Thursday, May 14th

Today was a good class. I got closer than ever to finishing String 2. I got into class, and began to work on a problem that I had partially solved with Mr. Daly last class. I couldn't figure out what the problem was; it was an out of bounds. I proceeded to go to Mr. Daly for help, but it turned out that immediately as I sat down, I figured out what the problem was, and without Mr. Daly even saying a word, I changed one number which solved the whole problem. It's funny how sometimes you can look at a problem for a long time, and not have the right solution to it, and then look at it again another time and know exactly what to do right when you see the problem.

That was the one out of two problems that I worked on during class. I completed another one. I now only have two problems left in String 2.

Here it is:
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Return a version of the given string, where for every star (*) in the string the star and the chars immediately to its left and right are gone. So "ab*cd" yields "ad" and "ab**cd" also yields "ad". starOut("ab*cd") → "ad" starOut("ab**cd") → "ad" starOut("sm*eilly") → "silly" -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

public String starOut(String str) {

  if ((str.length()<3) && (str.contains("*")))
  {
   return "";
  }
// if the string length is less than two and there's a star, return an empty string because everything will
// be gone.

  if (!str.contains("*"))
  {
   return str;
  }
// if there is no star in the string, then we don't want to take anything out. return the string unmodified.
 
  if (str.substring(0,1).equals("*"))
    {
      str=str.substring(2);
// if the star is at the very beginning of the string, then return only the string from two chars after the star
// onwards.
    }
 
  if (str.substring(str.length()-1).equals("*"))
    {
      str=str.substring(0,str.length()-2);
// if the star is at the very end of the string, return the string from the beginning until the char before one
// to the left of the star.
    }
 
  while (str.indexOf("*")!=-1)
// as long as there is still a star in the string,
  {
   int cutpoint = str.indexOf("*");
      int cutpointend = cutpoint;

    while (str.substring(cutpointend,cutpointend+1).equals("*"))
   {
   cutpointend ++;
// if the next char after the star is another star, then the cutpointend is incremented by one. this helps to
// find series of stars that come in two or three.
   }
 
   str=str.substring(0,cutpoint-1) + str.substring(cutpointend+1);
// return the string from the beginning until two before the first star, and from two after the last star until
// the end.

  }
 return str;
// return the modified string.
}
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We are approaching the end. It's almost the end of the year, and I am at arm's length of finishing String 2. Can't wait !!!