver class will use a class method work_one_row and pass a Workable object. Therefore, this lab is
another example of a superclass reference to a subclass object.

Code in the main method, shown

to the right, will create either a
harvester or a carpeter with equal
probability. The Math class
method random generates and
returns one decimal number
between zero and one. It might
be zero but it will not be one.
Another way to say this is that
Math.random returns a value
from the interval [0, 1).

Warning. Some of the method definitions in Harvester and Carpeter may seem overly simplistic. Remember
that the interface knows nothing and doesn’t want to know anything about how your class will work. For
instance, it doesn’t know that the inherited classes are also Robots. So if the interface asks you how to move
forward one block, just use the robot’s move command. That’s it.

Fill in the UML class diagram at right.

Which of Harvester methods come
from Robot? Which methods come
from Workable?
Lab12 isa isa
main()
hasa

Specification
Load Unit1\Harvester.java. Implement the required methods (look at its API). Then compile.

Load Unit1\Carpeter.java. Implement the required methods (look at its API). Then compile.

Load Unit1\Lab12.java. Study the two class methods carefully. This program walks a spiral square with
either a harvester or a carpeter. Run the program over and over until you see it work successfully with both
types of workers.
One-44
 Java
Unit1

Lab13--Project
An Original JKarel Lab
Use your imagination and your experience from this unit to create an original JKarel problem. In formulating
your own JKarel problem, consider the following:
1. How many robots are involved?
2. What are the initial conditions?
3. What is the goal?
4. How many robot-maps do you need to make, and what do they look like?
5. What can the programmer assume? For instance, will there always be a beeper at (5, 4) or do
we have to be flexible?
6. What control structures (while, for, if, if-else) are needed?
7. What existing JKarel class or classes may be appropriate to use in the solution?
8. What extended classes may be helpful (or necessary) in solving the problem?
9. What abstract classes or interfaces are helpful?
10. What story can you devise to suit this lab?

You may use previous labs as guides to choosing an appropriate problem, but try to be creative as well. You
should code your own solution that works before writing up the lab assignment for your peers.

Here is one possible grading rubric. Check with your teacher for sure.

Word document looks just like a JKarel Lab: 0----1----2----3----4----5

UML class diagram is correct: 0----1----2----3----4----5

lab is at an appropriate level of difficulty: 0----1----2----3----4----5

some elements of the task require the

robot to make decisions, i.e., the program
works in different maps: 0----1----2----3----4----5

Maps are appropriate: 0----1----2----3----4----5

uses a class method to solve the problem: 0----1----2----3----4----5

uses inheritance appropriately: 0----1----2----3----4----5

uses polymorphism appropriately: 0----1----2----3----4----5

uses an abstract class or implements an interface: 0----1----2----3----4----5

the solution works: 0----1----2----3----4----5

the lab is creative and original: 0----1----2----3----4----5

One-45
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Threads
At first glance at Lab14 (shown here
to the right) you may be wondering
if this is really a robot lab at all.
Where are the robots and the
display? All we see are Thread and
Swimmer objects. It just happens
that Swimmer extends Robot.
Swimmer also implements Runnable.
That’s important because a Thread
constructor requires a Runnable
object as an argument. That is to
say, the Thread constructor has the
signature:

Thread(Runnable arg)

Thread is a built-in java class called

java.lang.Thread. Every Thread
object has a start() method that takes
care of the details of running parallel processes. In Lab14, four different processes each separate from the
main program’s process will all execute at the same time. The result will be parallel processing: different
robots performing their own methods seemingly at the same time.

As a non-programming example, imagine you have a video clip of a person talking. The clip is really just a
series of images that together give the appearance of continuous video. The video clip represents images, not
sounds. If you played the video alone, you would have to lip-read in order to figure out what the person was
trying to say. Imagine that you also have an audio clip of the same person talking. This audio corresponds
with the video images so that if you played them both at the same time it would appear that the person in the
video was saying the words from the audio. Now imagine you sold tickets for people to come and watch this
person talking. When they arrive, you play the entire video clip, with no sound, followed by the entire audio
clip, with no images. What if each clip was 45 minutes long? And the image and sound never once
coincided? People would want a refund. Obviously, we want our video and audio to execute together, at the
same time. This synchronization is called concurrency. In order to cause independent processes to execute
concurrently, in parallel, Java uses threads. Since threads are built in, they don’t have to be imported.

