Program keeps locking up, not sure why

[Donnie Inman]

Been learning Java from Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2 book and have made it to the end of Chpt 3 . Did an exercise to generate 5 sets of 6 numbers with no duplication within a set (ie lottery numbers) and the numbers must be between 1 & 49. Wrote this program and it works sometimes, but then sometimes the program locks up. It will display the first set of numbers and then just stop with the cursor flashing. It did work fine but I changed a spacing issue on the print line and now it won't hardly go past the first set at all. Thanks in advance for any help.

//Program to output 5 sets of 6 random numbers

public class Chpt3Ex3 {
	public static void main(String [] args) {
		int nTimes = 5;											//The amount of 6-number sequences to output
		int range = 49;
		
		//Initialize numbers for the 6 random numbers
		int first = 0;
		int second = 0;
		int third = 0;
		int fourth = 0;
		int fifth = 0;
		int sixth = 0;
		
		OuterLoop:
		for(nTimes = 1; ; nTimes++) {
		
			first = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1);				//Generate first random number between 1 & 49
			
			Number2:
			for(second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {	//Generate second random number
				if(second != first) {								//Check that it is not a duplicate
					break Number2;
				}
			}
			
			Number3:
			for(third = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {
				if(third != first && third != second) {
					break Number3;
				}
			}
			
			Number4:
			for(fourth = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {
				if(fourth != first && fourth != second && fourth != third) {
					break Number4;
				}
			}
			
			Number5:
			for(fifth = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {
				if(fifth != first && fifth != second && fifth != third && fifth != fourth) {
					break Number5;
				}
			}
			
			Number6:
			for(sixth = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {
				if(sixth != first && sixth != second && sixth != third && sixth != fourth && sixth != fifth) {
					break Number6;
				}
			}
			
			//Output lottery numbers
			System.out.println("Set #"+nTimes + " of lottery numbers are: " + first + " " + second + " " + third + 
			" " + fourth + " " + fifth + " " + sixth);	
		
			if(nTimes > 5) {
				break OuterLoop;
			}
		}
	}
}
		

[Christophe Verré]

for(second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {

This will block if second==first, because you're only initializing second here, its values will never change after the initialization. The second loop will not change its value, so it will loop forever. Same for the other for loops.

[mike ryan]

OuterLoop:   
        for(nTimes = 1; ; nTimes++) {   // this is possibly a problem ?
           
            first = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1);               //Generate first random number between 1 & 49   
               
            Number2:   
            for(second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {    //Generate second random number   
                if(second != first) {                               //Check that it is not a duplicate   
                    break Number2;   
                }   
            }   

The Outer "for loop" has a mistake, not sure if this is creating that problem?

[Christophe Verré]

mike ryan wrote:
The Outer "for loop" has a mistake, not sure if this is creating that problem?

What mistake ?

[Donnie Inman]

Christophe Verré wrote:

for(second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {

This will block if second==first, because you're only initializing second here, its values will never change after the initialization. The second loop will not change its value, so it will loop forever. Same for the other for loops.

I wonder if I'm not understanding exactly what's going on in each of these loops.

Number2:
			for(second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1); ; ) {	//Generate second random number
				if(second != first) {								//Check that it is not a duplicate
					break Number2;
				}
			}

The way I'm reading these is that it will create a random number for the variable second and check that it doesn't match a previous number. If it does then won't it select another random number, check again and keep going until it finds one that doesn't match the previous. Maybe I'm totally wrong in this. The book example did it with a switch, but my first idea was to do it this way and I really want to make it work. Guess I'm stubborn.

[Joanne Neal]

Donnie Inman wrote:If it does then won't it select another random number

No. The first part of a for loop is the initialisation step - this is only done once. the value of second will never change after this. So it either gets set to something different from the first number and immediately breaks from the loop or it gets set to the same as the first number and just sits in the loop forever checking if the first value is not equal to the second value.
You need to move the setting of 'second to the last part of the for loop - i.e. after the second ;
You should also move the test from inside the loop to the second part of the for loop i.e. between the two ;. That way you don't need to use a break which should be avoided if possible.

for(; second != first; second = ((int)(range*Math.random()) + 1) ) {
}

Although personally, I think a while loop would be better here

while (second != first)
    second = (int) ((range*Math.random()) + 1);
}

Also, if you're going to use a for loop, use all it's capabilities. For the outer loop, using a for loop is correct but change it to

for(nTimes = 1; nTimes <= 5; nTimes++) { 

and get rid of

if(nTimes > 5) {
    break OuterLoop;   
}