Permutation of Actionscript 3 Array - actionscript-3

Question

Greetings,
This is my first post and I hope someone out there can help. I am an educator and I designed a quiz using Actionscript 3 (Adobe Flash) that is to determine all the different ways a family can have three children.
I have two buttons that enter either the letter B (for boy) or G (for girl) into an input text field named text_entry. I then have a submit button named enter_btn that checks to see if the entry into the input text is correct. If the input is correct, the timeline moves to the next problem (frame labeled checkmark); if it is incorrect the timeline moves to the end of the quiz (frame 62).
The following code works well for any particular correct single entry (ie: BGB). I need to write code in which all eight correct variations must be entered, but they can be entered in any order (permutation):
ie:
BBB,BBG,BGB,BGG,GBB,GBG,GGB,GGG; or
BGB,GGG,BBG,BBB,GGB,BGB,GGB,BGG; or
GGB,GGG,BBG,BBB,GGB,BGB,BGB,BGG; etc...
there are over 40,000 ways to enter these eight ways of having three children. Help!
baby_B.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, letterB);
function letterB(event:MouseEvent)
{
text_entry.appendText("B");
}
baby_G.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, letterG);
function letterG(event:MouseEvent)
{
text_entry.appendText("G");
}
enter_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, check);
function check(event:MouseEvent):void {
var solution_S:Array=["BBB","BBG","BGB","BGG","GBB","GBG","GGB","GGG "];
if(solution_S.indexOf(text_entry.text)>=0)
{
gotoAndStop("checkmark");
}
else
{
gotoAndPlay(62);
}
}
If you know the correct code, please write it out for me. Thanks!

Answer 1

You will just need to keep a little bit of state to know what the user has entered so far. One possible way of doing that is to have a custom object/dictionary that you initialize outside all your functions, so that it is preserved during the transitions between frames/runs of the functions:
var solutionEntered:Object = {"BBB":false, "BBG":false, /*fill in rest */ };
Then in your function check you can perform an additional check, something like:
function check(event:MouseEvent):void {
var solution_S:Array=["BBB","BBG","BGB","BGG","GBB","GBG","GGB","GGG "];
if(solution_S.indexOf(text_entry.text)>=0) {
// We know the user entered a valid solution, let's check if
// then entered it before
if(solutionEntered[text_entry.text]) {
// yes they entered it before, do whatever you need to do
} else {
// no they haven't entered it, set the status as entered
solutionEntered[text_entry.text] = true;
}
// continue rest of your function
}
// continue the rest of your function
}
Note that this is not necessarily an optimal solution, but it keeps with the code style you already have.

Answer 2

Try this:
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.display.Sprite;
var correctAnswers : Array = [ "BBB", "BBG", "BGB", "GBB", "BGG", "GGB", "GBG", "GGG" ];
var answersSoFar : Array;
var textField : TextField; //on stage
var submitButton : Sprite; //on stage
var correctAnswerCount : int;
//for testing
textField.text = "BBB,BBG,BGB,GBB,BGG,GGB,GBG,GGG";
//textField.text = "BGB,BBB,GGG,BBG,GBB,BGG,GGB,GBG,";
//textField.text = "BBB,BBG, BGB,GBB,BGG, GGB, GBG, GGG";
//textField.text = "BBB,BBG,BGB,GBB,BGG,GGB,GBG";
//textField.text = "BBB,BBG,BGB,GBB,BGG,GGB,GBG,GGG,BBG";
submitButton.addEventListener( MouseEvent.CLICK, onSubmit );
function onSubmit( event : MouseEvent ) : void
{
var answers : Array = getAnswersArray( textField.text );
answersSoFar = [];
correctAnswerCount = 0;
for each ( var answer : String in answers )
if ( answerIsCorrect( answer ) ) correctAnswerCount++;
if ( correctAnswerCount == correctAnswers.length ) trace( "correct" );
else trace( "incorrect" );
}
function getAnswersArray( string : String ) : Array
{
string = removeInvalidCharacters( string );
return string.split( "," );
}
function removeInvalidCharacters( string : String ) : String
{
var result : String = "";
for ( var i : int, len = string.length; i < len; i++ )
if ( string.charAt( i ) == "B" || string.charAt( i ) == "G" || string.charAt( i ) == "," )
result += string.charAt( i );
return result;
}
function answerIsCorrect( answer : String ) : Boolean
{
if ( answerIsADuplicate( answer ) ) return false;
else answersSoFar.push( answer );
if ( answerIsInListOfCorrectAnswers( answer ) ) return true;
return false;
}
function answerIsInListOfCorrectAnswers( answer : String ) : Boolean
{
if ( correctAnswers.indexOf( answer ) == -1 ) return false;
return true;
}
function answerIsADuplicate( answer : String ) : Boolean
{
if ( answersSoFar.indexOf( answer ) == -1 ) return false;
return true;
}

Answer 3

note that in the original code you pasted, you have an extra space in the last element of your correct answer list - "GGG " should be "GGG"
this works
baby_B.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, letterB);
function letterB(event:MouseEvent) {
text_entry.appendText("B");
}
baby_G.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, letterG);
function letterG(event:MouseEvent) {
text_entry.appendText("G");
}
var valid:Array = ["BBB","BBG","BGB","BGG","GBB","GBG","GGB","GGG"];
enter_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, check);
function check(event:MouseEvent):void {
var parts:Array = text_entry.text.split(/,\s*/g); // split the text into component parts
var dup:Array = valid.slice(); // copy the correct list
while(parts.length){ // run through each answer component
var part:String = parts.pop(); // grab the last one
part = part.replace(/(^\s+|\s+$)/g, ''); // strip leading/trailing white space
var pos:int = dup.indexOf(part); // is it in the list of correct answers?
if(pos != -1){ // if it is...
dup.splice(pos, 1); // then remove that answer from the list
}
}
if(dup.length == 0) { // if it's 0, they got all the correct answers
gotoAndStop("checkmark");
} else { // otherwise, they didn't get one or more correct answers
gotoAndPlay(62);
}
}