I want to make the program choose from an ArrayList based on my Scanner Input.
Like, I write breakfast and than sweet, and it has to randomize the list breakfastSweet and print me the randomized index.

I am still learning Java, I am just playing around and trying to code little projects to train it.

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

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);

        // program begins here, you get asked what kind of lunch you want to eat
        // after asking for the meal type and answering it, it goes to the next question

        System.out.println("Hi, welcome to Recipe-Randomizer! What kind of meal do you want, breakfast, lunch or maybe dinner?");
        System.out.print("Type one of the give choices now: ");
        String mealType = scanner.nextLine();
        System.out.print("So you want to eat for " + mealType + ". Do you want to eat some sweet or savory " + mealType + "?\nType in one of the given choices: ");
        String flavor = scanner.nextLine();
        System.out.println("A " + flavor + " " + mealType + "? Well, let's see what we have here.\nI am going to pick a random recipe.\nPlease wait...");


        // list of meals, list name describes
        ArrayList<String> breakfastSweet = new ArrayList();
        

        ArrayList<String> breakfastSavory = new ArrayList();

        ArrayList<String> lunchSweet = new ArrayList();
        

        ArrayList<String> lunchSavory = new ArrayList();
        

        ArrayList<String> dinnerSweet = new ArrayList();
        

        ArrayList<String> dinnerSavory = new ArrayList();
       

        GetRandomFromList.outputMeal(mealType, flavor, dinnerSavory); // doesn't make sense to put the list already in, I want it to automatically select the right list.

    }
}

And here is the class I have already written:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;

public class GetRandomFromList {

    private static String randomList(ArrayList<String> list) {
        Random rand = new Random();
        return list.get(rand.nextInt(list.size()));

    }

    public static void outputMeal(String mealType, String flavor, ArrayList<String> list){ // the list should be chosen automatically, so my code doesn't work as I want it to work
        if (mealType.equals("breakfast") && flavor.equals("sweet")){
            System.out.println("What about " + GetRandomFromList.randomList() + "?");
        }
    }
}

Can I somehow store a list in a variable, maybe like this:

if (mealType.equals("breakfast") && flavor.equals("sweet")){
            // here make a variable of the breakfastSweet list
}

I know it’s hard to understand me, but English isn’t my main language, hope its understandble.

>Solution :

To me GetRandomFromList doesn’t make sense, unless GetRandomFromList contains all the data, instead, just assign a reference of the chosen List to another variable and then shuffle it to get a random value, for example…

// Previously created lists
Random rand = new Random();

Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Hi, welcome to Recipe-Randomizer! What kind of meal do you want, breakfast, lunch or maybe dinner?");
System.out.print("Type one of the give choices now: ");
String mealType = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.print("So you want to eat for " + mealType + ". Do you want to eat some sweet or savory " + mealType + "?\nType in one of the given choices: ");
String flavor = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("A " + flavor + " " + mealType + "? Well, let's see what we have here.\nI am going to pick a random recipe.\nPlease wait...");

ArrayList<String> userChoice = null;
if (mealType.equals("breakfast") && flavor.equals("sweet")) {
    userChoice = breakfastSweet;
} else if {...}

if (userChoice != null) {
    Collections.shuffle(userChoice, rand);
    String value = userChoice.get(0);
}

As with most things, there are more than one way to skin this cat. For example, you could Maps to combine the type/flavors together or your could create a POJO which has information about it’s type/flavor associated directly with it

POJO, with List filter…

public class Meal {

    public enum Type {
        BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER;

        public static Type forType(String value) {
            try {
                return Type.valueOf(value.toUpperCase());
            } catch (IllegalArgumentException exp) {
                return null;
            }
        }
    }

    public enum Flavor {
        SWEET, SAVORY;

        public static Flavor forFlavor(String value) {
            try {
                return Flavor.valueOf(value.toUpperCase());
            } catch (IllegalArgumentException exp) {
                return null;
            }
        }
    }

    private Type type;
    private Flavor flavor;
    private String description;

    public Meal(Type type, Flavor flavor, String description) {
        this.type = type;
        this.flavor = flavor;
        this.description = description;
    }

    public Type getType() {
        return type;
    }

    public Flavor getFlavor() {
        return flavor;
    }

    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }

    public boolean matches(Type type, Flavor flavor) {
        return getType() == type && getFlavor() == flavor;
    }
}

So, this defines the expected type/flavors and then allows you to define a meal of a specific type/flavor and provides a simple matches method to determine if the Meal is of a specific type/flavor, because I’m lazy.