Here is a syntax point. We did not have to give our swimmers names. We could have started the threads with
anonymous swimmer objects, as follows:

Thread t1 = new Thread( new Swimmer(2) );

t1.start();

In facts, we didn’t even have to name the threads:

new Thread( new Swimmer(2) ).start();

Which do you think is the clearest and most readable? Ultimately, convention dictates how to write the most
readable code.

One-46
 Java
Unit1

Lab14
Synchronized Swimming
Objective
Implement an interface to achieve parallel programming.

Background
Workable was an interface that Mr. Torbert created. Unlike public interface Runnable
Workable, Runnable is a built-in interface in java.lang.Runnable. {
The Runnable interface specifies a single abstract method run(). public abstract void run();
Although it doesn’t look very useful, it is Java’s way to }
guarantee parallel behavior.

A Thread constructor
requires a Runnable
object as an argument.
Every Thread object has a
start() method that runs
run() and takes care of all
the parallel processes.
In other words, all we
have to do to produce
parallel behavior is to
implement the Runnable
interface in our Swimmer
object. That’s your job.

In Java, a class may

implement as many
interfaces as desired, but
is allowed to extend only
one class. This rule
guarantees that there is
only one definition for each method, not two or more, which
would lead to conflicts.

Fill in the class diagram for Lab14.

Which methods in Swimmer come from Robot? isa isa
Lab14
Which method comes from Runnable? hasa
main()

Specification

Load Unit1\Swimmer.java. Implement the Runnable interface so that a swimmer moves forward twice, twirls
around, then moves back to its starting position to prepare for the next iteration—like one lap in a pool. Make a
swimmer do ten laps.

Load Unit1\Lab14.java. Notice there are four Threads and Swimmers. Compile and run.

Extension
Return to Lab05, the hurdle problem. Have the Racer class implement the Runnable interface. Modify Lab05
so that the racers run in parallel.
One-47
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Concrete and Abstract Classes
It is impossible to create
Dancer objects because
the Dancer class has
been tagged abstract.
(Line 6.) The Dancer
class must be tagged
abstract because it
contains the abstract
method danceStep() on
Line 16.

Usually, you will extend

Dancer to a concrete
subclass, in which you
will write concrete
methods for each
abstract method. It is
possible, however, to
postpone implementing
danceStep() until much
lower down the
hierarchy. In that case, the subclasses above the concrete class would have to be tagged abstract as well.

Another possibility is for Dancer not to implement the run() method specified in Runnable. Then the Dancer
class would have two abstract methods that it hadn’t defined.

Eventually, somewhere down the hierarchy, all the abstract classes will get proper definitions. They must, if
you want to instantiate objects from them.

The class hierarchies can become quite complicated. Try filling out this one for Lab15.

Lab15
main()

One-48
 Java
Unit1

Lab15
Dancing Robots
Objective
Extend an abstract class and implement an interface.

Background
The class shown here
may be the world’s most
boring dancer ever.

Notice that only the

danceStep() method,
which was specified
abstract in Dancer, must
be defined. The run()
method that was defined
in Dancer is simply
inherited.

This means that when

you create a
BackAndForthDancer
object and an associated
thread, and when you
start that thread, Java will
first check here for the
run() method, then move up the hierarchy to Dancer’s run(), then look back here for danceStep(). Java at run-
time always starts looking for a method’s definition at the object on which it was invoked.

You should be aware that, although you have used multiple threads in the last few labs, your programs have
been using one thread since the first day. At some point you may have had an error such as:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
The main thread of any Java application exists by default. The main thread executes the commands in the
public static void main(String[] args) method, which is in every Java application.

Specification
Create at least three different dancer-type classes. Create three new Java files modeled after the example
shown above. But make your dancers more interesting than just back and forth. For instance, you might have
a square dancer, a line dancer, a break-dancer, a waltzer.

Create Unit1\Lab15.java. Model your Lab15 main on the Lab14 main. Create objects from your three
different dancer classes and have them “do their stuff” in parallel.

One-49
 Java
Unit1

Lab16
Shifty Robots
Objective
Implementing multiple interfaces.

Background
Isn’t it amazing that your Lab14 and Lab15 programs executed in parallel, even though you don’t know how
parallelization works? Some one else did all that work. It works for your code in Lab16 because the
parallelization algorithms in the Thread class were written for any Runnable object. That is, when you
implement the Runnable interface, then you automatically get parallelization. Oh, the power of object-oriented
design.

