Guidance on OOP open ended problem please, thank you!

[waxen grove]

im stumped... mainly because i havent seen non csv files. that being said. should i create a split("\n\n") method and then a split("\n")?

file.txt

Pancake dough
60
milk
egg
flour
salt
butter

Meatballs
20
ground meat
egg
breadcrumbs

Tofu rolls
30
tofu
rice
water
carrot
cucumber
avocado
wasabi

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class RecipeSearch {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
        ArrayList<String> recipes = new ArrayList<>();
        
        System.out.println("File to read: ");
        String file = scanner.nextLine();
        
        UserInterface ui = new UserInterface(file);
        ui.start();

        System.out.println("Commands:");
        System.out.println("list - lists the reciples");
        System.out.println("stop - stops the program");
//        System.out.println("find name - searches recipes by name");

        ui.command();

    }

}

[plain granite]

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[waxen grove]

import java.nio.file.Paths;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class UserInterface {

    private String file;
    private Recipes recipes;
    private Scanner scanner;

    public UserInterface(String files) {
        this.recipes = recipes;
        this.scanner = scanner;
    }

    public void start() {
        try ( Scanner read = new Scanner(Paths.get(file))) {
            while (read.hasNextLine()) {
                String line = read.nextLine();
                if (line.isEmpty()) {

                    String[] food = line.split("\n");
                    String name = food[0];
                    int time = Integer.valueOf(food[1]);
                    String i1 = food[2];
                    String i2 = food[3];
                    String i3 = food[4];
                    String i4 = food[5];
                    String i5 = food[6];
                    String i6 = food[7];
                    String i7 = food[8];
                    recipe.add(new String(name, time,))
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    public void command() {
        System.out.print("Enter command:");
        String command = scanner.nextLine();

        if (command.equals("stop")) {
            break;
        }
        if (command.equals("list")) {
            System.out.println("Recipes");
            for (String nameAndTime : recipes) {
                System.out.println(nameAndTime.get(0) + ", cooking time: " + nameAndTime.get(1));

            }
        }
        if (command.equals("find name")) {

        }
    }
}

the other thing stumping me, there isnt a set amount of ingredients, so i just created a bunch of spaces in case but i dont know if thatll affect the recipes with less than 7 ingredients

public class Recipes {
    private String name;
    private String time;

    public Recipes() {
    this.name = name;
    this.time = time;
    
    }
    
//  Integer.valueOf(this.time);
    
}

[humble mantle]

don't use separate variables for that. var1/var2/var3 is generally never a good sign. just use proper structures, either an array or a list

[humble mantle]

yes, \n\n is the separator between sets of information and \n is the separator between individual values, so those are the 2 values to split by

[waxen grove]

thats whats stumping me. if im creating an array out of an unset amount of variables and then turning them into an array list, how does one do that?

[humble mantle]

you generally don't...

choose 1, array or list

an ArrayList is a list that uses an array, it is not an array

anyways the dynamic amount just isn't an issue, you just create a array with a dynamic size

String.split already gives you a number on how many elements are present

[waxen grove]

ok so if i do a string.split("\n") to create the array to separate the lines of the reciple(in this case)
when i create the string.split("\n\n") it will create a new array?
this is where im getting confused

[humble mantle]

oh you're doing nextLine on the file

if you're doing that there's not going to be any \n to split by at all

if you want to split, read out the entire file

you would then split on \n\n first

with a csv, you would be splitting on \n (via nextLine) to separate each listing, then split on , (via split) to get the elements of each listing

[waxen grove]

not a csv

[humble mantle]

i know it isn't

[waxen grove]

gotcha

[humble mantle]

you said you've done csvs so im using that as a reference point

although technically the file you showed is a valid csv...

[waxen grove]

dont understand how? unless i edit the file (which i cant)

[humble mantle]

??????

i haven't told you to do anything at this point

[waxen grove]

so if i do a string.split("\n\n"), how do i iterate thru the different recipes? wont string.split("\n\n") create 3 blocks that have one idex?
thats why i wanted to create an arraylist from the arrays

[humble mantle]

that have one index

what is this supposed to mean

[waxen grove]

you said that the file is a csv, but from my understanding, csv is a comma separted values file, so im wondering how my txt file is a csv

[waxen grove]

each split makes 3 blocks, each block containing the whole recipe

[humble mantle]

it's technically a csv with 1 column and 22 rows if you read it as a csv, but it isn't meaningful to read it as a csv. i made a joke there

[humble mantle]

right, that's good

im not seeing what you think is the issue there

[waxen grove]

that i need to then iterate thru the lines to pull info

[humble mantle]

sure

[waxen grove]

meaning?

[humble mantle]

....you need to iterate through the lines to pull info

exactly as you said

what are you confused about?

[waxen grove]

this is the fuctionality i need

File to read: recipes.txt

Commands:
list - lists the recipes
stop - stops the program

Enter command: list

Recipes:
Pancake dough, cooking time: 60
Meatballs, cooking time: 20
Tofu rolls, cooking time: 30

Enter command:  stop

[humble mantle]

that doesn't tell me anything lmao

and it's not info i need

[waxen grove]

gimme a sec

im typing

[humble mantle]

no, i won't

i don't need whatever you're typing

[waxen grove]

cool, then i dont need your help

[humble mantle]

right now you haven't made clear what you think is the issue here

i can't help you if you don't tell me what to help with. giving context here is.. nice, but it's not what i need to help you

[waxen grove]

you ask me for something, i try to make it clear, and you barrage me

[humble mantle]

because your attempt to make it clear doesn't answer my question...

[waxen grove]

bro.. literally going in circlees. i asked if i could do something and you told me not to because its dumb. now im basically asking the same thing cause we came back to the same issue

and youre gonna call me dumb again

[humble mantle]

when using this txt, or a csv, or any other kind of format similar to this, you need to split twice. once to separate entries, and again to separate data.
that split is not necessarily via split, you may have had nextLine on scanner as the first split when using csv as each row/line would be a single entry

here, nextLine will not work for separating entries. if you want to use the scanner, you can set the delimiter to \n\n and use next, which will use that delimiter to split, or you can read out the entire file to use String.split. then you can use \n as a delimiter via nextLine, next, or split the whole chunk via String.split

[humble mantle]

....i never did?

[waxen grove]

thats literally what i asked and you said no

[waxen grove]

no but the way you talk did

[humble mantle]

where? if i misunderstood then do clarify

[humble mantle]

ive literally just been confused the majority of this time and the last few messages were just impatient, nowhere did i imply you were dumb

[waxen grove]

here
then you sent a meme. a belittling meme. im asking for help, not for someone to talk down to me

[humble mantle]

lmao that's not belittling

[waxen grove]

k

thanks for your help and time

[plain granite]

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