Working with global variables

phoenix917

I have been working on this code for 5 days... I have read multiple tutorials and looked at various code. This is my third forum try... :) My instructor refuses to help me. I think it's because I'm a good student. They assume you know it all. :) Well, I don't and I'm getting a little frustrated and wonder if you guys can shed some light? It's an 8 ball. It works. I've tested and tested but can't find where to put the oldQuestion variable so that it will nab the txtQuestion text box value AFTER the first run, but before the value changes. This is so I can compare the two variables and make sure the question is not being asked twice in a row.

I am new so I may have another type of error I don't know about... I have worked and worked over this code, tho... Posted within is the results of all my oldQuestion/newQuestion variable tests.

Please be kind! All simple, newbie-grade suggestions and/or comments welcome. :)

Thanks in advance...

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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

<title>Project 4 - Magic 8 Ball (Javascript)</title>

<link href="project04stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
 
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
 
<!--

//Declare variables - GLOBAL

var oldQuestion = "";

var count = "";

var newQuestion = "";

var testLastChar = "";
 
//TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

window.alert("oldQuestion says" + " " + oldQuestion + " " + "after script header and var oldQuestion declared")//says null value

window.alert("newQuestion says" + " " + newQuestion + " " + "after script header and var oldQuestion declared")//doesn't even show
 
//Create function "resetAnswer" to reset the "Answer" marquee onKeyPress event of txtQuestion text box

function resetAnswer()

{

document.getElementById('Answer').innerHTML = "Ask the 8 Ball a question...";

//var newQuestion = "";
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion has a null value and newQuestion has the value it's supposed to
 
}
 
//Create the array "Message" for math object to randomly select from

var Message = new Array();
 
Message[0] = "Ask again later...";

Message[1] = "Yes!";

Message[2] = "Noooo...";

Message[3] = "It appears to be so!";

Message[4] = "The reply is hazy.  Please try a new question.";

Message[5] = "Definate affirmative!";

Message[6] = "What is it you really want to know?";

Message[7] = "The outlook is promising...";

Message[8] = "My sources say no.";

Message[9] = "All of the signs point to yes.";

Message[10] = "Don't count on it.";

Message[11] = "I cannot predict this now.";

Message[12] = "As I see it, yes.";

Message[13] = "I better not tell you now...";

Message[14] = "Concentrate and ask your question in a different way...";
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion has a null value and newQuestion has the value it's supposed to
 
//Create function "answerQuestion" to assign answer to "Answer" marquee, if it meets requirements, when btnAsk is clicked

function answerQuestion()

{
 
//Randomly pick a number between 0 and 14 and assign it to "count"

//First line from the PowerPoints...Second and third lines are from the internet...What's "response" and ".floor" mean?

var count = Math.round(Math.random() * (13)) + 1;

//var count = Math.random()*response.length;

//count = Math.floor(count);
 
//assign txtQuestion to newQuestion variable

var newQuestion = document.form.txtQuestion.value;
 
//Get last character of question asked

var testLastChar = newQuestion.charAt(newQuestion.length - 1);
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion is same as newQuestion

//assign txtQuestion to oldQuestion variable

//var oldQuestion = document.form.txtQuestion.value;
 
//If "question" variable has nothing in it, alert user to enter a question.

if(newQuestion == ""){

window.alert("Please enter a question.");

document.form.txtQuestion.focus();
 
//TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

window.alert("oldQuestion says" + " " + oldQuestion + " " + "in first if statement") //if this runs, "undefined" value, unless old def in stmt

window.alert("newQuestion says" + " " + newQuestion + " " + "in first if statement") //if this runs, null value
 
//If the last character of the "question" variable isn't a "?", alert user to end their question with a "?" sign.

}else if(testLastChar != "?"){

window.alert("All questions MUST end with a '?'.  Everyone knows this!  Quit wasting the 8 Ball's precious time and enter your question correctly, please!");

document.form.txtQuestion.select();
 
//TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

window.alert("oldQuestion says" + " " + oldQuestion + " " + "in 2nd if statement")

window.alert("newQuestion says" + " " + newQuestion + " " + "in 2nd if statement")
 
//Compare the newQuestion to the oldQuestion; if they match, give an error message.

}else if(newQuestion == oldQuestion){

window.alert("Please ask a NEW question and quit wasting the 8 Ball's precious time!");

document.form.txtQuestion.select();
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion is undefined and newQuestion has value it's supposed to.
 
}else{

//document.getElementById('idname').whatever is the format for calling an element; here?