Let’s return to the problem of shifting piles of beepers, as in Lab09. The algorithm most people used was to
repeat 6 times: pick up a pile while counting the beepers, put down the previous pile, and move one block.
Since we are working each corner, it might be nice to implement the Workable interface. Which methods are
in the workable interface? Study Lab12, Harvester and Carpeter, especially workCorner() and
moveOneBlock(). What does it mean in Lab16 to workCorner()? What does it mean to moveOneBlock()?

Since we want to shift four rows at a time, in parallel, we of course will need to implement the Runnable
interface. Which method is in the Runnable interface? See Lab14, Synchronized Swimming. What do we
want run() to do in this lab?

One purpose of this lab is to let you implement two interfaces. The Shifter class has the header:

public class Shifter extends Robot implements Runnable, Workable

Another purpose of this lab is to show you a private variable. The Shifter class initializes a private variable (or
private field) with the command:

private int myBeepers;

myBeepers stores integers. When the Shifter class is instantiated, each shifter object has its own copy of this
variable—that’s why it is private. In this lab, we have four shifter objects and therefore four different
myBeepers values. One shifter might be storing the number “3” while another is storing the number “1”.

Specification
Load Unit1\Shifter.java. The problem is to shift four
rows of piles of beepers, in parallel. Of course,
implement all the methods from the two interfaces.
Use the field myBeepers to help keep count. You
may assume that the rows to be worked are always six
blocks long (when you shift, of course, you will then go
into the seventh block).

Load Unit1\Lab16.java. Compile and run. The

application uses the “shifty” map.

One-50
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Abstract Classes and Interfaces
When do programmers create an abstract class and when do they create an interface? MazeEscaper, for
example, contains only abstract methods:

Why not make MazeEscaper an interface? The answer to this question may be easier to understand if we look
at how the code uses MazeEscaper objects.

Lines 21 and 22 call the class method escape_the_maze and pass an anonymous object that must be either
a MazeEscaper object or a MazeEscaper-subclass object. What guarantees that condition?

Look now at the code in escape_the_maze. Which command requires arg to be a Robot-type object?

Therefore, MazeEscaper must be in the Robot hierarchy. But a MazeEscaper interface would not guarantee
that this class inherits from Robot. The rule of thumb is, if inheriting code is important, then use an abstract
class, like MazeEscaper in Lab17 or like Digit in Lab11. On the other hand, if two classes are completely
unrelated (like Robot and Runnable), then use an interface.

Lab17
Follow Walls
Objective
Extending an abstract class.

Background

One-51
 Java
Unit1

A maze is defined as a robot-map containing walls (no islands) with a beeper marking the goal. Using an
algorithm known as the “follow walls right” strategy, your robot can successfully escape from any maze by
constantly hugging a wall to its right-hand-side. It is only okay to move forward if there is a wall to your right
AND your front is clear. Otherwise, you need to turn to the right or to the left (turning right takes precedence).

“Follow Walls Right” Algorithm Turning the corner to the left.

1. If you’re next to a beeper, stop.
2. If it is “okay to go”, move one step.
3. Otherwise, if right is clear, turn corner right and move.
4. Otherwise, turn corner left.
5. Repeat as needed.
Turning the corner to the right.
You do not need a special case for getting stuck in dead
ends. The algorithm will simply repeat twice, making two
left turns and thus effectively turning you around.

Of course, you could just as easily “follow walls left” to

escape the maze.

The abstract class MazeEscaper extends Athlete.

Fill out the class hierarchy

Lab17
main()

Specification
Create two concrete subclasses of MazeEscaper, a Republican who follows walls right and a Democrat who
follows walls left. Give each class a constructor. Implement the methods inherited from MazeEscaper.

Load Unit1\Lab17.java. Study the class method escape_the_maze(). In the main(), comment out the
escape_the_maze() lines that you are not testing. Test the program using “maze1”, “maze2”, and “maze3”.

Extension 1
Write a subclass Independent who flips a coin to decide whether he will follow walls right or left.

Extension 2
Write a paragraph that compares and contrasts Lab10 and Lab17.

