exercise to validate discountCode. my code for try-catch does not work. I raise the IllegalArgumentException.

Question

Appreciate guidance on which method should contain code for try-catch block.  I believe what I have in my 'try' is incorrect but don't know how to fix it.  Thank you for your help.

Travis Alstrand · Accepted Answer

So there were two things I saw but you were extremely close!
We needed to be using an && in your conditional instead of an ||. This will check if the character is not a letter and it's not a $. 
This should get it to pass, but I wanted to point out also that 
There was the addition of discountCode added to the error message and there was some other code added to the applyDiscountCode block below. Adding things not specifically asked for in these challenges can sometimes cause them not to pass. They're extremely picky 😅
Anyways, I hope this makes sense and helps.
```java
  private String normalizeDiscountCode(String discountCode) {
    for (char c : discountCode.toCharArray()) {
      if (!Character.isLetter(c) && c != '$') {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid discount code"); 
      }
    }
    return discountCode.toUpperCase(); 
  }
  public void applyDiscountCode(String discountCode) {
    this.discountCode = normalizeDiscountCode(discountCode);
  }
}
```
Also, checkout the Markdown Cheatsheet to help make the code a bit more readable next time, you can wrap it within triple backticks 👍

o2003 · Answer

Hi Travis,
Thank you for your feedback and your suggestion worked.  I want to apologize for how when I pasted my code, it lost its formatting (looks really embarrassing).  This exercise and misleading guidance from the compiler really have dampened my enthusiasm (I did not get creative and added the catch-try block on my own...one of the 'Bummer...umm' messages, suggested it.).  Thank you for Markdown Cheatsheet as well.
Thank you.

o2003 · Answer

follow up.  I was able to fix the issue with try-catch block but this code does not return the discountCode when valid in all caps.  
Entire error message given to me is "Bummer:Hmmm, I called order.applyDiscountCode("abc") and expected order.getDiscountCode = "ABC" but it was null."
Thank you for your help.
the entire code of the part 2 exercise:
public class Order {
  private String itemName;
  private int priceInCents;
  private String discountCode;
  public Order(String itemName, int priceInCents) {
    this.itemName = itemName;
    this.priceInCents = priceInCents;
  }
  public String getItemName() {
    return itemName;
  }
  public int getPriceInCents() {
    return priceInCents;
  }
  public String getDiscountCode() {
    return discountCode;
  }
private String normalizeDiscountCode (String discountCode){
  for (char c:discountCode.toCharArray()) {
      if (! Character.isLetter(c) || c != '$')
      {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(discountCode + "Invalid discount code.");
      }
  }
return discountCode.toUpperCase();
}
  public void applyDiscountCode(String discountCode) {
   try {this.discountCode = normalizeDiscountCode (discountCode);}
        catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
          System.out.println(iae.getMessage());}  
  }
}

o2003 · Answer

my apology for the delay (I thought since I submitted the request from within the exercise, it automatically captured that broken code.  I am sorry). 
Below is my code for second part of the exercise that require normalizeDiscountCode method. I did not change code for applyDiscountCode method from first part of the exercise.  I get a compiler error about a semicolon.  
Thank you for your guidance.
private String normalizeDiscountCode (String discountCode){
  for (char c:discountCode.toCharArray()) {
      if (! Character.isLetter(c) || c != '$')
      {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(discountCode + "Invalid discount code.");
        try {
          order.applyDiscountCode(discountCode); }
        catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
          System.out.println(iae.getMessage());}}
return discountCode.toUpperCase();
}
public void applyDiscountCode(String discountCode) {
    this.discountCode = normalizeDiscountCode (discountCode);
  }

Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Looking to learn something new?

o2003

o2003

exercise to validate discountCode. my code for try-catch does not work. I raise the IllegalArgumentException.

Travis Alstrand

Travis Alstrand

4 Answers

Travis Alstrand

Travis Alstrand

o2003

o2003

o2003

o2003

o2003

o2003

Travis Alstrand

Travis Alstrand