MAKING GAME BOARD: How do you shorten this code of creating array, and how do you print them out?

Question

I'm working on a gameboard that prints out something like this:

Here's the code I wrote

    void showBoard() {

    String city1, city2, city3, city4, city5, city6, city7, city8, city9, city10;
    

// I wrote like this because I want each box to have the size to hold 11 characters.
    city1 = "Cario      ";
    city2 = "Phuket     ";
    city3 = "New delhi  ";
    city4 = "Hanoi      ";
    city5 = "Paris      ";
    city6 = "LA         ";
    city7 = "Sydney     ";
    city8 = "Tokyo      ";
    city9 = "Seoul      ";
    city10 = "START     ";
    
    char[][] cities = new char[10][];
    
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        cities[i] = new char[11];}
    
    cities[0] = city1.toCharArray();
    cities[1] = city2.toCharArray();
    cities[2] = city3.toCharArray();
    cities[3] = city4.toCharArray();
    cities[4] = city5.toCharArray();
    cities[5] = city6.toCharArray();
    cities[6] = city7.toCharArray();
    cities[7] = city8.toCharArray();
    cities[8] = city9.toCharArray();
    cities[9] = city10.toCharArray();
    
    for (int i = 0; i < 11; i++)
        System.out.print(cities[0][i]);
    
    for(int k = 0; k < 2; k++) {
        
        for (int q = 0; q < 5; q++) {
            for(int i = 0; i < 13; i++) {
                    System.out.print("-");}}
    
        System.out.println();
        
//There's the <Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 10 out of bounds for length 10 > error because of the code from here....
        for(int i = 0; i < 2 ; i++) {
            for(int j = 0; j < 5; j++) {
                for (int q = 0; q < cities.length; q++) {
                    if (q%11 == 0)
                        System.out.print("|");
                    else {
                        for (int p = 0; p < cities[q].length; p++ )
                            System.out.print(cities[p][q]);
                        }
                    }
                
                System.out.print(" ");
            }
            System.out.println();}
//to here   

    
        
        
        for (int q = 0; q < 5; q++) {
            for(int i = 0; i < 13; i++) {
                    System.out.print("-");}}    
    
        System.out.println();
        
        if (k == 0) {
        for(int i = 0; i < 65; i++) {
            if (i == 0)
                System.out.print("↑");
            else if (i == 64)
                System.out.println("↓");
            else
                System.out.print(" ");}}
    }
        
    System.out.println();
        
    
}

There are two problems that I really can't solve:

1.Shortening the code for cities[0~9] = city1~10.toCharArray();

2.Printing out the arrays like the image.

The couln't print nice seperate boxes, so I just made the boxes like they're inside fallen ladders

Answer 1

Here are the results from one of my test runs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Cario       | Phuket      | New Delhi   | Hanoi       | Paris       |
|             |             |             |             |             |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Los Angeles | Sydney      | Tokyo       | Seoul       | START       |
|             |             |             |             |             |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote a method to give me the length of the city with the longest name. I tested this method.

Then, I wrote a method to create the dashed line. I tested this method.

Then I wrote a method to give me the line with 5 of the 10 city names. I tested this method several times. I fixed problems that cropped up in the previous methods.

Then I put all the methods together to create the output you see.

Write a little, test a lot. There's no way you can write an entire method like showBoard and expect it to work properly. Write a little, test a lot. And use methods to separate logical blocks of code.

I couldn't be bothered to look up the arrow symbols. I leave that bit of code to you.

Here's the complete runnable code.

public class ConsoleGameBoard {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(new ConsoleGameBoard().showBoard());
    }

    public String showBoard() {
        String[] cities = { "Cario", "Phuket", "New Delhi", "Hanoi", "Paris",
                "Los Angeles", "Sydney", "Tokyo", "Seoul", "START" };
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        int maxLength = getMaximumLength(cities);
        builder.append(createDashedLine(cities, maxLength));
        builder.append(createCityNameLine(cities, 0, maxLength));
        builder.append(createBlankNameLine(maxLength));
        builder.append(createDashedLine(cities, maxLength));
        builder.append(System.lineSeparator());
        builder.append(createDashedLine(cities, maxLength));
        builder.append(createCityNameLine(cities, 5, maxLength));
        builder.append(createBlankNameLine(maxLength));
        builder.append(createDashedLine(cities, maxLength));
        
        return builder.toString();
    }
    
    private StringBuilder createDashedLine(String[] cities, int maxLength) {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        int dashLength = (maxLength + 1) * cities.length / 2 + 2 * cities.length / 2 + 1;
        for (int index = 0; index < dashLength; index++) {
            builder.append('-');
        }
        builder.append(System.lineSeparator());
        return builder;
    }
    
    private StringBuilder createCityNameLine(String[] cities, int startIndex, int maxLength) {
        String formatter = "%-" + maxLength + "s";
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        for (int index = startIndex; index < startIndex + 5; index++) {
            builder.append("| ");
            builder.append(String.format(formatter, cities[index]));
            builder.append(" ");
        }
        builder.append("|");
        builder.append(System.lineSeparator());
        return builder;
    }
    
    private StringBuilder createBlankNameLine(int maxLength) {
        String formatter = "%-" + maxLength + "s";
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        for (int index = 0; index < 5; index++) {
            builder.append("| ");
            builder.append(String.format(formatter, " "));
            builder.append(" ");
        }
        builder.append("|");
        builder.append(System.lineSeparator());
        return builder;
    }
    
    private int getMaximumLength(String[] cities) {
        int maxLength = 0;
        for (int index = 0; index < cities.length; index++) {
            maxLength = Math.max(maxLength, cities[index].length());
        }
        return maxLength;
    }

}