FizzBuzz!

FizzBuzz is a simple program that can be used to test one's ability to complete basic programming tasks. To comply with the requirements of the FizzBuzz program, the created program should print out the numbers from 1 to 100 on separate lines (one output per line) with the exception of multiples of 3, for which the program should print "Fizz", and 5 where the number should be replaced by "Buzz". If the number is a multiple of both 3 and 5, the program should print "FizzBuzz". The task here was to implement this program in Java using the Eclipse IDE in an effort to familiarize ourselves with it.

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Initial Program
Below is the Java source code that I created to implement the FizzBuzz program. This implementation took me 5 minutes and 9 seconds despite the assistance of an advanced IDE like Eclipse due to an error I made while creating the FizzBuzz.java class file. When I created the class file, I tried to specify that it should be in a non-default package, but I made the mistake of doing this in the top-level project folder instead of the src folder. This caused Eclipse to create several new folders to place the new class file in instead of creating a new package as I had intended. Consequently, I could not get the created file to run until I created a new package in the src folder and moved the FizzBuzz.java file there.

What Eclipse did when I tried to make FizzBuzz.java in a non-default package in the top-level project folder.

What the non-default package should look like.

The source code for the FizzBuzz.java class may be seen below.

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A Better FizzBuzz
While this code does work as intended, it is not as elegant as it could be. In this format, it is impossible to use JUnit to test the file as JUnit would not be able to capture the program's output. As a result, we would need to create a function that the JUnit test can call as shown in the modified FizzBuzz program called FizzBuzz2.java.

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The JUnit Test
With FizzBuzz2, the JUnit test can call the FizzBuzz2.fizzBuzz(int) function to test the output. The following JUnit test checks the outputs of the two end cases (1 and 100) as well as the outputs when 3, 5, 15, 25, 41, 51, 75, and 94 are passed to the function.


Fortunately, this test runs successfully and helps to assure us that the output of the FizzBuzz program is correct.

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Conclusion
Creating the FizzBuzz program was a good exercise in using Eclipse to create a Java project from scratch and brought up an interesting quirk of the system as specifying a non-default package for a file in the main project directory caused strange behavior. It also exposes how software engineering is not a race to get a working product out. Of course, producing a working product out as fast as possible sounds good, but revising that product could lead to a much more elegant design that will save time and effort later on. Finally, the FizzBuzz program highlighted the need to take pay attention or take notes in ICS 314. I am unfamiliar with JUnit so I had no idea how to use until I looked at the notes that I took on the first day of class. Hence, it is important to pay attention to the various course materials (non-webcast lectures included!) since knowing that material (or at least keeping a reference to look up) could really help with the assignments that we will do in the future.