One-52
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Return, Break and Continue
One way to approach the Lab17 problem is:

public void walkDownCurrentSegment()

{
while( SOMETHING && !SOMETHING_ELSE ) {
if( SOME_OTHER_THING) {
DO_SOMETHING;
return;
}
DO_SOMETHING_ELSE;
}
}

The return statement causes the method to end immediately. Control of execution is then “returned” to
whatever method called walkDownCurrentSegment() (i.e., the escape_the_maze method in the Lab17). The
return statement is a useful tool for handling special cases in an algorithm. Two other sometimes-useful tools
are the break and continue statements, which work in loops.

while(karel.frontIsClear())
{
if(karel.nextToARobot())
break;
if(karel.nextToABeeper())
{
karel.pickBeeper();
continue;
}
karel.move();
}

This while-loop will repeat so long as karel’s front is clear. If karel should ever be next to another robot, the
break statement will cause the loop to end immediately. If karel should ever be next to a beeper, karel will
pick up that beeper and the loop will continue back at the top; karel will not have moved forward. The
continue statement ends the current iteration of the loop but then continues the loop again at the start.

By convention these statement make your code less readable then simply having methods that end
appropriately, loops that stop appropriately, and decision statements that control program flow appropriately.
The example shown above is probably better written as:

while(karel.frontIsClear() && !karel.nextToARobot())

{
if(karel.nextToABeeper())
karel.pickBeeper();
else
karel.move();
}

Use return, break, and continue sparingly and only for handling special cases.

One-53
 Java
Unit1

Lab18
Treasure Hunt
Objective
Implement an algorithm.

Background
There are treasures hidden in various robot-maps. Piles of beepers will guide your robot to the treasures. The
treasure your robot is searching for is marked by a pile of exactly five beepers. To read the maps, your robot
must walk forward until it encounters a pile of beepers. If that pile is the treasure, then you’re done. If not,
have your robot turn a certain way based on the number of beepers in the pile. Then continue searching for the
treasure.

Algorithm for Reading a Map

1. Continue forward until you encounter a pile of beepers.
2. If you are at a pile with exactly five beepers, you’ve found the
treasure.
3. Otherwise, if there is exactly one beeper, then turn left.
4. Otherwise, if there are exactly two beepers, then turn around.
5. Otherwise, if there are exactly three beepers, then turn right.
5. Otherwise, maintain your current heading.
6. Repeat as needed.

Be careful! You must pick up the pile after reading it. Keep all
the beepers you encounter in your beeper bag. Otherwise, you
may change the map.

Consult the JKarel API for more information regarding the Pirate class.

Specification
Load Unit1\Pirate.java. Pirate extends Athlete and has only a no-arg constructor starting each pirate at (1, 1)
facing east with no beepers. There are three methods in Pirate that you must implement so that Lab18 will
work. The method approachPile() should give you no trouble. The method

public int numOfBeepersInPile()

has to count and return the number of beepers in that pile. Ask your teacher how to return a value from a
method. The method turnAppropriately(int beepers) can be implemented with an if-else ladder,
a for-loop, or a switch statement. If you want to use the switch statement, ask your teacher about its syntax.

Load Unit1\Lab18.java at size 8x8. Use maps “map1”, “map2”, and “map3”. Compile and run.

Test Data
Look in the DOS window when your program ends to make sure you followed the map correctly. There are 24
total beepers in map one, 32 total beepers in map two, and 33 total beepers in map three.

Extension
Rewrite each method recursively. See the appendix for more details on recursion.

One-54
 Java
Unit1

Lab19
Yellow Brick Road
Objective
Design and implement an algorithm in a resource class.

Background
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road. Your job is to get your robot from (2, 2) to the
end of the path of beepers, wherever that may be. Be careful! Your robot must stop when it gets to the end of
the path.

Specification
Create Unit1\Dorothy.java. The Dorothy API is shown at the
right. What methods are in Dorothy?

Create Unit1\Lab19.java. Instantiate a Dorothy object and send

her on her way. Use “path1”, “path2”, and “path3”. The map
"path3" has an extra complication for you to deal with!

Test Data
Use MapBuilder.jar to create other valid robot-maps to test your
program.

One-55
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Recursion
In Racer we defined a method sprint as follows:

void sprint(int n)
{
for(int k = 1; k <= n; k++)
{
move();
}
}

This solution is iterative because it uses a for-loop. The following solution does not use a for-loop:

void sprint(int n)
{
if(n > 0)
{
move();
sprint(n – 1);
}
}

This solution is recursive because the method sprint calls the method sprint—it calls itself. Imagine a call to
sprint(2) was made. Since n = 2 is greater than zero the robot would move and then call sprint(1). In sprint(1)
the value of n = 1 is also greater than zero, so the robot would move and call sprint(0). In sprint(0) the value of
n = 0 is not greater than zero, so the robot would do nothing. The call to sprint(0) would end, then the call to
sprint(1) would end, then the call to sprint(2) would end. In all, our robot moved twice.

