Help with horoscope

[InterWill]

I am in dire need of help. I'm helping a friend but I seem to be stuck (been a while since I did this, still wanna make a good impression ). She's doing a chineese horoscope and the setup i simple:

Get the user to input a birthday i.e. yyyy-mm-dd, then with the help of some textfiles give the user a "horoscope". The textfiles looks like this:

year.txt

1901-01-01
1902-01-24
1903-02-10
...
...

animal.txt

rat
monkey
boar
...

monkey.txt

Metal Monkey - 1860, 1920, 1980

Random text about bein a metal monkey
...

Water Monkey - 1872, 1932, 1992

Random text about bein a Water monkey.
...

My questions:
1) How do I write a good input?
2) How do I compare the input with the dates stated in the years.txt?
3) How do I given the birth year find and print the correct part of the monkey.txt-file?

[sjalle]

Each line in year.txt tells when the year of the animal on the corresponding line
in animal.tx begins, so (one of) the the years of the monkey started
jan.24 1902 and lasted till feb.9 1903, am I right ?

Well, if so you could do this:

a: get user's date input (Ill come to that), store in a Calendar object.

Calendar birthDate=Calendar.getInstance();
birthDate.set(yearIn, monthIn, dateIn);

b: read each date-line in year.txt, while counting lines, use BufferedReader
for this.
Pseudo code:

Calendar fileDate=Clendar.getInstance();
int cnt=0;
while (more lines) {
  extract year, month and date from line read
  fileDate.set(yearRead, monthRead, dateRead);
  if (fileDate.after(birthDate)) break;
  cnt++;
}
if (cnt==0) {
  give message like "too far back in time, no data"
  return;
}

Now read the same number of lines from animal.txt (zero based of course).
take the animal name found at this line, concatenate that name with
".txt" and use that name for opening the corresponding .txt file.

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky; the monkey.txt file has several
delimiter lines, each being the start of text for a specific monkey type,
and the lines also contains a comma delimited list of years. Extracting these
years from the line is a piece of cake, but the problem to be solved is how
to detect these lines ?
Will you have to check for the patten: some text followed by a dash and then a monotone sequence of integers and commas, or is there a cleaner
way (blank line between each monkey type ?)

[InterWill]

Will you have to check for the patten: some text followed by a dash and then a monotone sequence of integers and commas, or is there a cleaner
way (blank line between each monkey type ?)

The monkey.txt (and other animals) looks as:

Metal Rabbit - 1891, 1951, 2011

This type of Rabbit could be sturdier physically and mentally than
Rabbits belonging to other elements. He will not be as compromising
either. He has unshakable faith in his own powers of observation and
deduction and more often than not he is convinced he has the right
answer and solutions to this problems. He can assume responsibility
admirably well and will displays a good deal of initiative in his
work.

Metal matched with his animal sign will make him more preoccupied with
his desires, goals and creative urges. He will be more cunning, but
his ambitiousness will be carefully concealed with cool logic and
intelligence.

A connoisseur par excellence, he will know how to live and will savor
the good things life has to offer in a refined way. While he may be
indifferent to the opinions of others, he is emotionally and
physically moved by good art, music and other forms of beauty. His
basic self-assurance and discerning eye will make him an excellent
judge of any kind of creative art forms; he may become a collector of
great distinction, if he has the means, because of his impeccable
taste. Whatever career he chooses he will make his mark early as he is
naturally a thorough and devoted worker.

But like all true romantic spirits, this type of Rabbit could be
inclined to dark moods, and works well only when he is sufficiently
inspired. Ardent in love and with great depth and foresight, still he
will allow only a handful of people into the inner sanctum of his life
because of his many hidden inhibitions.


Water Rabbit - 1903, 1963, 2023

This is a meditative type of Rabbit with a fragile and emotional
nature. He cannot bear harassment or any other unpleasantness, such as
dissent and bickering. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he is too
empathic and can pick up the thoughts and feelings of others with
uncanny accuracy.

He will possess an excellent memory and may have the kind of mental
power that, without his knowing it, transmits his ideas to
others. Consequently, he attracts the people he wants, and he may be
surprised by the many supporters who really to his defense when he
least expects it.