//yes: document.getElementById('Answer').innerHTML instead of Answer.innerHTML

document.getElementById('Answer').innerHTML = (Message[count]);
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion is same as newQuestion

}
 
//TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

window.alert("oldQuestion says" + " " + oldQuestion + " " + "at the end of 2nd function")//all of them always say what txtQuestion says by this 

window.alert("newQuestion says" + " " + newQuestion + " " + "at the end of 2nd function")//point
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion is undefined and newQuestion has value it's supposed to.
 
}
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion has a null value and newQuestion has value it's supposed to.

//assign txtQuestion to oldQuestion variable

var oldQuestion = newQuestion;
 
//TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

window.alert("oldQuestion says" + " " + oldQuestion + "after 2nd function")//none of them will play at this point

window.alert("newQuestion says" + " " + newQuestion + "after 2nd function")
 
//If assigned value here, oldQuestion is undefined and newQuestion has value it's supposed to.
 
//-->

</script>

</head>
 
<body onload="document.form.txtQuestion.focus()">
 
<h1>Magic 8 Ball</h1>

<br />

<h3>What would you like to know?</h3>

<form id="form" name="form" method="post" action="">

  <p>

    <input name="txtQuestion" type="text" class="txtQuestion" id="txtQuestion" accesskey="q" tabindex="1" size="60" onkeypress="resetAnswer()" />

  </p>

  <br/ >

  <p>

    <input name="btnAsk" type="button" class="btnAsk" id="btnAsk" accesskey="a" tabindex="2" value="Ask the 8 Ball" onClick="answerQuestion()" />

</p>

<br/ >

<br/ >

<p>The 8 Ball says:  </p>
 
<marquee behavior="scroll" id="Answer">Ask the 8 Ball a question...</marquee>
 
</form>

</body>

</html>

iam_clint

You would place oldquestion = newquestion when the current question is answered. example provided. By the way never post with the thread title as Help me, most people won't even bother looking at your question without a good title.

Expand|Select|Wrap|Line Numbers

 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

<title>Project 4 - Magic 8 Ball (Javascript)</title>

<link href="project04stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
 
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
 
<!--

//Declare variables - GLOBAL

var oldQuestion = "";

var count = "";

var newQuestion = "";

var testLastChar = "";
 
function resetAnswer() {

    document.getElementById('Answer').innerHTML = "Ask the 8 Ball a question...";

}

var Message = new Array();
 
Message[0] = "Ask again later...";

Message[1] = "Yes!";

Message[2] = "Noooo...";

Message[3] = "It appears to be so!";

Message[4] = "The reply is hazy. Please try a new question.";

Message[5] = "Definate affirmative!";

Message[6] = "What is it you really want to know?";

Message[7] = "The outlook is promising...";

Message[8] = "My sources say no.";

Message[9] = "All of the signs point to yes.";

Message[10] = "Don't count on it.";

Message[11] = "I cannot predict this now.";

Message[12] = "As I see it, yes.";

Message[13] = "I better not tell you now...";

Message[14] = "Concentrate and ask your question in a different way...";
 
function answerQuestion() {

    var count = Math.round(Math.random() * (13)) + 1;

    var newQuestion = document.form.txtQuestion.value;

    var testLastChar = newQuestion.charAt(newQuestion.length - 1);

    if (newQuestion == "") {

        window.alert("Please enter a question.");

        document.form.txtQuestion.focus();

    } else if (testLastChar != "?") {

        window.alert("All questions MUST end with a '?'. Everyone knows this! Quit wasting the 8 Ball's precious time and enter your question correctly, please!");

        document.form.txtQuestion.select();

    } else if (newQuestion == oldQuestion) {

        window.alert("Please ask a NEW question and quit wasting the 8 Ball's precious time!");

        document.form.txtQuestion.select();

    } else {

        document.getElementById('Answer').innerHTML = (Message[count]);

        oldQuestion = newQuestion;

    }

}
 
</script>

</head>
 
<body onload="document.form.txtQuestion.focus()">
 
<h1>Magic 8 Ball</h1>

<br />

<h3>What would you like to know?</h3>

<form id="form" name="form" method="post" action="" onsubmit="answerQuestion(); return false;">

<p>

<input name="txtQuestion" type="text" class="txtQuestion" id="txtQuestion" accesskey="q" tabindex="1" size="60" onkeypress="resetAnswer()" />

</p>

<br/ >

<p>

<input name="btnAsk" type="submit" class="btnAsk" id="btnAsk" accesskey="a" tabindex="2" value="Ask the 8 Ball" onClick="answerQuestion()" />

</p>

<br/ >

<br/ >

<p>The 8 Ball says: </p>
 
<marquee behavior="scroll" id="Answer">Ask the 8 Ball a question...</marquee>
 
</form>

</body>

</html>

Working with global variables

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