Error message inside a loop - Pong game

Question

I am making a game similar to pong in small basic. What I want to do is when the ball hits the wall the game ends and shows an error message.

What I did was use a while loop as such below:

While (hits right wall) or (hits left wall) or (hits top wall) or (hits bottom wall) = "True" 
    GraphicsWindow.ShowMessage("you lost", "game over")
Endwhile

What that actually does is keep repeating the error message and I have to quit the program. How can I get it to just show the message once when the conditions for it hitting either wall is true?

Learn more about creating [MCVE]. – Łukasz Rogalski Jan 31 '17 at 11:14 — Łukasz Rogalski, Jan 31 '17 at 11:14

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 31 '17 at 11:14

0

Use break once the condition is met and once you show the error message.

answered Jan 31 '17 at 11:14

kawadhiya21

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How do you break in SmallBasic program? – dstar19 Jan 31 '17 at 11:17
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/60cd4f4a-10d7-42a3-af35-206502abbc93/break-in-a-for-loop?forum=smallbasic – kawadhiya21 Jan 31 '17 at 11:18
I have tried to do that. I did ==========>>>> While loop (conditions) = "true" endwhile ShowMessage But its not working. Still the same thing happens – dstar19 Jan 31 '17 at 11:21
Use `if` instead of while. – kawadhiya21 Jan 31 '17 at 11:42
Same thing happens still. – dstar19 Jan 31 '17 at 11:43
Small Basic doesn't have a break command and using the Goto for logic this complex is never a good idea. You should create a flag variable and have a series of if statements that set the flag when you need to exit. – codingCat Apr 13 '17 at 19:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '17 at 19:25

This is a job for a flag!

Before your loop you set a flag to true. Your loop is based on just that flag. Then for each exit condition that you need you have a separate if statement that handles that logic. When that condition is met, you set the flag to false.

This keeps the code simple, and the logic easy to follow.

Example:

gameOn = "true"

While gameOn = "true"
  'Code to control your game

  If (hitsLeftWall) Then
    gameOn = "false"
  ElseIf (hitsRightWall) then
    gameOn = "false"
  ElseIf (hitsLTopWall) then
    gameOn = "false"
  ElseIf (hitsBottomWall) then
    gameOn = "false"
  EndIf
EndWhile

Error message inside a loop - Pong game

2 Answers2