However, he is a subjective soul and his perspective gets distorted by
the emotional barriers he sets up. He is not very decisive and in many
cases could easily fall in with the dictates of others.

His delicate sensitivity makes him dwell too much on the past and
hence he is often reminiscing on long past injuries and indulging in
self-pity. In his negative moods, he suspects other's motives, is
uncommunicative and over imaginative. In his positive state, he could
call upon all the cosmic powers to come to his aid. He is never
without friends and influence if he does not carry his neutrality to
extremes.


Wood Rabbit - 1915, 1975, 2035

When Wood is exalted in this lunar sign already governed by Wood, it
could produce a generous and especially understanding Rabbit who will
be too charitable at times for his own good. No doubt he has real and
solid ambitions, but often he is intimidated by authority and may
choose to ignore mistakes made in his presence in order to maintain
the status quo. As a result, others are tempted to take advantage of
his sympathetic and permissive attitude.

However, this type of Rabbit usually works out well. He thrives in
large corporations or other institutions where he can slowly and
diplomatically climb the ladder of success, one rung at a time. Group
effort and togetherness appeal to him and give him the kind of
security and reassurance he needs. But because of his innate desire to
feel part of the group, he may become a but too bureaucratic and hedge
when he has to make a decision that might offend people or set a
precedent for a controversial case. In his refusal to meddle or take
sides, he may end up hurting everyone, including himself. He should be
more discriminating and decisive and take the necessary steps to
insulate himself against those who prey on his generous nature. As he
is one who is able to bend gracefully without ever breaking, this
Rabbit will have no trouble fitting in anywhere he chooses.


Fire Rabbit - 1927, 1987, 2047

Definitely a demonstrative, fun loving and affectionate type of
Rabbit. He has more strength of character than the other Rabbits. In
spite of Fire making him more temperamental, he is still able to mask
his emotions with charm and diplomacy.

His personality is easy and natural. People respond positively to his
ideas because he expresses them so well.

Fire may take him prone to emotion and outspoken in expressing his
wants. His more capable of leadership than other Rabbits and his rule
is tempered with discretion and moderation. Despite his outgoing and
progressive ways, he will never approve of outright confrontation with
his enemies and will prefer to use subtle plots or deal with
go-betweens as natives of his sign are so adept at doing.

This type of Rabbit will have a high level of intuition and even
psychic ability. He is intensely aware of changes in his surroundings
and easily moved to anger, hurt or disappointment. He could also
become terribly neurotic when negative. He requires approval,
whole-hearted support and inspiration in order to sparkle.


Earth Rabbit - 1879, 1939, 1999

A serious and steadfast type of Rabbit, he has definite patterns of
thought an dis capable of well-calculated moves. he deliberates before
giving in to his emotional inclinations. His balanced and rational
personality wins him favor in the eyes of his superiors, as does his
realistic approach to his goals.

The Earth element makes him more constant and less indulgent, although
his constancy will be of a passive sort. His introverted nature
causes him to turn inward when beset with problems and he must be in
accord with his inner self before he acts. He never hesitates to
appropriate whatever resources are available and will use them wisely.

He is materialistic sort of person, and his well-being is his prime
concern, making him indifferent to the needs of others when they are
not in accordance with his plans. Still, he possesses the humility to
acknowledge his shortcomings and will strive to overcome them if he
can.

Notice the extra line of blank space before each new title, maybe I can use that?

[sjalle]

OK, just a sec and I will post the code, must test it first

[sjalle]

Its a console version, no GUI.
I've just tested it a little bit as I haven't got the complete chinese
library...

Note: you may want to remove the package directive on top and a couple
of System.out.println I've left in there for debugging.

[InterWill]

Its a console version, no GUI.
I've just tested it a little bit as I haven't got the complete chinese
library...

Note: you may want to remove the package directive on top and a couple
of System.out.println I've left in there for debugging.

Thanks a bunch!!

Edit: stupid question removed!

Thanks for all the help!

[InterWill]

Sorry for digging up an old thread.

If I want to use StringTokenizer instead of .split how do I do? Is the syntax the same?

[sjalle]

The syntax is not the same, StringTokenizer is out, it deals with Enumeration,
iterators and is a general pain compared with split, may it rest in peace.