How to use this boolean in an if statement

Question

private String getWhoozitYs        StringBuffer sb   new StringBuffer        boolean stop   generator nextBoolean        if stop   true                sb append  y            getWhoozitYs              return sb toString        This is a chunk of code for a project I m doing in a programming course  The problem I m having is that after declaring the boolean stop and trying to assign a randomly generated boolean value to it  I can t use it in the if statement to determine if I should append more y s to the StringBuffer or not  I do have the Random generator inside a constructor  so that part isn t a problem  I assumed that since I declared the boolean outside the if statement I would be able to use it inside  but that doesn t seem to be the case  The real question is how can I use a randomly determined boolean in an if statement

User · Answer

The problem here is   if  stop   true  is an assignation not a comparision   Try if  stop    true   Also take a look to the Top Ten Errors Java Programmers Make

User · Answer

if stop    true    or  if stop      is for assignment      is for checking condition   if stop   true     It will assign true to stop and evaluates if true   So it will always execute the code inside if because stop will always being assigned with true

User · Answer

Since stop is boolean you can change that part to         if stop     Or to  if  stop    true       sb append  y       getWhoozitYs      return sb toString

User · Answer

Try this -  private String getWhoozitYs        StringBuffer sb   new StringBuffer        boolean stop   generator nextBoolean        if stop                sb append  y            getWhoozitYs              return sb toString

User · Answer

is for assignment  write  if stop        your code     or   if stop    true        your code

User · Answer

if stop   true  should be if stop    true   or simply  better   if stop    This is actually a good opportunity to see a reason to why always use if something  if you want to see if it s true instead of writing if something    true   bad style     By doing stop   true then you are assigning true to stop and not comparing   So why the code below the if statement executed   See the JLS - 15 26  Assignment Operators      At run time  the result of the assignment expression is the value of   the variable after the assignment has occurred  The result of an   assignment expression is not itself a variable    So because you wrote stop   true  then you re satisfying the if condition

User · Answer

Actually  the entire approach would be cleaner if you only had to use one instance of StringBuffer  instead of creating one in every recursive call    I would go for   private String getWhoozitYs         StringBuffer sb   new StringBuffer         while  generator nextBoolean               sb append  y                 return sb toString

User · Answer

additionally you can just write   if stop            sb append  y            getWhoozitYs

[java] How to use this boolean in an if statement?

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