help with creating a guessing game

[sexton325]

Hello. I am working on a homework assignment for my intro java class. The program should generate a random number from 1 to 20, and prompt the user for a guess. If the user guesses wrong, the program prompts the user again for the same number (no new random number). The program should keep asking the user until he/she gets it right.

Once the user guesses the right number, the program should display "You won! The number of guesses was ___". Guesses outside the range of 1-20 do not count.

I keep trying to make this program work but i am struggling hard. for starters, is this how you generate a random number?

[CODE]Random rGen = new Random();

rNum = rGen.nextInt(20) + 1;[CODE]

[sexton325]

my professor gave us this algorithm sheet to help us out.

 Declare all needed variables
Int user's guess
Int random number
Int count the valid attempts
Scanner class object
Random class object
 Create a random number and assign it to the variable
 Begin loop(while user's guess !=random number)
Prompt for the user's guess
Compare user's guess to the random number
If (user's guess equals random number)
Output “You won!”
Else
Output “Try again.”

but i dont understand why you would begin the loop before prompting for the user's guess. should i follow this? or am i just not getting it?

[Fou-Lu]

For your first question, Random can be used to get an inclusive to exclusive random number. So that would give between 1 and 20.
For your second question, its for convenience. If you don't do it, then you need to write the code to handle the input twice, the first time to determine if the loop should be entered, and then again to take input if the answer is incorrect. Putting it within the loop prevents needing two prompts.