Then we can do something like…

List<Meal> meals = new ArrayList<>(16);

// Get user input

Meal.Type type = Meal.Type.forType(mealType.toUpperCase());
Meal.Flavor flavor = Meal.Flavor.forFlavor(flavorValue.toUpperCase());

if (type != null && flavor != null) {
    List<Meal> matchingMeals = new ArrayList<>(16);
    for (Meal meal : meals) {
        if (meal.matches(type, flavor)) {
            matchingMeals.add(meal);
        }
    }
    Collections.shuffle(matchingMeals);
    Meal meal = matchingMeals.get(0);
    System.out.println(meal.getDescription());
} else {
    if (type == null) {
        System.out.println(mealType + " is not a valid type");
    }
    if (flavor == null) {
        System.out.println(flavorValue + " is not a valid flavor");
    }
}

to look up a random meal.

Now, because you should be running in Java 8+, you could also replace…

List<Meal> matchingMeals = new ArrayList<>(16);
for (Meal meal : meals) {
    if (meal.matches(type, flavor)) {
        matchingMeals.add(meal);
    }
}

with…

Predicate<Meal> filter = meal -> meal.matches(type, flavor);
meals.stream().filter(filter).collect(Collectors.toList());

but that might be a bit of an ask

Map

Or, we can use a Map of some kind to link the List of data with a specific "key".

Since you have a "composite" key style (you strictly don’t need to, but I like having the flavour and type separated), I started with a MealKey concept.

public class MealKey {
    private Type type;
    private Flavor flavor;

    public MealKey(Type type, Flavor flavor) {
        this.type = type;
        this.flavor = flavor;
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        int hash = 3;
        hash = 97 * hash + Objects.hashCode(this.type);
        hash = 97 * hash + Objects.hashCode(this.flavor);
        return hash;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (this == obj) {
            return true;
        }
        if (obj == null) {
            return false;
        }
        if (getClass() != obj.getClass()) {
            return false;
        }
        final MealKey other = (MealKey) obj;
        if (this.type != other.type) {
            return false;
        }
        if (this.flavor != other.flavor) {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }
    
}

The important thing here is to ensure that any instance of a key with the same type/flavor always returns the same hashCode

I then modified the POJO to make it simpler/easier to deal with…

public enum Type {
    BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER;

    public static Type forType(String value) {
        try {
            return Type.valueOf(value.toUpperCase());
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException exp) {
            return null;
        }
    }
}

public enum Flavor {
    SWEET, SAVORY;

    public static Flavor forFlavor(String value) {
        try {
            return Flavor.valueOf(value.toUpperCase());
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException exp) {
            return null;
        }
    }
}

public class Meal {

    private String description;

    public Meal(String description) {
        this.description = description;
    }

    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }
}

Then we fill our Map with the values we want

Map<MealKey, List<Meal>> meals = new HashMap<>();
// Fill the meals
List<Meal> breakfastSweet = new ArrayList<>();
// Add some meals to the list
meals.put(new MealKey(Type.BREAKFAST, Flavor.SWEET), breakfastSweet);

And then we can look up the meals list based on the user input…

// Get user input
Type type = Type.forType(mealType.toUpperCase());
Flavor flavor = Flavor.forFlavor(flavorValue.toUpperCase());

if (type != null && flavor != null) {
    MealKey key = new MealKey(type, flavor);
    List<Meal> mealsList = meals.get(key);
    if (mealsList != null) {
        Collections.shuffle(mealsList);
        System.out.println(mealsList.get(0).getDescription());
    }
} else {
    if (type == null) {
        System.out.println(mealType + " is not a valid type");
    }
    if (flavor == null) {
        System.out.println(flavorValue + " is not a valid flavor");
    }
}

nb: You could simply the "key" by simply using a String of "type" + "value" if you really wanted to 😉