Recursive method not incrementing string analysis counter in TableView GUI (JavaFX) - uitableview

Question

EDIT Recursion is required for the counter increment.
I have a GUI that adds entered fields to a ListView, but also adds the name of the object to a TableView beside it and displays four substring counts. They are Plant objects, and it's supposed to display in the ListView (which it does), and then display the name with each occurrence of a certain substring:
See here:
I don't understand what I'm missing, because in my addButtonClick method, I call my recursive method. The logic seems correct to me in the method, so I must be missing something in my Integer properties, or a constructor.
Here is the method in the Controller for the add button click. There is a combo box where a user can choose Flower, Fungus, Weed, or Herb. And when the user clicks a respective plant type, respective radio buttons appear that are related to certain traits. All of that works. I will show the Flower section of code:
/*
Adds respective plant type and resets controls
*/
public void handleAddButtonClick(ActionEvent event) {
if (idInput != null && nameInput != null & colorInput != null) {
if (plantType.getValue().equals("Flower")) {
Flower flower = new Flower(ID, idNum, name, color, smell, thorns, edible, poisonous, flavor, medicine, seasonal);
flower.setID(idInput.getText());
flower.setName(nameInput.getText());
flower.setColor(colorInput.getText());
flower.setSmell(scentedRadio.isSelected());
flower.setThorns(thornyRadio.isSelected());
observablePlantList.add(flower);
//this is where the table information gets added.
//it adds it, just displays 0's.
flower.setPlantName(nameInput.getText());
Plant.substringCounter(name, "e"); //tried flower instead
Plant.substringCounter(name, "ar");//of Plant. still nothing.
Plant.substringCounter(name, "er");
Plant.substringCounter(name, "o");
observableAnalysisList.add(flower);
//just doing some debug printing. this prints 0
System.out.println(Plant.substringCounter(name, "e"));
//more debugging. this prints fine because of toString() method
System.out.println(flower);
Here is the relevant code in the main class and the Flower class:
//Plant Table properties ("e", "o", "ar", "er")
public StringProperty plantName = new SimpleStringProperty(this, "plantName", "");
public String getPlantName() {return plantName.get(); }
public StringProperty plantNameProperty() {return plantName; }
public void setPlantName(String plantName) {this.plantName.set(plantName); }
public IntegerProperty countLetterE = new SimpleIntegerProperty(this, "countLetterE", 0);
public int getLetterE() {return countLetterE.get();}
public IntegerProperty eProperty() {return countLetterE; }
public void setCountLetterE(int countLetterE) {this.countLetterE.set(countLetterE);}
public IntegerProperty countLetterO = new SimpleIntegerProperty(this, "countLetterO", 0);
public int getLetterO() {return countLetterO.get(); }
public IntegerProperty oProperty() {return countLetterO; }
public void setCountLetterO(int countLetterO) {this.countLetterO.set(countLetterO);}
public IntegerProperty countLetterER = new SimpleIntegerProperty(this, "countLetterER", 0);
public int getLetterER() {return countLetterER.get(); }
public IntegerProperty erProperty() {return countLetterER; }
public void setCountLetterER(int countLetterER) {this.countLetterER.set(countLetterER);}
public IntegerProperty countLetterAR = new SimpleIntegerProperty(this, "countLetterAR", 0);
public int getLetterAR() {return countLetterAR.get(); }
public IntegerProperty arProperty() {return countLetterAR; }
public void setCountLetterAR(int countLetterAR) {this.countLetterAR.set(countLetterAR);}
Recursive method:
public static int substringCounter(String plantName, String letters) {
plantName = plantName.toLowerCase();
if(plantName.isEmpty()) {
return 0;
}
if(plantName.indexOf(letters) == -1) {
return 0;
}
return 1 + substringCounter(plantName.substring(plantName.indexOf(letters) + 1), letters);
}
//toString method for Plant class to display in ListView. Works fine.
public String toString() {
return "ID: " + this.ID + "-" + this.idNum + ", Name: " + this.name + ", Color: " + this.color;
}
}
Flower class
public class Flower extends Plant {
public Flower(String ID, int idNum, String name, String color, boolean smell, boolean thorns, boolean edible, boolean poisonous, boolean flavor, boolean medicine, boolean seasonal) {
super(ID, idNum, name, color, smell, thorns, edible, poisonous, flavor, medicine, seasonal);
}
public void setSmell(boolean smell) {
this.smell = smell;
}
public void setThorns(boolean thorns) {
this.thorns = thorns;
}
//toString method for the ListView only. All works fine here
public String toString() {
return super.toString() + ", Scent? " + this.smell + ", Thorns? " + this.thorns;
}
}
I sincerely hope I either 1) gave you enough information, or 2) didn't give you too much information. Thank you all for any help offered.

Answer 1

You are invoking a static method on a string and return a number which effectively results in absolutely nothing when you call it like that:
Plant.substringCounter(name, "e");
You need to modify a property if you want some "action" or at least process the result that's being returned by substringCounter.
Besides, I have no idea why you use recursion. This does the same:
String text = "dandelion";
String search = "d";
int count = 0;
int pos = 0;
if (!search.isEmpty()) {
while ((pos = text.indexOf(search, pos)) != -1) {
count++;
pos++;
}
}
System.out.println(count);
Basically something like this:
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.TextField;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class Main extends Application {
#Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
HBox box = new HBox();
box.setSpacing(10);
TextField sourceTextField = new TextField( "Dandelion");
Label result = new Label();
TextField searchTextField = new TextField();
// add listener for counting the number of substrings
searchTextField.textProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<String>() {
#Override
public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends String> observable, String oldValue, String newValue) {
String sourceText = sourceTextField.getText().toLowerCase();
String searchText = newValue.toLowerCase();
int count = 0;
int pos = 0;
if( !searchText.isEmpty()) {
while( (pos = sourceText.indexOf( searchText, pos)) != -1) {
count++;
pos++;
}
}
result.setText( String.valueOf(count));
}
});
box.getChildren().addAll( new Label( "Search:"), searchTextField, new Label( "Text:"), sourceTextField, new Label( "Count:"), result);
Scene scene = new Scene(box, 600, 200);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
}
Or using your recursive method (you also need to check letters for empty string by the way):
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.TextField;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class Main extends Application {
#Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
HBox box = new HBox();
box.setSpacing(10);
TextField sourceTextField = new TextField( "Dandelion");
Label result = new Label();
TextField searchTextField = new TextField();
searchTextField.textProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<String>() {
#Override
public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends String> observable, String oldValue, String newValue) {
String sourceText = sourceTextField.getText().toLowerCase();
String searchText = newValue.toLowerCase();
result.setText( String.valueOf( substringCounter( sourceText, searchText)));
}
});
box.getChildren().addAll( new Label( "Search:"), searchTextField, new Label( "Text:"), sourceTextField, new Label( "Count:"), result);
Scene scene = new Scene(box, 600, 200);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
public static int substringCounter(String plantName, String letters) {
plantName = plantName.toLowerCase();
if(letters.isEmpty()) {
return 0;
}
if(plantName.isEmpty()) {
return 0;
}
if(plantName.indexOf(letters) == -1) {
return 0;
}
return 1 + substringCounter(plantName.substring(plantName.indexOf(letters) + 1), letters);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
}
Instead of setting the label like I did in the example you of course have to change your integer properties.