Convert * to int

[hamid14]

Basically I'm trying to give a variable called b, which is a string, a integer value of 1 and be able to add it to another integer

String b = "*";
int i = 0;

//b should have an intege value of 1, so its basically the same thing as 1, it just has a symbol representing the 1, rather than just typing 1

i + b = 2;


Is this even possible?

[TerranceN]

Something like this?

Java:

String b = "1"; int i = 0; i = Integer.parseInt(b) + 1;                 System.out.println(i);

[hamid14]

the string has to be * not 1, it should represent and function as a 1 but appear to the user as a *

[TerranceN]

Well if it only has to appear to the user to be all *s, then you can just make a function that creates a string the same length, but all *s.

Something like this:

Java:

public static void main (String[] args) {         String b = "5780";         int i = 0;         i = Integer.parseInt(b) + 1;                 System.out.println(starredOutString(b));         System.out.println(i); } static String starredOutString(String src) {         String temp = "";                 for (int i = 0; i < src.length(); i++)         {                 temp += "*";         }                 return temp; }

Although unless the string with a number in it is input, theres not much point of it being a string anymore.

[hamid14]

no thats not it. good try though. IT should be like 1 + * = ** and 2 + * = *** and 3 + * = **** and so on.

[TerranceN]

Oh in that case you can just use b.length() to get the number of stars there are.

[DtY]

TerranceN @ Sun Oct 10, 2010 8:14 pm wrote:

Well if it only has to appear to the user to be all *s, then you can just make a function that creates a string the same length, but all *s.

[...]

Although unless the string with a number in it is input, theres not much point of it being a string anymore.

This really is the best option, store it as a number (because that's what it is), and if you need to display it, convert it to a string, like above, and if you need to get that as input, use another function to convert it back. (you might even consider creating a class to wrap all this.)

If you really don't want to do that, you will still need to use those functions. For reference:
toStar(int) => string
fromStar(string) => int
fromStar(int) => int

And then:
toStar(fromStar("*") + fromStar(1)) = "**";
(fromStar(1) really isn't necessary, but it makes it more symmetrical. In dynamically typed languages this would allow you to use them interchangeably, but I don't know if it has any real advantage in a statically typed language like Java.)