How to tell the NPC what hand it has?

Question

Posted my question here.

Here is the full code:

'buy a blank deck of cards

'declare variables
dim defaultDeck(51)
dim trueDeck(51)
dim isUsed(51)
numPlayers = 1
numCards = 12
intMyHand = 0 '0 through numPlayers-1... highest number is dealer
Set objStdOut = WScript.StdOut


'put values on the blank cards:

i=0
for suit=0 to 3
    for faceValue=0 to 12
        select case suit
            Case 0
                strSuit = chr(3)
            case 1
                strSuit = chr(4)
            case 2
                strSuit = chr(5)
            case 3
                strSuit = chr(6)
            case else
                strSuit = "SuitNotFound"
        end Select
        face = faceValue+1
        select case face
            case 11
                face = "J"      
            case 12
                face = "Q"
            case 13
                face = "K"
            case 1
                face = "A"
            case default
                face=face
        end select      
            defaultDeck(i) = face & strSuit
            i = i+1

    next
Next


function translateCard(number)

    translateCard = defaultDeck(number)

end function



'shuffle the deck

function randNum()
    max = 51
    min = 0
    Randomize
    randNum = Int((max-min+1)*Rnd+min)

end Function


function shuffleDeck()

    'reset from last shuffle
    y=0
    for i=0 to 51
        isUsed(i) ="n"
    next

    'draw a card and put it in the deck
    do while y<52
        card = randNum()
        if isUsed(card) <> "Y" then
            isUsed(card) = "Y"
            trueDeck(y) = card
            y = y+1
        end if
    loop
'   objStdOut.Write "Shuffling."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "Shuffled."
    objStdOut.WriteBlankLines(1)    
    jsleep(1)
end Function

function showDeck()
    for i=0 to 50
        'wscript.echo i & ". " & truedeck(i)    

        strDeck = strDeck & translateCard(truedeck(i)) & ","
    next
    strDeck = strDeck & translateCard(trueDeck(51)) 'to get rid of last comma

    wscript.echo ""
    wscript.echo "Shuffled Deck"
    wscript.echo "-------------"
    wscript.echo strDeck
end Function





function showdefDeck()
    for i=0 to 51
        wscript.echo i & ". " & defaultdeck(i)  

    '   strDeck = strDeck & truedeck(i) & ", "
    next
    'strDeck = strDeck & trueDeck(51) 'to get rid of last comma


'   wscript.echo strDeck
end Function





playa = numPlayers-1
carda = numCards-1


Dim hands()
ReDim Hands(playa,carda)
dim myHand()
reDim myHand(carda)

function Dealcards()
    totalNumCards = (numPlayers * numCards)
    tnc =0
    i = 0
    do while tnc < totalnumCards
        for c=0 to (numCards - 1)
            for p=0 to (numPlayers -1)

                Hands(p,c) = trueDeck(i)

                'debug line
                'wscript.echo truedeck(i) & " dealt to player " & p+1 & "."


                i=i+1
                tnc = tnc+1
            next
        next

    loop

'   objStdOut.Write "Dealing."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "."
'   jsleep(1)
'   objStdOut.Write "Dealt."
    objStdOut.WriteBlankLines(2)
    jsleep(1)

End function

function showHand(h)
    if (h = intMyHand) then
        specialString = "*(You)* "
    else
        specialString = ""
    end if

    wscript.echo specialString & "Player " & h+1 & "'s hand:"


    for i=0 to (numCards - 1)
        theCard = translatecard(Hands(h, i))
        wscript.echo theCard
    next
    wscript.echo ""
end Function


function showSortedHand(t)

    if (t = intMyHand) then
        specialString = "*(You)* "
    else
        specialString = ""
    end if

    wscript.echo specialString & "Player " & t+1 & "'s hand:"


    theSortedHand = getHand(t)

    for each card in theSortedHand
        transCard = translateCard(card)
        wscript.echo transCard
    next


end Function





function showMyHand()
    showHand(intMyHand)
end Function


function showAllHands()
    for q=0 to playa
        showHand(q)
    next
end Function





function jsleep (seconds)

    wscript.sleep seconds*1000
end function







'sort method

function SortArray(arrShort)
    dim i, j, temp
    for i = UBound(arrShort) - 1 To 0 Step -1
        for j= 0 to i
            if arrShort(j)>arrShort(j+1) then
                temp=arrShort(j+1)
                arrShort(j+1)=arrShort(j)
                arrShort(j)=temp
            end if
        next
    next
    SortArray = arrShort
end function 



function getHand(x)
    purple = numCards-1

    dim a()
    redim a(purple)

    for i=0 to (numCards-1)
        a(i) = Hands(x, i)
    next

    sortArray a

    getHand = a

end function













objstdOUt.Write "Welcome to PokerGame1.0"

objStdOut.WriteBlankLines(1)
objStdOut.Write "-----------------------"
objStdOut.WriteBlankLines(2)



'showdefdeck

shuffleDeck
showdeck

dealCards

'showMyHand
showAllHands



showSortedHand(0)

Answer 1

You're creating your cards with a nested For loop; one over suit, another over faceValue - I'd do the same (or quite similar). However I'm not buying the Select Case part:

for suit=0 to 3
    for faceValue=0 to 12
        select case suit
            Case 0
                strSuit = chr(3)
            case 1
                strSuit = chr(4)
            case 2
                strSuit = chr(5)
            case 3
                strSuit = chr(6)
            case else
                strSuit = "SuitNotFound"
        end Select
    ...

This whole select case suit could be replaced with strSuit = chr(suit + 3) with a comment that says something like 'chr(3)-chr(6): ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠. The "SuitNotFound" case is a WTF for me.

Naming-wise, I don't understand how you can name a variable suit (good), another faceValue (good) and then have horrible Hungarian notation with strSuit - call it currentSuit or cardSuit or whatever, but please don't prefix with an abbreviation of type's name! [and that's valid for python as well I guess!]

Your Ace is worth 1; if you're playing Poker the Ace can be either 1 or 14, depending on the hand.

Lastly, in VBScript/VBA/VB6, you should always use the zero-footprint vbNullString language constant instead of "" which takes up unnecessary memory (not that memory would be an issue though).

Answer 2

In addition to @retailcoder's good feedback, here are a few points:

1. Option Explicit as your first line is considered a best practice for VBScript. It will require you to declare all of your variables, which will assure you don't accidentally use purpel when you meant purple

2. In general your names are inconsistent or simply odd. playa = numPlayers - 1 - weird, jsleep What's the j?, and purple - fun but meaningless.

3. Your shuffledeck method is a potential issue. In the extremely unlikely case your do loop would seemlingly hang due to repeatedly returning the same random number as isUsed(card) <> "Y" would keep being false. Something like populating trueDeck the same as defaultDeck then looping through swaping indexes might suit. Here's an example of what I mean:

   'set up trueDeck prior to this
   for i= 0 to 51
     card = randNum()
     temp = trueDeck(card)
     trueDeck(card) = i
     trueDeck(i) = temp
   loop