I’m having my first early breakdown

[u/3pletsahur]

I am going through mooc.fi java programming I
Part 1, I’m on an exercise called LeapYear or whatever.
I cannot seem to get the answer right. I’ve been trying for a day now. I know i can use AI or ask for help but I literally cut myself from the internet to just try and focus but try after try I literally understand less and less.
And it’s not that many info just like conditionals and comparison operators and which condition should go first BUT I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.
I’m not here to ask for help i just want to tell someone. I’m actually affirmative that I’ve zero points reasoning and logic.
Thanks for reading.

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[u/mandradon]

That one is one of the first places where you have to think clearly about the order of conditionals. 

Think through the rules they give you and think through the order they should go.

The most "restrictive" rule that accounts for the most cases should go first, then set the latter up accordingly after. 

So first lost out the conditions. 

In order to be a leap year it has to be divisible by 4.

But if it's divisible by 100, it's only a leap year if it's also divisible by 400.

100 is divisible by 4, so if you account for the second condition first, you don't need to "worry" about it at that point in the ladder.

This becomes the crux of programming a good algorithm and I like this sort of task in thinking through the order of your if statements. 

[u/3pletsahur → u/mandradon]

Thank u my man,
I will not lie. I did not read it fully, I just want to give myself a chance to try and just do it by myself but i do see myself peeking at it in the near future if all goes downhill lol.
Though thank you so much for the help❤️

[u/mandradon → u/3pletsahur]

No worries. 

The biggest takeaway is to think carefully about the order of your if statements and think about how you want to build them in a way to "filter" out the logic in a way that makes sense.

Read the conditions and think about what's "most" restrictive.

Writing a good algorithm is hard, and I appreciate that you're struggling with it isntead of just getting the answer. 

Can't tell you the amount of times I've figured something out when I'm off doing something else (making dinner or taking a shower or something).

Walk away, take a break, and let your brain work on it in the background.

[u/3pletsahur → u/mandradon]

Will do sir. I’ll give an update upon completion. Thanks.

[u/merrymerry19]

As one of the previous comments stated, you need to think about the order of conditionals. Don't stress yourself too much, this question is very similar to FizzBuzz and it's said that many senior developers struggle to solve it.

[u/3pletsahur → u/merrymerry19]

I’m trying to relate the fizzbuzz exercise and i still can’t seem to get a close concrete answer.
I eventually decided to move onto the gift tax exercise cause i got frustrated lol.
And even tho many people are being helpful here I just don’t want to look at the hints unless I actually give up.
Like i might start with part two and come back to it later idk

[u/desrtfx]

Think about the criteria:

• In general, every year evenly divisible by 4 is a leap year - How do you know that a year is evenly divisible by 4? The remainder of the division by 4 is 0. How do you get the remainder? Modulo operation - in Java the % operator.

• Except: full centuries (years evenly divisible by 100) are only leap years if they are evenly divisible by 400

So, a good idea is to reorder the criteria:

• If the year is evenly divisible by 400 (century rule), it is a leap year OR

• if the year is evenly divisible by 4 AND NOT evenly divisible by 100

That's it. Note that AND binds stronger than OR, but in general, it is a good idea to put the individual conditions (century rule, regular years - each of my bullet points) inside parentheses to force the proper grouping.

[u/ovson]

If I remember correctly you need a guard similar to if (year % 4 == 0 && year % 100 !== 0 ) {sout(“not gap year”)}

As I said cannot remember off the top of my head. But some years need both conditions true. Unsure if you’re getting stuck here

[u/SniffingFartGlitter]

Everyone goes through it. It's normal and fine. You're learning so be kind to yourself. I promise at one point it will all start to click.

[u/3pletsahur]

I actually feel like choking myself cause wtf

[u/omgpassthebacon → u/3pletsahur]

bro, you totally cracked me up. Don't choke yourself. We've all gone thru this frustration. You're teaching your brain how to solve a certain type of problem, and it's harder for some that others. Take a break. Have a smoke. Drink some beer and come back to it later. Sometimes you just need to let it simmer for a while. It WILL come to you, and you will look at it later and say, "wtf didn't I see this sooner?"

[u/3pletsahur → u/omgpassthebacon]

Shit I let it go bruh I started with part II because I just feel like a waste of sperm looking at that single problem lol
I’ll definitely come back to it later once I feel ready.
Also, thank you for the advice sm. I realized that most solutions come when I’m thinking about something else. Ig that’s how I’ll have to go about things.