How to pass a return int to another class as String?

Question

I have this assignment for university and have spent hours trying to get the various parts working within the Tutors guidelines (It would be easy if I could change the array to public :( ).

Anway I have an AccountList class with an array called accounts and I need to use this method

AccountList Class

  public int getNumberOfAccounts()
   {
       return accounts.size();
   }

In my text based user interface to return the accounts.size as a string, here is what I have so far but I can't work out how to convert that accountList.getNumberOfAccounts return to a string within this class so that I can println it.

AccountTUI Class

public void getNumberOfAccounts()
    {

        accountList.getNumberOfAccounts();


    }

Here is the full set of code.

AccountTUI Full

import java.util.*;
/**
 * Write a description of class AccountTUI here.
 * 
 * @author (your name) 
 * @version (a version number or a date)
 */
public class AccountTUI
{
    AccountList accountList = new AccountList();
    Scanner myScanner = new Scanner(System.in);



    public AccountTUI()
    {

    }


    public void menu()
    {
        int command = -1;
          while ( command != 0 )
  { 
      displayMenu();
        command = getCommand();
        execute( command );
    }
}

    private void displayMenu()
    {
        System.out.println("\n Please Select An Option");
        System.out.println("To quit enter 0");
        System.out.println("To add an Account enter 1");
        System.out.println("To remove an Account enter 2");
        System.out.println("To get the number of Accounts enter 3");
        System.out.println("To show a single Account enter 4");
        System.out.println("To show all Accounts enter 5");


    }



    private int getCommand()
    {
        System.out.print ("Enter command: ");
        int command = myScanner.nextInt();
        myScanner.nextLine();  // handle eol
        return command;
    }

    private void execute( int command)
    {
        if ( command == 0 )
            quitCommand();
        else
        if ( command == 1)
           addAccount();
        else
        if ( command == 2 )
             removeAccount();
        else
        if ( command == 3)
             getNumberOfAccounts();
        else
        if ( command == 4)
            showAccount();
        else 
        if ( command == 5)
            showAllAccounts();

        else {

           unknownCommand(command);

        }
    }




    public void addAccount()
    {
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.print ("\n Enter First Name \n");
        String firstname = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.print ("Enter Second Name \n");
        String secondname = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.print ("Enter Account Number \n");
        String accountnumber  = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.print ("Enter Street \n");
         String street  = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.print ("Enter Town \n");
         String town  = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.print ("Enter Postcode \n");
         String postcode  = keyboard.nextLine();

        accountList.addAccount(new Account(firstname,secondname,accountnumber,
                   street,town,postcode));

    }


    public void getNumberOfAccounts()
    {

        accountList.getNumberOfAccounts();


    }

    public void quitCommand()
    {
        System.out.println("\n Application is closing");
        System.exit(0);

    }

    public void removeAccount()
    {
    }

    public void showAccount()
    {

    }

    public void showAllAccounts()
    {
       System.out.print('\u000C');
        accountList.getAllAccounts();
        System.out.println("");



}

    public void unknownCommand(int command)
    {
        if (command < 0 || command > 5) {
            System.out.print('\u000C');
        System.out.println("Unknown command.");

    }
}


}

AccountList Full

import java.util.*;
/**
 * This is the AccountList class provide for students
 * in Blackboard at the start of the homework
 * 
 * @author (your name) 
 * @version (a version number or a date)
 */
public class AccountList
{
   private ArrayList<Account> accounts;    

   /**
    * Constructor for objects of class AccountList
    */
   public AccountList()
   {
       accounts = new ArrayList<Account>();
   }

   public void addAccount(Account account)
   {
       accounts.add(account);
   }

   public int getNumberOfAccounts()
   {
       return accounts.size();
   }

      public boolean getAccount(String accountNumber)
   {
       int index = 0;
       for (Account account : accounts)
       {
           if (accountNumber.equals(account.getAccountNumber()))
           {
               account.printAccountDetails();
               return true;
           }
           else
           {
               index++;
           }
       }
       return false;
   }    


   public void getAccount(int accountEntry)
   {
       if (accountEntry < 0)
       {
           System.out.println("Negative entry: " + accountEntry);
       }
       else if (accountEntry < getNumberOfAccounts())
       { 
           Account account = accounts.get(accountEntry);
           account.printAccountDetails();
       }
       else
       {
           System.out.println("No such entry: " + accountEntry);
       }
   }

   public void getAllAccounts()
   {
        for(Account account : accounts)
        {
            account.printAccountDetails();
            System.out.println();
        }
   }

   public void removeAccount(int accountEntry)
   {
        if(accountEntry < 0)
        {
            System.out.println("Negative entry :" + accountEntry);
        }
        else if(accountEntry < getNumberOfAccounts())
        {
            accounts.remove(accountEntry);
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("No such entry :" + accountEntry);
        }
   }

   public boolean removeAccount(String accountNumber)
   {
        int index = 0;
        for (Account account: accounts)
        {
            if (accountNumber.equals(account.getAccountNumber()))
            {
                accounts.remove(index);
                return true;
            }
            index++;
        }
        return false;
   }


   public int search(String accountNumber)
   {
       int index = 0;
       for (Account account : accounts)
       {
           if (accountNumber.equals(account.getAccountNumber()))
           {
               return index;
           }
           else
           {
               index++;
           }
       }
       return -1;
   }    



}

Answer 1

If you want to convert an int i to a String, you can just use

String.valueOf(i);

So you could just modify your method like this:

public String getNumberOfAccounts()
{
   return String.valueOf(accounts.size());
}

or you could leave the method as it is and use String.valueOf() when you want the String representation to put into your user interface.

BUT you say that you want to use println() on it. Note that println() will also accept an int directly, so there's nothing to stop you just writing

System.out.println(getNumberOfAccounts());

even if getNumberOfAccounts() returns an int.

Also, you should note that you're not using an array (or if you are, you're doing it wrong). There is no .size() method on an array; but there is on an ArrayList, so I suspect that's what you're using. The equivalent for an array is arr.length (with no () because it's a field and not a method).

Answer 2

Use the following function

public String getNumberOfAccounts()
{
return (""+accounts.size());
}