Imagine a beeper is on the same street as your robot, some unknown distance due east of your robot’s current
location. Retrieve the beeper, then turn left and move north to drop-off the beeper. You must move the same
number of blocks north as you had moved east. The following solution will work:

int n = 0;
while (!karel.nextToABeeper())
{
karel.move();
n = n + 1;
}
karel.pickBeeper();
karel.turnLeft();
for(int k = 1; k <= n; k++)
karel.move();
karel.putBeeper();

One-56
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Recursion (continued)
It does not matter that we do not know the number of blocks to be traveled beforehand. We will keep track of
how many blocks we travel east during the while-loop, then use that number to control our for-loop, which
travels north. A more elegant solution involves the definition of a recursive method:
void recur()
{
if(nextToABeeper())
{
pickBeeper();
turnLeft();
}
else
{
move();
recur();
move();
}
}
Assume that karel is a robot object of the class for which this method is defined. Then our solution consists of
only two lines:
karel.recur();
karel.putBeeper();
The recursive method recur will cause karel to move east, locate the beeper, pick it up, turn left, and proceed
north to the drop-off point. Then all we have to do is have karel put the beeper down.

So long as nextToABeeper is false, we move and call recur. Each call to recur will test nextToABeeper, only
one block further east—after the last move. This is called the recursive case because the method calls itself.

At some point nextToABeeper will be true. This is called the base case. The robot picks the beeper up and
turns left—now facing north. This call to recur, the one that found the beeper, will end. When it ends, the
previous call to recur, the one that made the call to the one that found the beeper, will continue where it left off
having only the second move to execute.

This move will now be made north. When each call to recur ends, the one before it continues, moves one
block farther north, and ends itself. Every move before the recursive call goes east and every move afterwards
goes north. Since there is the same number of moves before and after the recursive call, the robot travels the
same distance north as it had traveled east.

If this doesn’t make sense, imagine that the beeper was originally located only one block in front of karel and
trace through the execution of the method. What if the beeper was originally located at the exact same
intersection as karel?

One-57
 Java
Unit1

LabXX
Seeking the Beeper
Objective
To understand recursion.

Background
Your robot begins at (1, 1) facing east. There is a north-south wall of unknown length blocking your robot’s
path. Directly on the other side of that wall, on 2nd Avenue, there is a beeper. The beeper is against the wall
but you do not know what street that beeper is located on. You must retrieve the beeper, bring it back to (1,
1), and put it down.

Consult the JKarel API for information regarding the Seeker class.
Specification
Filename Unit1\Seeker.java. Implement the Seeker class. Compile.

Load Unit1\LabXX.java. Compile and run. You must test the LabXX program (really you are testing your
fetchBeeper method) for multiple randomly generated maps—run the program a few times to make sure your
method always works.

Test Data
This screen capture shows what your robot-map will look like at the end of execution, regardless
of the height of the wall or the placement of the beeper on 2nd Avenue.

One-58
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Recursive Solutions
1) Imagine your robot is on 1st Street. You do not know what avenue the robot is on and you do not know
what cardinal-direction the robot is facing. There is a beeper at (1, 1). Use loops to get the beeper and bring it
back to your starting location. Put the beeper down at the end.

2) Complete the definition of a recursive method getBeeper. This method is designed to be part of a solution
to Question #1. The robot should search its path to the front until it finds a beeper, then go back to its starting
place.
public void getBeeper()
{
if( )
{

}
else
{

}
}

3) Write the solution to Question #1 using your recursive method from Question #2. Assume that getBeeper
does what you intended, regardless of the correctness of your answer to Question #2.

