Help with Letters

Yep. You should probably assign a letter to each asteroid as it's created. Add a variable to the asteroid class (either a 'char' or 'String') to hold the letter which that Asteroid represents. Add a parameter to the asteroid constructor, of the same type, so that the letter for an asteroid can be specified when the asteroid is created. Then you can create a whole series of asteroids such as: addObject(new Asteroid("i"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("c"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("o"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("n"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("o"), 100, 100); // etc Of course you could do that programmatically by writing code to iterate through the characters in the string "iconoclast" and create an asteroid for each.

What exactly do you mean by "write an array for"? What would be the purpose of the array - what do you want it to contain? (Why do you want an array anwyay?)

Ok, never mind. I thought above you were telling me how to write an array for these, but again, I'm new to programming. How exactly would I add a variable of type String to the Asteroid class? And what is a parameter? I know what the constructor is. And would I add this: addObject(new Asteroid("i"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("c"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("o"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("n"), 100, 100); addObject(new Asteroid("o"), 100, 100); Into my Space class?

theDoctor, you could replace that code with:

I really think you should go through the tutorials! Also be aware that in the code above '100, 100' was just an example - you'd probably want different co-ordinates for each asteroid, correct? You could probably choose random numbers.

And would I add this to the Space class or the Asteroid class for my program? String word = "icono"; for(int i = 0; i < word.length(); i++) { addObject(new Asteroid(""+word.charAt(i)), 100, 100); }

You want to add the asteroids when the world (Space) is created, correct? So you need to do this in the Space class (in the constructor, or a method that you call from the constructor).

When I put the code into the constructor of the Space class, it comes up with this error: "cannot find symbol - constructor Asteroid(java.land.String)". Any suggestions on what I should do here? I'm assuming it means I haven't delcared the symbol for the Asteroid in the Space class.

It means that your Asteroid class doesn't have a constructor which takes a String parameter: From my post above: Add a parameter to the asteroid constructor, of the same type, so that the letter for an asteroid can be specified when the asteroid is created. Seems like you didn't do that? public Asteroid(String s) { ... }

It's a constructor, it doesn't have a return type. Did you put this in the Asteroid class? A constructor for Asteroid instances must go in the Asteroid class.