One-59
 Java
Unit1

Exercises
Recursive Solutions (continued)
4) Imagine the problem from Question #1 is modified so that you do not even know what street your robot is
on—it could be at any intersection! Your solution makes use of a recursive function findBeeper as follows:
karel.faceWest();
karel.findBeeper();
karel.putBeeper();
Complete the definition of the recursive method findBeeper. You may use getBeeper.
public void findBeeper()
{
if( )
{

}
else
{

}
}

5) Your maze escaping solution can be simplified to the following:

karel.followWallsRight();
karel.pickBeeper();
Complete the definition of the recursive method followWallsRight.
public void followWallsRight()
{

One-60
 Java
Unit1

Discussion
Arrays
Multiple objects can be stored with a single identifier in an “array.” An array is a linear data structure of fixed
length. For instance:
Robot[] array = new Robot[7];

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

array

This declaration creates an array of seven Robot references. Each of these references is initialized to null. To
create actual robot objects use:
for(int index = 0; index <7; index++)
{
array[index] = new Robot(index + 1, 1, Display.EAST, 0);
}
Arrays are zero-indexed, which means the boxes inside an array are numbered starting from zero. Don’t start
counting at one with a variable that is meant to indicate a certain cell in an array. Notice that index is part of
an expression that is passed as an argument to the Robot constructor. The loop control variable can be used for
more than just repetition and the access of array cells.

The basic idea is that the objects stored in an array can be manipulated with a for-loop:
for(int index = 0; index < 7; index++)
{
array[index].putBeeper();
}
Imagine you want all seven of these robots to move forward five blocks.
for(int index = 0; index < 7; index++)
{
for(int count = 1; count <= 5; count++)
{
array[index].move();
}
}
This is a very common technique—using a for-loop to access the cells of an array. Note the importance of the
int-type variable index; as it changes value, the robot we are dealing with also changes, because each robot is
identified by a cell-number in the array. Traversing an array with a for-loop works no matter how many
objects are being stored: a hundred, a thousand, etc. Also note that the name of an array can be any valid
identifier (not just array).

As shown, these robots will not all move at the same time. Rather, they will take turns as the outside for-loop
repeats. In order to have parallel processes execute at the same time you must use threads.

One-61
 Java
Unit1

LabYY
Seeking the Beeper, Part II
Objective
Solve a problem.

Background
Set the robot map to some large, random size, call it NxN. For instance:

final int N = (int)(Math.random()*50+25);

Display.setSize(N, N);

The keyword final indicates that the value of N will not change. As a convention, final variables are written
in ALLCAPS, like Display.EAST.

Place a beeper randomly in the world.

Display.placeBeeper((int)(Math.random()*N+1), (int)(Math.random()*N+1);

Your job is to get the beeper.

There are a number of different ways to approach this problem. You could have a robot start at (1, 1) and
search the entire map itself. You could have a bunch of robots, maybe even an array, start along 1st Avenue
and march east. You could use recursion or just loops.

Specification
Create Unit1\LabYY.java. Use the commands shown above to place a beeper randomly in a large, but
randomly sized, robot map. Somehow, get the beeper.

Test Data
However you decide to approach this problem, if the beeper gets picked up then your program works.

One-62
 Java
Unit1

Glossary
Abstract: A Java keyword indicating that a method does not have a definition and must be implemented
either by an extending class (for an abstract class) or by an implementing class (for an interface).

Actual Argument: A data item specified in a method call. An argument can be a literal value, a variable, or
an expression.

Anonymous: An object or class that is used but not named. For instance, new Robot().move();.

Body: The commands that actually get executed when a method is called.

Class: In Java, a type that defines the implementation of a particular kind of object. A class definition defines
both class and instance methods, as well as specifying the interfaces the class implements and the immediate
superclass of the class. If the superclass is not explicitly specified, the superclass will implicity be
java.lang.Object.

Class methods: Methods that are invoked without reference to a particular object. Class methods are tagged
with the keyword static and do not have an implicit argument this.

Formal Argument (parameter): The variable representation of an argument in the definition of a method.

Header: The first line of a method definition.

Inherited Method: A method defined in a superclass that is available to a subclass (keyword extends).

Instance methods: Methods that are invoked with reference to a particular object (an instance). Instance
methods affect a particular instance of the class, which is passed as the implicit argument this.

Isa: A phrase to express the relationships of classes in a hierarchy.

Object: The building block of an object-oriented program. Each object consists of data and functionality.

Package: A group of classes in the same folder. Packages are declared with the keyword package.

Polymorphism: If a method defined in a superclass is overridden in a subclass, then the subclass method is
invoked at runtime. Used with abstract classes and interfaces we can write code generically to be used later
without modification for various other classes.

Reference to an Object: A symbolic pointer to an object.

Root: In a hierarchy, the one class from which all other classes are descended. The root has nothing above it
in the hierarchy.

Signature: A method’s name and argument list, but not the method’s return type.

Subclass: A class that is derived from a particular class.

Superclass: A class from which a particular class is derived.

One-63